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Author Kathleen Sorensen (252) and the rest of the field take off from the starting line at the Kenai River Marathon on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Sports

Tangled Up in Blue: Three halves

I ran my third Kenai River Half Marathon this weekend.

Scaly, pale green leaves of a yellow-cedar near Sitka, Alaska. (Photo by M. Goff http://www.sitkanature.org/)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Will yellow cedar move to Kenai Peninsula?

My first job as a field biologist in Alaska was working for the Tongass National Forest. I was…

A visual picture of profound change in the alpine plant community post-2019 Swan Lake Fire. This picture is from 2021, two years after the fire. (Photo by Matt Bowser/USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Swan Lake Fire update: How are plant communities doing?

By HEIDI HELLING

A thunderstorm is seen Aug. 3, 2021, in Okanogan County, Washington. (Kathryn Knowlton/submitted photo)

Sports

Tangled Up in Blue: Shelter from the storm

I recently learned that the opposite of deja vu is jamais vu, meaning “never seen.”

Photo by Kris Inman 
A radio-tagged wolverine moves across the Greater Yellowstone.

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Wolverines show how knowledge leads to conservation

As I contemplated a topic for this week’s Refuge Notebook article, I turned to a few of my…

Photo by Kat Sorensen 
Fireweed in Seward, Alaska.

Sports

Tangled Up in Blue: Hand Dipped

The Lost Lake Run was a long one. I ran over 15 miles, from Primrose to the Bear…

A Student Conservation Association team builds traditions around a game of Catan in a tent by Funny River. (Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Settlers of Catan in the backcountry

By SANJA ZELEN

Photo by Jeff Helminiak 
A waterfall flows at McCullough Gulch in Colorado on Aug. 5, 2021.

Sports

Out of the Office: Best-laid plans

The plan was for the family to meet in Colorado to try and summit one of the state’s…

Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion 
Fireweed blooms along the Skyline Trail on Aug. 13, 2021, on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.

Sports

Refuge Notebook: Alaska ‘Super Bloom’: The beauty of regrowth

By SANJA ZELEN

A mountain hemlock burned in the 2019 Swan Lake Fire, pictured June 29, 2021. (Photo by Matt Bowser/USFWS)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: When hemlocks burn

When the weather deteriorates in the mountains, I head for those deepest green patches of forest at tree…

Kathleen Sorensen, “Tangled Up In Blue” columnist, is from Seward, the Alaska tourist town mentioned in this week’s story. Pictured is Resurrection Bay in Seward on Aug. 21, 2021. (Photo by Sarah Knapp/Homer News)

Sports

Tangled Up In Blue: Slowing down

I’m finding myself, more than ever, falling into bouts of anger, and it’s making me mad.

A group photo of the campers after a digital scavenger hunt in Get Out and Get Dirty Camp. (Photo provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Sports

Refuge Notebook: And just like that, I was in full camp mode

As a child, being outdoors was a huge part of my life. Some of my favorite memories are…

Some tanks were breached with explosives and the fuel set on fire, a method of eliminating fuel that was not very successful.

Sports

Refuge Notebook: A long-awaited cleanup gets underway on the Aleutians

In the Aleutian Islands, the war brought thousands of soldiers and enormous quantities of equipment and supplies to…