Photo: Dave Bachrach 
Photo: Drew Hamilton
Wildlife and Alaska are like apple pie and ice cream, it’s hard to imagine one without the other. Every year over a million people visit Alaska, most hoping to see glaciers, moose, caribou, wolves, lynx, rare birds, and bears. Alaskans also like recreation and their wildlife. According to a 2019 report by University of Alaska’s Center for Economic Development 81% of Alaskan’s participate in outdoor recreation, tied with Montana with the highest rate in the nation. The report also states that spending related to wildlife viewing in Alaska is over $2 billion, with over 5 million participation days every year. This week’s show features National Geographic writer Douglas Chadwick discussing his long history of observing and writing about wildlife around the world, including Alaska. The second half of the show focuses on bear viewing on the Alaska Peninsula, which has grown dramatically in the last ten years and faces many challenges.
HOST: Paul Twardock
GUESTS:
- Douglas Chadwick, author and National Geographic writer
- Rachel James, Drew Hamilton, Dave Bachrach
LINKS:
- Economic Development in Alaska: Outdoor Recreation Impacts and Opportunities
- Salmon State
- Friends of McNeil
- AK Adventures
- McNeil River Permits
- Katmai National Park and Brooks Camp
- The Cleaning Line, on Patagonia’s site
- As wolverines battle to survive, warming poses a new threat
BROADCAST: Thursday, November 7th, 2019. 2:00 pm – 3:00 p.m. AKT
REPEAT BROADCAST: Thursday, November 7th, 2019. 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. AKT
SUBSCRIBE: Receive Outdoor Explorer automatically every week via:
Eric Bork, or you can just call him “Bork” because everybody else does, is the FM Operations Manager for KSKA-FM. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the FM broadcast. He produces and edits episodes of Outdoor Explorer, the Alaska-focused outdoors program. He also maintains the web posts for that show. You may have heard him filling in for Morning Edition or hosting All Things Considered and can still find him operating the soundboard for any of the live broadcast programs.
After escaping the Detroit area when he was 18, Bork made it up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where he earned a degree in Communications/Radio Broadcasting from Northern Michigan University. He spent time managing the college radio station, working for the local NPR affiliate, and then in top 40 radio in Michigan before coming to Alaska to work his first few summers. After then moving to Chicago, it only took five years to convince him to move back to Alaska in 2010. When not involved in great radio programming he’s probably riding a bicycle, thinking about riding bicycles, dreaming about bikes, reading a book, or planning the next place he’ll travel to. Only two continents left to conquer!
