Have you seen any unusual plants or animals in Haines lately? What about weird algae blooms, or excessive erosion, or fish die-offs?
If so, the Chilkoot Indian Association’s environmental services director Luke Williams wants to hear from you.
For more than a year, CIA has been participating in the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Local Environmental Observation Network.
The LEO network uses traditional knowledge, Western science, and technology to get boots-on-the ground documentation on how the environment is changing in northern climates.
Promoted as “the eyes, ears and voice of our changing environment,” the LEO Network uses local observers in towns and villages across Alaska to document out-of-the-ordinary environmental phenomena. The network connects observers with scientists who offer feedback on the observation, and the information is posted to the LEO Network’s interactive map.
Some observations are weirder than others. Williams has mainly posted about unusual fauna – earthworms in the winter, unknown fish washing up on shore, large numbers of dead jellyfish – but other communities have dealt with some disturbing discoveries.
In Hollis, Sitka black-tailed deer were turning up with placemat-sized bald spots and growths the size of baseballs under their eyes. In Hydaburg, fishermen found white and pink growths in the flesh of salmon that turned out to be caused by a parasite called Henneguya.
Observations need not be about animals. Other LEO Network posts concern low snowpack, increased frequency of earthquakes and a lack of sea ice. Much of the network’s focus is on how these changes affect local food and water security and community health.
Some turn out to be relatively innocuous, said Michael Brubaker, director of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Center for Climate and Health. Brubaker spoke at CIA in March about the LEO Network and other work he is doing around the state.
“Sometimes it’s just interesting like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know we had those kinds of crickets.’” Sometimes it’s like, ‘That’s a new cricket that also carries a disease that can affect certain kinds of birds.’ So all of a sudden it becomes very important,” Brubaker said.
The goal of the LEO Network is documentation, he said. “When you try to get into why is it happening, why now, why so many, no one can really say,” Brubaker said. “It’s not until you start sticking all these pins on the map and looking at it over time that you might be able to see a real trend develop.”
The observations can also help spur organizations like Fish and Game or the Division of Forestry to look into an issue. “This is like a signal,” Brubaker said. “If other people see it and say it is happening, maybe you can get the forestry service or researchers or someone to put some resources in to help fix it.”
Paying attention to what is happening regionally is also important, Brubaker said. “There are some interesting kinds of biological things going on and it is right next door or right nearby, so I think both the news media and the environmental managers and community planners need to keep an eye out and an ear open for what is happening a little bit to the south and a little bit to the east,” he said.
To view the LEO Network’s interactive map, visit www.anthc.org/chs/ces/climate/leo. You can search the map by region, time period or category of observation.
To contact Williams about an observation or to send photos, call 766-2323 or email [email protected].