Climate change | AK CASC

Alaska is adapting and ‘Knowing Our Changing Home’ is helping us understand what that looks like

May 11, 2026

Cover of the 2026 Knowing Our Changing Home magazine

The Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center is excited to announce the publication of “Knowing Our Changing Home: Snow & Ice Edition.” This publication features 13 stories that bring Alaska’s changing climate to life — not just through data, but through the voices of people who experience these changes firsthand.

Conclusion by Annika Ord

May 11, 2026

Knowing Our Changing Home Conclusion By Annika Ord In Alaska, weather isn’t just a topic for small talk and brief encounters, it dictates whether our freezers are full and our grocery stores stocked. It impacts…

Foreword by Kristin Timm

May 11, 2026

Knowing Our Changing Home FOREWORD By Kristin Timm As a kid growing up in Wisconsin, I remember always sledding on Thanksgiving morning. Somewhere around the time I stopped sledding, sledding on Thanksgiving morning stopped too.…

Sentinels of the Northern slopes: Mountain Goats, Avalanches and Ceremonial Robes

May 11, 2026

To be a mountain goat is to live where no one else dares. High above the treelines of Southeast Alaska, the alpine mammals creep along ridgelines and mountainsides through dense snow in search of bare ground where they can forage for food.

Changing Ice and Rising Waters: Glacial Floods in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley

May 11, 2026

Suicide Basin full of water held in place by Mendenhall Glacier.

It was one of those rare cloudless days in Juneau when the Mendenhall Valley felt like a playground. Kids pedaled along trails, families hiked beside the lake, and lawns buzzed with summer chores. But beneath the glacier, a hidden force was building, and it would soon surge into the city.

Rivers of Change: The Impact of Climate Shifts on Salmon Habitats in Southeast Alaska

May 11, 2026

Water is the thread that weaves Lingít Aaní or Southeast Alaska together. It falls from the sky as relentless rain, clings to mountains as snow and collects in ice fields and glaciers. It trickles through peat-rich muskegs and carves deep fjords that open into the sea.

Berry-stained Science in a Changing Climate

May 11, 2026

Up the Taku River, a washtub sank under the weight of red jewels, glittering in the sunlight. A family skiff held thousands of ripe nagoonberries and strawberries, evidence of a long day of harvest.

70,000 Walrus, Seals and Sea Ice

May 11, 2026

Walrus haul-out on a beach near Utqiaġvik.

The loss of Arctic sea ice has cycled through headlines for decades, rising and falling in public attention as new records are broken. But for researchers like Maeghan Connor and Donna Hauser, sea ice loss is not a trending headline, it is the focus of their lives’ work.

Ice science from pre-k to gray

May 11, 2026

Father Thinh Van Tran with his boat before the river starts to freeze.

Father Thinh Van Tran knows about ice. A Catholic priest who serves the Diocese of Fairbanks, he’s spent time in the remote rural Alaska communities of Nulato, Koyukuk, Galena and Kaltag, deep in Interior Alaska. During that time he’s come to appreciate how river ice serves as a major transportation corridor for these communities.

Caribou Herds in Arctic Alaska Tundra Areas are on Opposite Trends

May 11, 2026

A caribou is seen in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.

The Western Arctic Caribou Herd, once the biggest in Alaska, is faltering, having fallen from a high of 490,000 animals in 2003 to only 152,000 as of 2023. But to the east, the Porcupine Caribou Herd appears to be thriving, with an all-time high of 218,00 animals recorded at the last census.