Caribou & Ptarmigan
- Thread starter Josh Ward
- Start date
Al Hansen
Well-known member
Years ago I beleive they, Alaska Fish and Game, transplanted caribou to Adak. If I remember correctly, the caribou weight record was set there on Adak. Beautiful shots of them along with the ptarmigan, Josh. At this time of the year light is so hard to come by and then add the ever present clouds that normally cloak the Aleutians. You are a very lucky man to do what you just did.
Congrats. Out of curiosity, Josh, did you have to fly on Reeve's Aleutian Airlines? That was the only one that used to fly out there when I lived there 43 years ago.
Al
Congrats. Out of curiosity, Josh, did you have to fly on Reeve's Aleutian Airlines? That was the only one that used to fly out there when I lived there 43 years ago.
Al
Ray
Well-known member
http://www.fws.gov/news/historic/1959/19590913a.pdf
It was the feds and the Navy that did most of the work.
The weight "record" was just an estimated weight of 750 pounds based on the size of the cow on the ground. This was back in the 1970's before I live out there.
Right now the herd is over 1500 animals and is healthy, but with the community of Adak starting to faulter the USFWS might have to come in with the State and kill everything if the town dies.
It was the feds and the Navy that did most of the work.
The weight "record" was just an estimated weight of 750 pounds based on the size of the cow on the ground. This was back in the 1970's before I live out there.
Right now the herd is over 1500 animals and is healthy, but with the community of Adak starting to faulter the USFWS might have to come in with the State and kill everything if the town dies.
Eric Dellamater
Well-known member
Ray, why do you say that? Are they scavanging that much from the people there? Just looking for the why?
Cory
Active member
Our understanding is that over the herd has grown to over 3000 caribou currently. The amount is impressive as we saw groups that numbered well over 100 or more.
We understand that the F&W Service previously wanted to eliminate the remaining animals but the caribou were left for subsistance hunting. If the island becomes deserted by the remaining residents, likely the caribou herd would be eliminated to make way for the return to the native wildlife. That would be sad as the animals are very impressive.
We understand that the F&W Service previously wanted to eliminate the remaining animals but the caribou were left for subsistance hunting. If the island becomes deserted by the remaining residents, likely the caribou herd would be eliminated to make way for the return to the native wildlife. That would be sad as the animals are very impressive.
Ray
Well-known member
The animals are not native to the island and with no people there is nothing to control their population. The island is part of the Aleutian Maritime Refuge. If there is not a way to control the population then they will have to be removed. There is an endangered plant species, the aleutian fern, that they are suspecting will start seeing an impact if the 'bou population grows anymore. I will admit to contributing to their demise: fiddleheads in butter with grilled dolly.
Historically the Saint Mathews Island reindeer incident is what guides management of introduced spieces on islands with limited resources. At St Mathews the Coast Guard introduced a few reindeer for backup food sources. Once the coast guard left the island in the late 1950's the reindeer had nothing to control their population and within a few years ate themselves to death. The last reindeer alive was a starving calf that was shot by the biologist. They didn't know they had just killed the last one until they walked the island and found nothing else. The entire flora had been altered and the calf had been eating no traditional grassess and dirt. I wish I had still had the article.
EDIT: here is a recent article on St Mathews - http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/features/3561-what-wiped-out-st-matthew-islands-reindeer It is vastly differnet conclusion than the one 25 years ago in biology class.
When I last lived out there there were about 900 caribou, and 6000 people. Now there are about 120 people and 3000 caribou. They have moved into the north end of the island since they are not hunted by the military guys all the time and there are good resources for them to exploit.
With the fish processing contracts on Adak going under and the power plant and electical system needing major repairs it is very likely that the community of Adak is going to not be in a few years time. Since our congressman and two senators back in DC no longer have any clout like Ted Stevens did, I doubt there will be any handouts to keep the lights on on Adak.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/...o-keep-the-lights-on
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Ray
Well-known member
I used to live downhill from that tank farm and fish for silvers in that stream. Then a decade later I was installing sentry wells around the tank farm.
There is a whole bunch of issues with that bulk fueling system that any modern company wouldn't be allowed to employ.
What additional info are you interested in?
Thanks Al !!! Yeah the lighting for photography was a constant challange......
We flew out on Alaska Air.....
Roy, thanks for the insight!! I, like Cory am very curious as to the current events and the history of Adak....any info you may have is much appreciated.
JW
Matt_n_Barb
Well-known member
Ray,
After reading the article on Adak I came to the conclusion it sounds like a church board meeting.........nothing being done to solve the issue at hand but to pass the blame around.....maybe they can act like a church board meeting...pray about it...as the lights go off..
I find it interesting as to the Feds ability to support a community for years as a base and then the rug is slipped out from under the locals....not that the military shouldn't have left....but after spending 200 million on clean up a few million not spent on leaving a functioning electrical system for the local seems odd....but maybe it was in good working order when they left and the system deteriorated.
Matt
After reading the article on Adak I came to the conclusion it sounds like a church board meeting.........nothing being done to solve the issue at hand but to pass the blame around.....maybe they can act like a church board meeting...pray about it...as the lights go off..
I find it interesting as to the Feds ability to support a community for years as a base and then the rug is slipped out from under the locals....not that the military shouldn't have left....but after spending 200 million on clean up a few million not spent on leaving a functioning electrical system for the local seems odd....but maybe it was in good working order when they left and the system deteriorated.
Matt
Ray
Well-known member
There are some good sources of information about Adak out on the intertubes.
For basic modern military info and the environmental issues resulting from military use go to
http://www.adakupdate.com/index.html
This is the offical website of the Restoration Advisory Board which governs the public process required in Superfund cleanup projects. Adak is not a superfund site since the Navy is taking action on it. The EPA almost listed it, but the majority of the issues are petroleum and the EPA doesn't like messing with that simple stuff.
One really cool thing about this site are the maps. They have taken the old hiking maps from back in the day and split them up to allow for easy PDF download. Back in the day we had to sit through a "blue card" recreation lecture before we were allowed to step off of a road. Adak can kill the unprepared quite easily so this was required by the Navy Search and Rescue folks. There are still a couple of bodies out there someplace of hikers/hunters that were never found. A lot of people think this is kind of silly, but you have to consider that the majority of the popluation of the base were city folk that joined the Navy to see the world and ended up on an island with no palm trees. There was one kid that my sister got to know that was too scared to leave his barracks at night. Why? He was from NY city and with no street lights he was so freaked out he just couldn't handle the darkness.
For more military history check out the Background Link on the righthand menu and then the Historical Guide that will provide more info about WWII and all those markers you were driving by.
What some folks don't know is that there were actually two military bases, or commands, out there. The Air Station, and the Security Group at the north end next to Clam Lagoon. NSGA also ran the radio tower systems up on the side of Moffet.
This is a link to a Navy CT veterans site where guys that were stationed at NSGA have posted their photos and stories. At the bottom is a link to a non military site which is pretty cool.
http://www.navycthistory.com/adak_intro.html
The 1981 photo collection by Gerrit Gillespie is a good representation of what people did when not at work. Burnt stuff and drank booze. When not burning stuff and drinking people went hiking.
Prior to the fall of 1984 the main form of entertainment was drinking with your friends in "cabins". After the fall of 1984 cable TV had been installed in nearly all living quarters and the entire social atmosphere of the place changed for the worse. Now people staid home and drank alone. I was pretty happy to be going back to college by the spring of 85.
As you look at the various photos you will notice that the Adak of the 1970s does not look like the Adak of today. In 1984 and 1985 the Air Station commander didn't like all the "junk" sitting on his tundra and started cleaning it up. We had to register our cabins and show improvements made in order to keep them from being demolished. Only a few survived the cleanup. The cleanup was stopped when someone complained to some Historic Society that the WWII era structures were being demolished with out following the National Archieving procedures. The commander was in big trouble with the Pentagon and all the WWII vets. Those brass plaques around the road system was the remedy put in place to fix that guys blunder.
http://www.eubank-web.com/Donald/Aleutian/link.htm
This link has a lot of WWII info and stories about the guy's dad that spent some time in the Chain.
