The Arctic is one of the areas most visibly impacted by human-caused climate change, with some areas becoming almost unrecognizable in recent years.
Former Denali park ranger Jon Waterman has been visiting the Arctic for over 40 years, and documented a recent 2022 adventure traveling the Noatak River in his new book “Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis.”
Waterman and a photographer traveled over 500 miles by foot and pack raft, visiting with communities along the river. And he says the area is very different than it was in the 80s.
Below is the transcript of an interview with Waterman on Alaska News Nightly. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Jon Waterman: Well, the biggest difference was that the river was flooding in a way that I'd never seen before in the early-to-mid 1980s. It rained for three days before we were able to fly into the headwaters of the Noatak, and many of the campsites, or potential campsites were flooded over or left inundated with mud and silt. It was much brushier than the river that I remembered from the past. And of course, the caribou were not to be seen because the summers have lengthened so much that the migration happens a lot earlier and a lot later than the fall migration back south. So we saw one caribou in a month's time floating the length of the Noatak River. When in the 80s, I'd seen hundreds and hundreds of caribou migrating through.
Wesley Early: The Arctic warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world isn't anything new. But are there things that you learned in your travels that you think would surprise even Alaskans?
JW: I think that many Alaskans are familiar with permafrost, but in the Arctic, there's a zone of continuous permafrost that's not so evident in southern Alaska. And I think that's one of the most startling things, because there are what are referred to as thermokarsts that are seen across the landscape. If it's on a hillside or a mountainside, it looks like a landslide where the earth is just melting and sloughing away as the permafrost underneath melts. And in flat areas, these thermokarst appear like sinkholes. So the Arctic is a very different place than the rest of the world, even in southern Alaska. So I think it would surprise many Alaskans who hadn't spent time above the Arctic Circle, how much it is changing.
WE: You interacted a lot with communities around the Noatak River, including Noatak, Kotzebue, Kivalina. Can you describe what you heard from residents in those communities about the changes that they'd seen?
JW: Well, the big changes are that they see a lot of rain in the winter time, and the sea ice is coming back much later, so it's very dangerous. And you know, people that live in the north depend upon the sea ice for travel. So many people commented upon that. And then there are, you know, aberrant animals or invasive species, I should say, like the beaver, which was never found in the Arctic, particularly in northwestern Alaska, prior to 1980. And through some satellite photography analysis, researchers found that there are over 11,000 new beaver dams in Northwest Arctic Alaska that weren't there before. There's many more moose than there used to be drawn north, also like the beavers, to the willows and the brush that they can eat. Red foxes are moving north and beginning to dominate and move out the arctic foxes. So it's a much brushier place. It's a warmer place, obviously, but it's still subject to extremes of weather, and it's not unusual to see snowstorms in the middle of summer there.
WE: It sounds like a lot of your trip kind of shocked you as far as the changes. But did you have any favorite moments during your trip?
JW: Well, I've been going to the Arctic most every year since 1983. So I've always found it a place of great beauty, and with many moments of wonder, being amidst wildlife, particularly caribou migrations, and seeing wolves and bears chasing the caribou and encountering polar bears as well. So those are things that repeatedly draw me back north. But it's not just the wildlife. I think that the Inupiat people are some of the most generous and gracious people I've ever met. They're also the toughest people on Earth adapting to the sort of changes that they're adapting to.
WE: You know, you write that it's important to study the Arctic, “lest we forget what it was.” For people who aren't familiar, what has already been lost and what runs the risk of being forgotten?
JW: That's a great question. I think that for those who have experienced the Arctic 40 years ago, as I've been so privileged to do, it's a changing place. And I hasten to add that not all is lost. I'm not a doomsayer by any stretch of the imagination because there still are many moments of wonder to be had. And I think that it's better to frame it in terms of change rather than loss. But I do think it's important to see that this change is so radical in the north, north of the Arctic Circle, that it's more akin to a crisis than mere climate change.
WE: What's your hope for your book? Do you think that photos and adventure can help break through to people on the topic of climate change, particularly in the Arctic?
JW: Well, I think that one of my greatest hopes is it's not just with the wildlife and the landscape and the seascape, it's with culture. And there are, you know, some 60,000 people that live in Arctic Alaska, and I think that it's important that we take care of our people there. Many of these people are going to have to be relocated. Many of these people are having to adapt in ways that are inconceivable, even through people that have braved all kinds of changes through the centuries.
