Federal order targets polar bear guides thearcticsounder.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thearcticsounder.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Federal order targets polar bear guides April 1st 3:09 pm |
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News
Polar bear guides in the northeast Alaska village of Kaktovik are upset by a last-minute order from the Trump administration that appears to halt polar bear viewing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge until studies on its effects are completed.
The guides are worried they ll undergo a second straight year of lost income, after the COVID-19 pandemic last year prevented most tourism across Alaska. However, the practical implications of the order are uncertain because President Joe Biden s administration could undo the order.
The three-page order, signed Jan. 15 by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, raises concerns presented by some village residents at past meetings about increased tourism, such as the heightened risk of bear and human conflicts and competition for seating on the small planes flying in and out of the community.
2020 tests limits of Arctic adaptation December 31st, 2020 |
1. Arctic struggles with pandemic and its impacts to education, health
Across the Arctic, as well as the state, nation and globe, the dominant story of 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic. For rural Alaska, however, the pandemic brought back memories of the Spanish flu, which decimated many in Alaska s Native villages, in some cases leaving only a handful of survivors.
While the state braced for impact shortly after spring break, closing schools, restaurants and many service industries and limiting travel between communities, rural Alaska did not see immediate outbreaks, despite fears that prompted many communities to restrict travel and require testing and quarantines for all people arriving via air.