Stories – North Exposure

No Tissue Left Behind – Massive Collaborative Ecology and Evolution Project on the Kenai Peninsula

Published on November 17, 2022 by Kelly Ireland

Invasive Northern Pike (Esox lucius) are a nuisance to endemic fish populations and can quickly take over waterways, but removal of Northern Pike presents a unique research opportunity. Rotenone, the chemical used to remove Northern Pike, also kills other fish, giving researchers the chance to reintroduce endemic species and do large scale ecology and evolution experiments in the wild. For example, nine lakes on the Kenai Peninsula that were treated with rotenone are now home to the “greatest ecology and evolution experiment” of all time, as project researchers like to say.

The project is looking at the ecology and evolution of reintroduced Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). The reintroduced Threespine Stickleback derive from donor populations of both benthic (bottom dwellers) and limnetic (dwellers of the light penetrating zone) morphs of the species from four lakes on the Kenai Peninsula (Tern, Watson, Spirit, and Wik) and four lakes in the Matanuska Susitna Valley (South Rolly, Finger, Long, and Walby). A mix of both benthic and limnetic ecomorphs were introduced into each recipient lake, allowing researchers to look at how the fish evolve over time and if the two ecomorphs converge, among other ecological and evolutionary questions.

“This is a rare opportunity to test predictions on how evolution proceeds in real time,” said Jesse Weber, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of many professors working on the project. “Most similar experiments look at short lived microorganisms, like bacteria, yeast, or small arthropods. In this case, we have a fish with abundant ecological, genetic, and evolutionary data. We can test how ancestry and local environmental conditions interact and constrain or promote evolution across many different traits.”

Natalie Steinel checks a Threespine Stickleback for fibrosis before removing the head, kidney, and spleen from the fish. Photo by James Evans, University of Alaska Anchorage Advancement.

The rotenone treatments occurred in October 2018, and Threespine Stickleback were reintroduced in May and June of 2019. Two teams of researchers divided and conquered the workload of reintroductions. The first team was responsible for trapping Threespine Stickleback from donor populations and transporting thousands of fish down to the Kenai Peninsula for reintroduction into recipient lakes. The second team was responsible sampled the donor populations prior to donor fish being collected to establish a baseline on the donor populations themselves. The team sampled all aspects of the fish, measuring and weighing the fish before recording the numbers and types of external and internal parasites and the levels of fibrosis. Then the spleens, head, kidneys, liver, stomach, and intestine were removed before the fish had a filet of skin and muscle taken, and a fin clipped for genetic analysis. Finally, the remaining carcass was preserved in formalin. The team returned in 2020 and 2021 to collect the same samples from the recipient lakes to look at how the fish are changing over time.

The parasite load and fibrosis scores will help both Weber’s lab and Daniel Bolnick, a University of Connecticut professor, study the immune system of the fish. “My group is working on changes in the parasite community in each lake, how they get different parasites (diet changes in the different lakes), and how this drives evolution of their immune system,” said Bolnick. “My lab is particularly focused on the evolution of an immune defense involving fibrosis, the buildup of scar tissue from inflammation. Fibrosis also happens in people and contributes to about 40% of deaths in the U.S. (including contributing to heart disease and cancer). So, not only can we learn about fish adaptation, but in doing so we hope to better understand the genetics and function of an immune pathology also found in humans.”

Weber on the other hand is more interested in the genetics and gene expression behind immune response and predicts, “fish from different lakes will quickly converge on the same immune profiles when placed in similar environments…genetics doesn’t have a strong influence on short-term responses, but the long-term extent of immune convergence/divergence will be governed by: a) how much genetic variation any given population possesses for a specific immune trait; and b) which traits are most likely to allow fish to survive and reproduce across different lakes. I hope that there will be a disconnect between how fish respond in the short term (i.e., plastic changes) versus how they evolve in the long-term.”

In addition to the work that Weber and Bolnick are doing, assistant professor Natalie Steinel at the University of Massachusetts Lowell is also investigating the immune system. Steinel is using spleen samples to make histological sections and study the development of immune cells in the fish.

The parasite load, fibrosis scores, and immune cells also can impact other aspects of the fish and will lend more information to the other researchers on the project, including Dr. Kathryn Milligan-Myhre, assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, who is investigating the composition of the microbes in the gut, the gut microbiota. Milligan-Myhre is interested in how host genetic background and environment drive the gut microbiota composition. “I predict that the change in the microbiota is driven by the diet,” said Milligan-Myhre, “and as the populations come together that the diet will drive the microbiota more than the host genetic background.”

Outside of Weber, Bolnick, Steinel, and Milligan-Myhre’s work, numerous other researchers are examining other various questions about the reintroductions including Andrew Hendry, Alison Derry, Milan Malinsky, Kiyoko Gotanda, Alison Bell, Blake Matthews, Katie Peichel, Rowan Barrett, and Matt Walsh. Hendry acts as the project lead, Derry studies zooplankton and copepods, Malinsky – evolution and recombination rate and roles in adaptation, Gotanda and Bell – behavioral adaptation and evolution, Matthews – ecosystem dynamics, Peichel and Barrett – genome evolution, and Walsh evolution of Daphnia in response to stickleback introductions.

Daniel Bolnick displays a reproductive male Threespine Stickleback. Reproductive males usually have a characteristic red chin, blue eyes, and often bluish body pigmentation during the summer breeding season. Photo by Andrew Hendry.

“This is a new experience for many of us to work on such a large team. Logistics, communication, and openness are paramount, so this is a great exercise for many of us,” said Bolnick. “Physicists often form huge consortiums of research groups to do a single particle accelerator experiment that takes years of engineering and planning and analysis to do one experiment. Biologists, in contrast, are more often lone wolf researchers – a single lab group working on a unique problem. Or even competitors, racing each other for a solution. We are taking a more physicist mindset to biology, forming a large collaborative network that will draw lessons and inspiration from this experiment for decades to come. This requires careful coordination, so we don’t overly draw on landowner’s goodwill, and openness with each other about what our plans are (to minimize overuse of fish) and sharing data. Often sharing our data adds additional insights because the different things we study are interconnected.”

Weber also agrees with Bolnick about the collaboration involved in a project of this scale. “A project this size would be impossible without a huge group of collaborators, each providing diverse skills, perspectives, and resources such as supplies and funds. We were very lucky to be able to gather an extraordinarily good group of international labs,” said Weber. “Although the first few years of the project landed during difficult times, including heat waves, fires, and pandemics, the long-term hope is that all our lab groups, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and other professionals and community members, will be able to convene in Alaska each year to bond and learn about the amazing attributes of the fish and lakes in this region.”

The recipient lakes from this project have also been studied heavily by other researchers outside of the “greatest ecology and evolution experiment,” Patrick Tomco, assistant professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and his M.S. student Jordan Couture, looked at the rotenone degradation rates in the lakes as no previous work had examined how quickly the compound degrades in Alaska. It was previously thought that the colder temperatures might slow degradation. “The majority of the rotenone degraded rapidly over the first 14 days. It was completely gone, less than one part per billion, at 60 days,” said Tomco who mentioned that rotenolone, a less toxic transformation product of rotenone, was detected over 250 days.

While Tomco and Couture examined the degradation of the rotenone, Brandon Briggs, assistant professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and his M.S. student Jake Bozzini took samples of the lakes to determine how rotenone treatments impacted the microbial communities in the water. Bozzini found that the rotenone did not significantly alter the microbial community structure or function in any of the lakes. However, certain microbial genes were detected that may aid in the degradation of rotenone.

The 2019 stickleback sampling team. Back row: Natalie Steinel, Rachael Kramp, Elsa Diffo, Christopher Peterson, Trey Sasser, Jesse Weber, Kelly Ireland, and Kathryn Milligan-Myhre. Front row: Daniel Bolnick, Ana, and Roscoe. Photo by Andrew Myhre.

Overall, the research done on the rotenone treated lakes has been a large collaborative effort spanning across research labs, agencies, universities, and even countries. All of this research would also not be possible without the generous landowners that have provided access to the lakes via their properties, as well as their useful firsthand observations of what’s happening at the lakes day to day. It is sure that many exciting research papers will emerge from the project and many of the researchers are also hopeful that this will bolster support for effective and safe removal of Northern Pike using rotenone.

Kelly Ireland, author, has been a part of the stickleback reintroduction project since 2019. Ireland is a University of Alaska Fairbanks Ph.D. candidate in Brandon Briggs lab at the University of Alaska Anchorage and has been actively involved in field gear preparation, coordination, and sample processing for this project.

