Published Nov 7, 2023 by Robert Woolsey, KCAW

Invasive species are more prevalent in Alaska than you might think. This week (November 7-9), a group of scientists, scholars, and interested members of the public are meeting in Sitka to cover a five-page agenda of some of the state’s most troubling species.

The Alaska Invasive Species Partnership is a completely ad-hoc gathering. There are representatives from state and federal agencies, tribal governments, and universities, but the consortium officially belongs to none of them. Their common interest is preserving Alaska’s native species.

Tammy Davis is the Invasive Species Program Coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, who’s been in Sitka often in recent years, working on an eradication project of the invasive tunicate D. vex in Whiting Harbor. Gino Graziano is with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.

The pair spoke with KCAW’s Robert Woolsey about this week’s workshop in Sitka.

Published Nov 7, 2023 by Alex Johnson

The Men’s Basketball team is looking to change this season after coming off an 11-15 record last year. Coach Sparling, deciding to bring players in from Junior Colleges, ups the veteran presence and brings another dimension to the teams playing style.

“It’s good because we can play multiple positions, and you know I like how our fours and fives are interchangeable, and one through three is pretty much interchangeable. We can bring the ball up, you know guys, who can get to the rim. We saw by the dunk contest that we got some athleticism,” said Greg Sparling, UAFs Men’s Head Basketball Coach.

The new court also helps the team play, with worry of potential injuries being lowered, and also brings in some excitement for the new season.

The men’s basketball team begins their season during the GNAC/PacWest Challenge sponsored by Mt. McKinley Bank. Their first match is against the Hawaii Pacific Sharks, with a 7 P.M. tip off on Friday, November 10th. Their second game of the challenge is against the Chaminade Silverswords, for a 3 P.M. tip off on Saturday, November 11th.



Published Nov 6, 2023 by Gavin Struve

When the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships fields were announced on Monday, the University of Alaska Fairbanks women’s team was conspicuously absent.

The Nanook men and women competed at the West Region Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 4, which served as a qualifier for the NCAA Championships. The UAF women placed fifth out of 24 teams, a two-spot improvement from where they were last year.

The ‘Nooks tallied 135 points, just three behind third-place Chico State, who snagged the final auto-qualifier spot. Concordia University Irvine (CUI) finished tied for third ahead of UAF but lost the tie-breaker to Chico State. Western Washington and Biola took the top two spots. The Nanook men, meanwhile, placed 22nd of 24 teams.

Had the ‘Nook women amassed four fewer points, by virtue of one of their runners finishing four spots higher or several combining to finish four spots higher, they would be advancing a team to the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time in over a decade.

Published Nov 6, 2023 by Meredith Jordan

The skies are again lighting up with the colors of the aurora borealis, evidenced with plentiful images on social media and “high activity” predictions from scientists as the long nights set in.

University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute scientists measure aurora strength via a scale known as the Kp-index, which ranges from 0-9. Kp-1 would be “very weak,” where Kp-9 would be a major geomatic storm.

Alaska has seen a lot of 4-6s in recent weeks, and anything above a Kp5 is a geomatic storm.

Geomatic storms are disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere, described as a “very efficient exchange of energy” between the space surrounding Earth and solar winds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Particles stirred up by the storm interact with gas in the atmosphere, creating the phenomenon.

The poles are where the northern lights usually occur, while the storms produce stronger lights and space weather expands it farther out where more people see it.

The forecasts for the week of Nov. 6 are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute and available online, along with more data, at www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast.