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A hairy woodpecker on the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Notice the bill is as long as the head? (Photo by Laurie Sheppard, USFWS National Digital Library)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Woodpecker doppelgangers

I was listening to the distinct sound of a woodpecker drumming a few days ago and caught a…

The Kenai National Moose Range’s three LeTourneau crushers off of Mystery Creek Road, March 14, 1978. (Photo provided by USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Forest regeneration efforts benefit moose on wildlife refuge

From time to time, we reshare past Refuge Notebook articles. We selected this article as part of our…

Dr. Alan Boraas leads a tour of Kalifornsky Village, a former Native settlement, in April 2014. Boraas was a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College, an honorary member of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe and the driving force behind the creation, maintenance and expansion of the Tsalteshi Ski Trails.
(Photo courtesy of Jenny Neyman)

Sports

Out of the Office: Best ski of the year

Memory is strongly tied to place. That’s why I can never take the ski from Arc Lake to…

Benito lays on North Kenai Beach on April 16, 2021. (Camille Botello)

Sports

Out of the Office: Furry friend

Adventuring in Alaska has been much better with my fur buddy.

Dog sick fungus, named for its resemblance to canine vomit, is neither vomit nor a fungus. It is a kind of slime mold common in tundra. (Photo by Matt Bowser/USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Names of living things have much to say

As we at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge seek to know about the living things that call this…

Ed Bangs in 1984 with the first female brown bear radio-collared on the Kenai. (Photo courtesy USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Blessed to live the Alaska dream

Note: In celebration of the Refuge’s 80th year, the Refuge Notebook articles will periodically feature stories from past…

The moon sits above Mount Redoubt on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021 near Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Sports

Out of Office: Chasing sunshine

The winter solstice fell on a beautiful Tuesday last month. I woke up to flickers of sunshine peeking…

Winter view of one of the Refuge’s many treasures, Skilak Lake, Credit FWS/L. Hupp
Winter view of one of the Refuge’s many treasures, Skilak Lake, Credit FWS/L. Hupp

Sports

80 years of conservation and counting

Just a few weeks ago, on Dec. 16, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge turned 80.

A flowering roundleaf orchid (Galearis rotundifolia). A splash of bright color on a green ground cover. (Photo by Samuel Artaiz/USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: A needle in a peatland haystack

Touching down, we could feel the widened skids sink, yet securely, on what was a soggy layer of…

Patrick Lewis hikes out of the Grand Canyon on a recent five-day trip to the National Park. (Photo by Kat Sorensen)

Sports

Tangled Up In Blue: We’ll meet again someday

Over the five years that I’ve written Tangled Up In Blue, a lot has happened that seems so…

Erika Arthur leads Libby Jensen and Krista Arthur in the 17th Ski for Women on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, at Tsalteshi Trails just outside of Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion
Erika Arthur leads Libby Jensen and Krista Arthur in the 17th Ski for Women on Sunday, Feb. 7 at Tsalteshi Trails just outside of Soldotna.

Sports

Out of the Office: Skiing doesn’t have to be perfect to be good

“One thing I definitely miss about Anchorage are the groomed cross country ski trails,” read the text.

Skating on Jean Lake on Nov. 21, 2021. (Photo courtesy Sabine Poux on Ashlyn O’Hara’s camera)

Sports

Out of the Office: Solace in skating

I’m used to the cold, but Alaska’s darkness has proved difficult to get used to.

A scud (Gammarus lacustris) collected from North Vogel Lake. Trout and other fish depend on invertebrates like this scud for food. (Photo by Matt Bowser/USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Checking on the little things that fish need

This October, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game applied rotenone, a fish-killing pesticide, to Vogel Lake, North…