This story was written for the Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society’s Fall 2021 newsletter Oncorhynchus 41(4). A copy of how the story appeared is below:

Pre-trip Jitters for Wrangell St. Elias National Park Expedition

Published on May 17, 2018January 19, 2019 by Kelly Ireland

Nervous and excited energy has surrounded me for quite some time. I’m leaving for a three week journey through Wrangell St. Elias National Park in the Alaska wilderness. My group includes 14 of us who are all a part of the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Expedition class. We will be backpacking and pack rafting from the end of Nebesna Road to McCarthy through the park in just roughly under two weeks with only one resupply in Chisana along the way. Once in McCarthy we will be resupplying and picking up our large multi person paddle and oar rafts to float the Copper River south to Cordova. We will have traveled nearly 300 miles over land and water to get there from Nebesna.

Route being taken by the 2018 UAA Expedition Class through Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Please note this map is a rough estimate of the route. For a PDF file of the map visit here: Wrangell St. Elias Route

I signed up for the trip back in January. My prior experience is only a number of overnight backpacking trips. The longest distance being 34 miles. I have now only pack rafted a river twice. I wonder nearly every day now if I am capable of completing this trip. Am I fit enough? Will my bad knees cooperate? What if I can’t continue on? These questions play through my mind frequently. As the trip nears I find myself trying to quiet these doubts more and often.

Oddly at the same time I feel confident and prepared to go. I have checked and rechecked my bag more times than I can count. I visit REI, the grocery store, or a hardware store every other day to get things to improve my systems, reduce weight, or make life more convenient for when I’m on the trail. I have prepared breakfast and dinner for my tent group, learning to dehydrate meals, count calories and consider weight. My DIY pack raft has been tested repeatedly for leaks and has been patched with glue. Everything gear wise and food wise is prepared.

Floating down the Kenai River. Photo by Jesse Munday.

Running the Schooner Bend Rapid on the Kenai River to test out my DIY pack raft. Photo by Jesse Munday.

I have also been keeping very active spending almost the entirety of all my weekends outdoors on the trails and frequently going for long evening strolls and hikes. My pack feels heavy on my back for the first mile, but then I settle into a pace and don’t notice it anymore. Maybe I can do this trip after all?

My mind also wanders to the people I won’t be able to talk to for three weeks. My mom, who I call on the phone three times a day, sometimes more, even though we live together at the moment. She is my advisor and problem solver for all things, my rock. My dog, Aspen, even though she doesn’t talk, her companionship will be missed. My brother, step dad, friends and coworkers who are all so supportive, but wonder why I’m going on this crazy trip. I will miss them all. I know they each send me well wishes on this adventure and that is reassuring.

Their encouragement also makes me feel prepared. They constantly tell me I will be fine and have so much fun. I know I will, but anxiety about the trip has been very real. I am so excited to get out there though. To disconnect from social media, life’s daily grind, and modern convenience. It will be a simple three weeks. Simple sounds nice. I feel like my soul will have a chance to recharge and reconnect deeply with the mountains and outdoors. I draw energy from being outside in Alaska.

Western Wrangells and the Copper River. Photo by the National Park Service.

The ominous and inviting mountain peaks, the wildlife that scurries along the ground cover, the foliage that rustles in the wind, it draws me in. I feel so alive in moments when I am surrounded by that all. I get to be surrounded by it for three weeks and I can only imagine how much energy and inspiration I will have gained by the end of the expedition. I long for how relaxed I will feel mentally by being so close with nature.

My mind is kind of a goopy mess of thoughts with the way I feel about this trip. I’m ready to go though. I hope the group joining me is too. We are embarking into the backcountry wilderness of Alaska and I couldn’t be more thrilled. So ta ta for now, I’ll be back in three weeks.

If you’re interested in tracking our progress while we are gone please visit HERE. This will begin being active when we start the trip and will update nearly every 30 minutes. Don’t worry about us all if it doesn’t though! No news is good news.

Sonar fish counts on the Chignik River

Published on January 26, 2018July 17, 2018 by Kelly Ireland

Myra 4 — Myra Scholze steering ADFG’s skiff in Chignik, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Myra Scholze.

Field work is often seen as the glamorous part of science, where researchers get to experience the outdoors and be close to the subjects that they study. The sad reality is though that most scientists spend their time analyzing and processing data on computer screens at office desks. For Myra Scholze, a Fish and Wildlife Technician, for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG), this is no unfamiliar territory.

Scholze began working for the ADFG seven years ago in the sport fisheries division in Kodiak. Two years ago, she began doing research for ADFG near Chignik, Alaska on the Alaskan Peninsula. The community of Chignik is primarily a fishing village that relies on the commercial and subsistence fisheries there.

Scholze’s work with ADFG helps manage those fisheries to maintain their sustainability. Her work is to count the salmon that swim up river between May and September.

Myra 1 — Myra Scholze on the Chignik River. Photo courtesy of Myra Scholze.

“Counting the fish is what tells fish and game when to open and close commercial fisheries,” Scholze said. “For each day of the month, in June and July, there’s escapement goals you’re supposed to meet that indicate that you’re going to meet your total number of fish that’s needed to maintain a sustainable run. We count the fish up and meet those goals then the manager at Chignik decides when and what areas to open and for how long.”

Specifically, Scholze is funded through a grant that is comparing and trying to find the correlation between fish counts made on a weir or on a sonar. The two fish counting methods generate a massive amount of data that must be processed.

Weir measurements are made by forcing salmon through a bottleneck in the river, the weir itself, and recording video of the salmon as they pass by. Researchers then go back and count how many individual salmon pass the camera lens.

Sonar doesn’t record video in a traditional sense, but rather records how sound moves through water. Sonar data is collected on both banks of the river and then a researcher must sit and watch back each of the videos and count how many fish blips they see on screen.

“We have two sonars and every ten minutes they create a file that looks kind of like a fish finder on a boat. That’s what you’re counting,” said Scholze. “Every bank creates 144 files per day, we have a sonar on each bank of the river, so we are creating 288 files a day. Over a month you’re creating about 10,000 files and that’s why we have such a back log and why I count files.”

Myra 3 — Myra Scholze adjusts the sonar in Chignik. Photo courtesy of Myra Scholze.

The massive amount of data and the nearly real-time nature (the videos can be sped up slightly when only a few fish are moving by) of watching back the files and counting fish makes for long work hours. Scholze has spent months outside of Chignik in the Kodiak ADFG office, in addition to long evenings at the bunkhouse in Chignik, just counting back fish on videos, so finding a correlation between weir and sonar counts may take years to come. The preliminary conclusions about correlation can’t even be made yet.

“They’ve looked at it [the correlation], but we don’t have enough done from 2016 yet.” Scholze said.

The work may be grueling to some, but to Scholze she loves being able to collect the data that helps inform management decisions for Alaskan fisheries. She intends to continue working for ADFG in Chignik for as long as they have files for her to count. She’s currently in Dutch Harbor, Alaska working for ADFG as a Fish and Wildlife Technician for the crab fishery there. Myra will return to Kodiak in the spring to restart her sonar counts before heading back to the field in Chignik as a Fishery Biologist.

Myra 5 — Myra Scholze collecting samples in Alitak, Alaska for a job she held with ADFG before working for ADFG in Chignik, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Myra Scholze.

Stickleback – The super fish

Published on December 5, 2017January 31, 2019 by Kelly Ireland

Darting through Cheney Lake in Anchorage, Alaska are thousands of small fish, about three inches in length, with three spiny projections that jut off the top of their bodies, pricking anything that dares touch them. The color of their scales varying in color depending on the season, sex, or population from which they descend. They gleam shiny silver, blue, or a dull brown, sometimes with a greenish hue. They’re named threespine stickleback, and they’ve become a powerhouse organism for study. Found in nearly all Alaskan lakes and across most of the northern hemisphere, scientists have taken keen interest in these fish for the practical uses they hold for studying evolution and conducting research.

Threespine stickleback from Cheney Lake in Anchorage, Alaska during their reproductive stage of life. The fish with blue eyes is a reproductive male.

At the University of Alaska Anchorage, Kat Milligan-Myhre, heads a laboratory of undergraduates, graduates, lab techs, and post docs who are all using threespine stickleback as a model organism for a variety of projects on host gut microbe interactions. The lab is able to study how the microbes within the gut of threespine stickleback, the host, affect a variety of things like development, physiology, behavior, and more. Milligan-Myhre developed a procedure that allows the lab to fertilize eggs of the fish and then make them free of all microbes. They can then add back in select microbes or none at all to study how the microbes are actually affecting the fish.

A 7-day-old transparent juvenile threespine stickleback. Milligan-Myhre has developed a protocol to rear threespine stickleback free of microbes until 14 days after the eggs they’ve hatched from have been fertilized.

