Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Maternal Den Study
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© Daniel J. Cox / Natural Exposures, Inc. Click the image to enlarge.
Field Work from Kaktovik
The trip began in the small community of Kaktovik, Alaska. There I met up with polar bear research biologist George Durner, who works under the guidance of Dr. Steven Amstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center. George is a great guy who has worked in the Arctic for 12 years. I was assigned to help him take measurements of polar-bear denning habitat in the coastal plain region of the ANWR. Earlier, the USGS, with financial support from the ANWR, had contracted with a private cartographer to study high resolution aerial photographs and to prepare a preliminary map of potential denning sites.
Our project's aim was to "ground truth" the preliminary map and to take measurements of suitable denning sites for use on a final digital map. That way, if the ANWR is ever opened up to drilling, data will be available to manage human activities, thus protecting the sensitive areas in which a mother polar bear may den. The study will also provide baseline data to assess how climate change may alter the distribution of polar-bear denning habitat. Although the mission sounded easy, it was anything but.
Because the refuge is so vast, it was impossible to visit every section of the mapped habitat. We therefore visited a random sample of the habitat, flying transects from Kaktovik over the course of four days. These transects, or flight patterns, radiated out from the town like the spokes of a wagon wheel, thus providing a uniform distribution of our sampling efforts throughout the coastal plain. The method allowed George to develop an index of confidence for the entire den habitat map.
Each day started by 8:30 a.m. and lasted until as late as 8:00 p.m. We stopped at specific GPS (Global Satellite Positioning) way points calculated by George from the preliminary map. We would fly to one GPS coordinate, get out of the chopper, take measurements, and then quickly get back in our flying machine to buzz off to the next scheduled GPS way point. It was fast-paced, very warm (close to 80 degrees on two of the four days), and extremely stressful in that you had to make sure that you exited the chopper in the proper direction for safety. But, oh my goodness, did I see some beautiful country.
The trip began in the small community of Kaktovik, Alaska. There I met up with polar bear research biologist George Durner, who works under the guidance of Dr. Steven Amstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center. George is a great guy who has worked in the Arctic for 12 years. I was assigned to help him take measurements of polar-bear denning habitat in the coastal plain region of the ANWR. Earlier, the USGS, with financial support from the ANWR, had contracted with a private cartographer to study high resolution aerial photographs and to prepare a preliminary map of potential denning sites.
Our project's aim was to "ground truth" the preliminary map and to take measurements of suitable denning sites for use on a final digital map. That way, if the ANWR is ever opened up to drilling, data will be available to manage human activities, thus protecting the sensitive areas in which a mother polar bear may den. The study will also provide baseline data to assess how climate change may alter the distribution of polar-bear denning habitat. Although the mission sounded easy, it was anything but.
Because the refuge is so vast, it was impossible to visit every section of the mapped habitat. We therefore visited a random sample of the habitat, flying transects from Kaktovik over the course of four days. These transects, or flight patterns, radiated out from the town like the spokes of a wagon wheel, thus providing a uniform distribution of our sampling efforts throughout the coastal plain. The method allowed George to develop an index of confidence for the entire den habitat map.
Each day started by 8:30 a.m. and lasted until as late as 8:00 p.m. We stopped at specific GPS (Global Satellite Positioning) way points calculated by George from the preliminary map. We would fly to one GPS coordinate, get out of the chopper, take measurements, and then quickly get back in our flying machine to buzz off to the next scheduled GPS way point. It was fast-paced, very warm (close to 80 degrees on two of the four days), and extremely stressful in that you had to make sure that you exited the chopper in the proper direction for safety. But, oh my goodness, did I see some beautiful country.