Environment

The State Department of Transportation opened bids Friday for a project that will help protect the Glenn Highway from Matanuska River flooding.

Cooperation across the Bering Strait was recently strengthened when the U.S. and Russia signed a joint wildlife agreement. Download Audio

Alaska’s Board of Game voted to remove a requirement that animal traps have some kind of identification in Southeast Alaska and the Tok region. The Board met on statewide proposals to change hunting and trapping regulations last week in Fairbanks.

The Norton Sound Commercial Crab Fishery closed last week, recording more than 41 thousand pounds of red king crab. That pales in comparison to last year’s record-breaking catch. But it was enough for Nome’s Pingo Bakery Seafood House to host its annual crab leg lunch during Iditarod.

Researchers say Pavlof volcano is still rumbling and exploding but is no longer sending up massive ash clouds. Download Audio

A camp constructed by the U.S. Navy on a sea ice floe in the Arctic was evacuated last week. The camp’s early closure coincided with a new record low sea ice extent in the Arctic. Download Audio

Members of a University of Alaska Fairbanks mountaineering class are recovering after being hit by an avalanche in the eastern Alaska Range. The incident has raised questions about the university taking students into the mountains.

KSKA: Thursday, April 14, at 2pm. When you fly into Anchorage, what do you really notice? It's not the buildings or the roads, it's the mountains that take your breath away. It’s a gift, but it didn’t have to be that way. 50 years ago, the land we now call Chugach State Park was open for development. The reason we have a park now is because citizens got together and were bold enough to demand one. We’ll be talking about the history of the park and how it came into existence. DOWNLOAD AUDIO

A whaling crew from Savoonga landed its second bowhead of the season this week. The St. Lawrence Island community has been working non-stop to haul the whale out of the icy waters, harvest its meat, and distribute it around the village. Download Audio

Fisheries researchers say the appearance of a warm water anomaly in the northeast Pacific Ocean likely added a new wrinkle into recent predictions of Alaska salmon runs that are used by commercial fishing industry for the upcoming season’s planning. Because of the variability of West Coast salmon populations, a simple cause and effect may be impossible to pin down.

Zombies are real. They’re walking around on the bottom of Alaska’s ocean, mindlessly incubating the next generation of creatures that will, in turn, create even more zombies.

The Bristol Bay Native Corporation announced plans to acquire Katmailand, Inc., a long running sport fishing and bear viewing operation in and around Katmai National Park. Download Audio

Well-known chemist and mountaineer Arlene Blum to speak in Anchorage on Tuesday. Download Audio

As of Wednesday evening, the McHugh Fire was estimated at 842 acres, and 250 crew members from Alaska and the Lower 48 were working on stopping its growth. The community gathered to get more information. Listen now

A Petersburg project is one of the finalists in Sealaska’s Path to Prosperity contest. For the second year, Petersburg’s tribe is in the running for $40,000 to grow the business of making compost.

U.S. State Department officials are in Southeast Alaska this week to talk about transboundary mines. The Environmental Protection Agency also has sent representatives. Listen now

What killed the woolly mammoths on St. Paul Island? Thirst. For the first time, scientists have pinpointed the date — 5,600 years ago — and a likely cause of extinction. They believe the environmental changes that killed the animals mirror today’s climate changes. Listen now

The magazine Marie Claire sent a team of journalists and fashionistas to the Mendenhall Glacier in the summer. The story that appeared in its September issue is called On Thin Ice: Can the Fashion Industry Help Save the Planet? But as first reported in the Juneau Empire, the magazine got a couple of key things wrong. Listen now

In the most recent issue of The New Yorker, Alaska writer and longtime former ADN reporter Tom Kizzia looks back at the debate over offshore drilling in North Slope communities. Kizzia visited Point Hope to report on how climate change is affecting the region’s twin pillars: oil development and subsistence hunting.