WISE
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog

WISEfriends Blog

Hometown

1/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Copper River Record  January 17, 2019 
By Robin Mayo
​You know when you are in your hometown when you plan your time at the supermarket based not on what you might need, but who you might see.  Last week I ventured into the vast frozen food section at West Fairbanks Fred Meyer.  Freddies was one of Fairbanks’ first Big Box stores, and when it opened we swore you could see the curvature of the earth in there. I was strolling slowly past the glass doors peering at an endless array of vegetables when I heard “Are you ever going to find it?” and turned to see Amy, a high school friend.  We caught up very quickly, she enlightened me on the location of the Puff Pastry (next aisle over from potato products, with the fruit, of course…) and we wheeled our carts away. My social life in a nutshell.
I have not lived in Fairbanks for more than a few months at a time since 1983, but it is still very much my hometown.  Although most of the town has been transformed with supersized retail and expressways, the west side around the University of Alaska has changed less.  And the center of my family’s life, the 100 acre hay field and rambling log cabin where I grew up, seems to be frozen in time.
My parents came to Fairbanks in 1960 to attend graduate school, and built the cabin on a couple of inexpensive acres because the affordable rentals were all dismal.  If you had told them that nearly 60 years later their 3 kids, all getting a little gray now, and 9 grandchildren would be crowding around the homemade table for chili on New Years Eve they would not have believed it.  But perhaps they would have considered putting a better foundation under the “temporary” cabin.
After dinner, we walk to the botanical gardens at the university, a great place to watch the “Sparktacular” New Year’s Eve fireworks show.  Along the trail, we are overtaken by a variety of travelers, including skiers, runners, fat-bikes with LED headlamps glowing blue, an old snowgo overloaded with teenagers, and even a unicycle. In Fairbanks, sharing trails is a tradition.
The distant pop and sulfur smell of fireworks surround us as we make our way through the parking lot and into the botanical garden, where groups of people are standing in the dark amongst the trees and flower beds.  A friend who was a founder of WISE recognizes my voice, and we catch up quickly as the Sparktacular begins.  A group of children nearby cheer at every rocket, and call out their descriptions of the display, “Shower, Waterfall, Popcorn, Flower….”  As the show stretches on, they run out of ideas and seem to decide that Popcorn, if yelled loudly enough, works for almost everything.
Afterwards, I walk home with my best friend from high school.  Walking in the near dark, side by side, it is easier to talk than facing each other with bright lights and tea bags to manage.  We are even able to talk about politics, and respectfully agree to disagree, before settling into catching up on our lives and kids, and laughing about some wilder New Year’s Eves in the past.
“Alaska is a big village,” I’d tell my kids when they were looking for someplace they could be more anonymous, “wherever you go there is someone who knows Grandma.”   At the time they saw it as an intrusion on their privacy, but I call it our safety net.  You don’t have to agree on everything to be a good friend and neighbor, and someone is always watching the kids. It is one of the reasons I love the Copper River Valley, and I’m glad to discover it is  still true for Fairbanks as well.
0 Comments

Kenny Lake Locals Donate Land for Conservation and Education:Great Land Trust and Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment Become Partners in Land Management

1/7/2019

0 Comments

 
Copper River Record  January 10, 2019
Great Land Trust
​An oasis of wildlife species richness and diversity in the Copper River Valley is now conserved forever, thanks to a generous donation by longtime residents, and a partnership between Great Land Trust and a local  nonprofit. The 40-acre property lies near the confluence of the Tonsina and Copper rivers. The owners desire to see the land remain in a relatively natural state, subject to the ebbs and flows of natural change, influenced their decision to donate the land to the Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE) with a conservation easement held by Great Land Trust. The donors wanted to safeguard this habitat for wildlife and provide a space for WISE to implement its goals of promoting environmental education, research, and stewardship.
 
An influx of groundwater at the property creates rare, clear water streams that remain open through winter and encourage rich species diversity. In their time here, the donors have seen and documented a diversity of migratory and resident birds, small and large mammals, and three species of salmon at multiple life stages. One of their favorite memories is of canoeing downstream and seeing a family of mink run across the top of a beaver dam. Another memorable moment was in the winter of 2015, with mild conditions that allowed a sighting of a Belted Kingfisher, a species known to have existed for at least 2 million years; a rare winter occurrence for this region of Alaska that was only possible due to the presence of open water and riparian habitat.
 
WISE wanted to give the conserved property an appropriate name, and out of respect to the traditional Ahtna use of the area, an Ahtna name was the preferred choice. Robin Mayo, WISE Executive Director, agreed and in researching Ahtna place names for the area discovered the area was described as “Nic’anilen Na’.”  Nic’anilen Na’ translates as “current flows out from shore creek” and describes the stream flowing into the Copper River below the Lower Tonsina.
 
WISE is a nonprofit organization which has been providing science and environmental education in the Copper River Basin since 2002. As the new owners, they will develop a plan for the property, including trails, interpretive signs, and visitor facilities such as outhouses and a pavilion. They hope to ultimately host field trips and camps onsite to share this fascinating and beautiful place with the public.
0 Comments
    Picture

    Who We Are

    WISEfriends are several writers connected with Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment, a nonprofit organization located in Alaska's Copper River Valley.  Most of these articles originally appeared in our local newspaper, the Copper River Record.

    Archives

    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2009
    September 2007
    August 2007
    May 2007
    May 2006
    May 2005
    March 2005
    June 2003
    September 2000
    July 2000
    July 1998
    June 1998

    Categories

    All
    Alaska Forum On The Environment
    Aquatic Ecology Camp
    Art
    Audubon's Christmas Bird Count
    Bear
    Birds
    Blueberries
    Camping
    Cats
    Changing Seasons
    Chosen Frozen
    Christmas Bird Count
    Clean-up Day
    Copper River Basin Symposium
    Copper River Stewardship Program
    Denali
    Donation
    Earth Discovery Day
    Fish
    Geology Camp
    Giving Tuesday
    Glacier
    HAARP
    Hikes
    Home
    Ice Fishing
    In Class Science
    In-Class Science
    Insects
    Interns
    Kotsina River Cleanup
    Lamprey Lecture
    Lecture Series
    Local Food
    Meadow Jumping Mouse
    Moose
    Natures Beauty
    Neighborhood Nuisance
    Nic'anilen'Na
    Oil Spill
    Owl
    OWLS
    Partnerships
    Plants
    Pop-Up Natural Playground
    Project Healing Waters
    Quinzee
    Redback Voles
    Re-Usable Shopping Bag
    Salmon Blitz
    Skiing
    Snow
    Snowshoe Hares
    Subsistence
    Tolsona Mud Volcanoes
    Tonsina River Trail
    Volcano
    Weather
    Wildfires
    Wild Plants Of The Copper Basin
    Wings Over The Wrangells
    Winter Fun Day
    WISE News
    WISE Thoughts
    Women Of Distinction
    Wrangell St. Elias National Park

    RSS Feed

Picture
About WISE
What We Do
Get Involved
Support WISE 

Contact Us
Policies​
Wrangell Institute for Science & Environment 
www.wise-edu.org
contact@wise-edu.org
(907) 822-3575
​WISE is a
501(c)3
nonprofit
​organization
 
​

Contact Us

Donate
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog