Alaska Public Media © 2025. All rights reserved.
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

LISTEN: Exploring the fascinating (and sometimes restricted) wild areas on Anchorage's eastern border

Alaska Public Media | By Eric Bork
Published November 12, 2019 at 10:13 PM AKST
Brown bear captured on Scenic Foothills camera, courtesy of Donna Gail Shaw.
Brown bear captured on Scenic Foothills camera, courtesy of Donna Gail Shaw.

On the northeast side of Anchorage, nestled up against the base of the Chugach, is the neighborhood known as Scenic Foothills. Between Scenic Foothills and access to the Chugach is a swath of land that is an extension of Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson, or JBER. Known by many names - the Tank Trails, the Bulldog Trail and even by the JBER area numbers – the backyard of Scenic Foothills and the playground of many in the Anchorage outdoor community has been increasingly restricted due to military training. This past summer, the main areas used by the Anchorage public were closed every day; accessing the north-end peaks of the front range of the Chugach became logistically impossible for most people. Join me and my guests, Karen Bronga and Donna Gail Shaw, as we chat about the history, the future, and the fascinating game cameras of the east-side border of Anchorage.

HOST: Lisa Keller

GUESTS:

Segment 1: Karen Bronga and Donna Gail Shaw, Scenic Foothills Trail Users’ Group

LINKS:

BROADCAST: Thursday, November 14th, 2019. 2:00 pm – 3:00 p.m. AKT

REPEAT BROADCAST:  Thursday, November 14th, 2019. 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. AKT

SUBSCRIBE: Receive  Outdoor Explorer automatically every week via:
Outdoor Explorer
Eric Bork
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!
See stories by Eric Bork