Natural History Of The Western Arctic

This book is a comprehensive guide to the natural history of Canada's Western Arctic, an area of Canada between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole. It is an expanded version of the Natural History chapter in Canada's Western Arctic: The Definitive Guide to Canada's Western Arctic by the Western Arctic Handbook Committee. Topics include history, the Ice Age, climate, permafrost, geology, landforms, rivers, lakes, plants, wildlife, Aurora Borealis, the Beaufort Sea, the Mackenzie Delta, and the Western Queen Elizabeth Islands. This book has the benefit of many contributors, including local residents who shared their knowledge of the area, and academics who have devoted their careers to studying the area. There are daily jet flights between Edmonton International Airport and Inuvik, the largest community in Canada's Western Arctic, via Yellowknife and Norman Wells, and turbo prop flights three days a week between Alaska and Inuvik, via Whitehorse and Dawson City. There are also air services between Inuvik and other communities in Canada's Western Arctic.

This book is a comprehensive guide to the natural history of the North Slope, the only arctic tundra in the United States. The first section provides detailed information on climate, geology, landforms, and ecology. The second provides a guide to the identification and natural history of the common animals and plants and a primer on the human prehistory of the region from the Pleistocene through the mid-twentieth century. The appendix provides the framework for a tour of the natural history features along the Dalton Highway, a road connecting the crest of the Brooks Range with Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean, and includes mile markers where travelers may safely pull off to view geologic formations, plants, birds, mammals, and fish. Featuring hundreds of illustrations that support the clear, authoritative text, Land of Extremes reveals the arctic tundra as an ecosystem teeming with life.

How the fur trade changed the North and created the modern Arctic: “The history is fascinating.” —Anchorage Daily News In the early twentieth century, northerners lived and trapped in one of the world’s harshest environments. At a time when government services and social support were minimal or nonexistent, they thrived on the fox fur trade, relying on their energy, training, discipline, and skills. John R. Bockstoce, a leading scholar of the Arctic fur trade who also served as a member of an Eskimo whaling crew, explores the twentieth-century history of the Western Arctic fur trade to the outbreak of World War II, covering an immense region from Chukotka, Russia, to Arctic Alaska and the Western Canadian Arctic. This period brought profound changes to Native peoples of the North. To show its enormous impact, the author draws on interviews with trappers and traders, oral and written archival accounts, research in newspapers and periodicals, and his own field notes from 1969 to the present. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year Honorary Mention, 2020 William Mills Prize for Non-fiction Polar Books “An engaging story that is chock-full of fascinating anecdotes.” —Arctic “Invaluable . . . future generations of historians will refer to it.” —Canadian Journal of History “A compelling narrative . . . Bockstoce proves once again why he is the definitive source of all things related to Arctic maritime history.” —Sea History Includes photographs

Muskox Land provides a meticulously researched and richly illustrated treatment of Canada's High Arctic as it interweaves insights from historiography, Native studies, ecology, anthropology, and polar exploration.

The Western Canadian Arctic is a cold and seemingly barren wilderness. Yet for a thousand years it has been the homeland of a rich and accomplished people who call themselves Inuvialuit, "the real people." Hunters and fishers, their lives were enhanced by great annual hunts of beluga and bowhead whales. All that changed with the arrival of Americanwhalers in the 1890s. Decimated by disease and cultural dislocation, the Inuvialuit have successfully rebounded in the last fifty years, signing a major land claim agreement in 1984. This beautiful book is the definitive, illustrated history of one of North America's most interesting and least known Native people. Across Time and Tundra features over 120 imates, including many rare archival photos and exquisite works of art. The text includes traditional Inuvialuit stories and elders' remembrances of life long ago.

Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the most contested landscapes in all of North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Considered sacred by Indigenous peoples in Alaska and Canada and treasured by environmentalists, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, migratory birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have sought to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. Defending the Arctic Refuge tells the improbable story of how the people fought back. At the center of the story is the unlikely figure of Lenny Kohm (1939–2014), a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who passionately committed himself to Arctic Refuge activism. With the aid of a trusty slide show, Kohm and representatives of the Gwich'in Nation traveled across the United States to mobilize grassroots opposition to oil drilling. From Indigenous villages north of the Arctic Circle to Capitol Hill and many places in between, this book shows how Kohm and Gwich'in leaders and environmental activists helped build a political movement that transformed the debate into a struggle for environmental justice. In its final weeks, the Trump administration fulfilled a long-sought dream of drilling proponents: leasing much of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain for fossil fuel development. Yet the fight to protect this place is certainly not over. Defending the Arctic Refuge traces the history of a movement that is alive today—and that will continue to galvanize diverse groups to safeguard this threatened land.

ANNOTATION: A 352 page travel guide to Canada's Western Arctic, an area of Canada between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole. The book includes over 300 colour photographs and maps. Topics include tripplanning, accommodations, weather, daily life in Canada's Western Arctic, events, outdoor activities, national and territorial parks, communities, the people, land and water, and plants and animals. This book has the benefit of over one hundred contributors, including local residents with a lifetime of experiences to share, and academics who have devoted their careers to studying the area. There are daily jet flights between Edmonton International Airport and Inuvik, the largest community in Canada's Western Arctic, via Yellowknife and Norman Wells, and turbo prop flights three days a week between Alaska and Inuvik, via Whitehorse and Dawson City. There are also air services between Inuvik and other communities in Canada's Western Arctic.