For basic modern military info and the environmental issues resulting from military use go to
http://www.adakupdate.com/index.html
This is the offical website of the Restoration Advisory Board which governs the public process required in Superfund cleanup projects. Adak is not a superfund site since the Navy is taking action on it. The EPA almost listed it, but the majority of the issues are petroleum and the EPA doesn't like messing with that simple stuff.
One really cool thing about this site are the maps. They have taken the old hiking maps from back in the day and split them up to allow for easy PDF download. Back in the day we had to sit through a "blue card" recreation lecture before we were allowed to step off of a road. Adak can kill the unprepared quite easily so this was required by the Navy Search and Rescue folks. There are still a couple of bodies out there someplace of hikers/hunters that were never found. A lot of people think this is kind of silly, but you have to consider that the majority of the popluation of the base were city folk that joined the Navy to see the world and ended up on an island with no palm trees. There was one kid that my sister got to know that was too scared to leave his barracks at night. Why? He was from NY city and with no street lights he was so freaked out he just couldn't handle the darkness.
For more military history check out the Background Link on the righthand menu and then the Historical Guide that will provide more info about WWII and all those markers you were driving by.
What some folks don't know is that there were actually two military bases, or commands, out there. The Air Station, and the Security Group at the north end next to Clam Lagoon. NSGA also ran the radio tower systems up on the side of Moffet.
This is a link to a Navy CT veterans site where guys that were stationed at NSGA have posted their photos and stories. At the bottom is a link to a non military site which is pretty cool.
http://www.navycthistory.com/adak_intro.html
The 1981 photo collection by Gerrit Gillespie is a good representation of what people did when not at work. Burnt stuff and drank booze. When not burning stuff and drinking people went hiking.
Prior to the fall of 1984 the main form of entertainment was drinking with your friends in "cabins". After the fall of 1984 cable TV had been installed in nearly all living quarters and the entire social atmosphere of the place changed for the worse. Now people staid home and drank alone. I was pretty happy to be going back to college by the spring of 85.
As you look at the various photos you will notice that the Adak of the 1970s does not look like the Adak of today. In 1984 and 1985 the Air Station commander didn't like all the "junk" sitting on his tundra and started cleaning it up. We had to register our cabins and show improvements made in order to keep them from being demolished. Only a few survived the cleanup. The cleanup was stopped when someone complained to some Historic Society that the WWII era structures were being demolished with out following the National Archieving procedures. The commander was in big trouble with the Pentagon and all the WWII vets. Those brass plaques around the road system was the remedy put in place to fix that guys blunder.
http://www.eubank-web.com/Donald/Aleutian/link.htm
This link has a lot of WWII info and stories about the guy's dad that spent some time in the Chain.
Ray
Well-known member
Good question Tod. I don't know a current answer.
All my years in the area the only people going out there were official government types working for the Coast Guard, the Navy, or USFWS. When Reeve still flew some commercial flights they would stop there and some tour companies had birding events. Reeve stopped opperating in 2000. Nobody today wants to take the chances that Reeve took back in the day.
There is no control system on the runway so they can sit on Shemya for a few days waiting to see the island and make the short hop. There are no commerical carriers that fly there since they have to wait at the sorta-kinda still classified air base on Shemya. You just can't show up to a place like that these days.
http://www.hilonesometours.com/index.php?page=adak
These folks offer Adak birding trips.
I would think that someone with enough money could make an offer to Pen Air and they would bight. However, if there is no one certifying the runway for commerical use they many just laugh.
Thanks Ray, I badly need to get up/over to AK. I haven't been - the closest was Whitehorse (unless you count Hyder/stewart, which is the other direction). I need a summer to bum around and see the sights, couple years when Gus gets a little older to remember.
T
T