“Stickleback have a number of really cool qualities. One is that they are transparent so we can actually watch fluorescent microbes move around in the gut of a live stickleback,” said Milligan-Myhre, “We can make large amounts of genetically similar eggs from a single cross or a couple of crosses… with fish you can get 100 to up to 200, if you’re lucky, of genetically related fish. That allows us to have a lot of power so we can do some really good statistical analysis on these changes that we’re seeing when we treat these animals.”

Kelly Ireland and Kat Milligan-Myhre set traps for threespine stickleback in Cheney Lake in Anchorage, Alaska in May of 2017. The lab uses minnow traps that have a funnel and hole on either end of the trap that threespine stickleback then swim into and get trapped.

They are studying a variety of populations from varying lakes across Alaska, but by far their most frequented lake of interest is Cheney Lake. The lake had threespine stickleback introduced to it in 2009 from a parental population found in Rabbit Slough, Alaska, by Frank Von Hippel, a former professor at UAA, who like Milligan-Myhre used them as a model organism. Von Hippel’s lab was interested primarily in the evolution of the fish, however.

Ryan Lucas, Emily Lescak, and Kelly Ireland of Kat Milligan-Myhre’s lab pull traps from Y Lake of the Talkeetna Lakes chain in Talkeetna, Alaska. The lab then does in field gut dissections to assess gut microbe composition within the threespine stickleback.

“What really sets stickleback apart from zebrafish, which are the traditional go to fish model, is that we can take stickleback that have evolved in different environments and we can relate the environments in which they evolved to their physiological and genetic variation,” said Emily Lescak, former doctoral student of Von Hippel’s, currently working as a post-doctoral fellow in Milligan-Myhre’s lab, “Basically we can understand what selection pressures in the environment cause a fish to evolve in certain ways, so we can understand what sort of ecological pressures there are on fish populations.”

Threespine stickleback fish from Rabbit Slough, near Wasilla, Alaska. The Rabbit Slough population is anadromous meaning they’re born in freshwater, then travel to oceanic environments for most of their life, and then return to freshwater to mate.

Incidentally there’s already evidence that the threespine stickleback Von Hippel introduced into Cheney Lake are already undergoing evolution from their anadromous (meaning the fish, like salmon, are born in freshwater, travel to the ocean, and then come back to the freshwater to mate) ancestral form, to freshwater forms. The threespine stickleback in Cheney Lake were introduced in 2009 after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game applied a Rotenone treatment in October, 2008, to the lake. Rotenone was used to eliminate northern pike that were introduced illegally. The Rotenone treatment wiped out all fish populations in the lake and allowed Fish and Game to restock Cheney Lake with rainbow trout, and Von Hippel to introduce threespine stickleback from a known population, Rabbit Slough. Milligan-Myhre’s lab has been collecting data on Cheney Lake and threespine stickleback from the lake monthly to assess the changes of the threespine stickleback population over time.

“We can follow evolution in real time. That’s exciting,” said Milligan-Myhre.

The lab is collaborating with a lab at Stony Brook University in New York to look at genetic differences as the population evolves. Milligan-Myhre’s lab hopes to also take a look at how as the population changes over time into their freshwater form the microbiota and threespine stickleback’s immune response to microbes also change.

Rachael Kramp an undergraduate student of Kat Milligan-Myhre’s lab, works with microbes from the guts of threespine stickleback from Cheney Lake in the anaerobic chamber of Milligan-Myhre’s lab at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

The tools these fish offer are nearly limitless from using them as a model for biomedical research, as they have similar physiology to humans, to studying evolution, these fish also make great models for studying ecotoxicology, as well as, host microbe interactions, just to touch on a few of their benefits. The threespine stickleback came to be a model organism in the 1900s with the work of Nobel Prize laureates, Niko Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, and Karl von Frisch, because of the ease to which they could be manipulated in the lab, now in 2017 the threespine stickleback shows no signs of slowing down as being the model organism of many scientist’s dreams. In 2018, hundreds of researchers will even gather together for the 9th International Conference on Stickleback Behavior and Evolution in Kyoto, Japan. These prickly little fish may not seem like much to the majority of people, but to many scientists they are the crux of their entire careers.

Written by Kelly Ireland. Kelly Ireland is an undergraduate student doing research in Kat Milligan-Myhre’s lab.

Adventures are us

Published on May 8, 2016May 9, 2016 by Kelly Ireland

By Ashleigh Roe

It’s been just over a day since I have landed on this island. Left to our own devices, Mother and I went for a walk along the beach. One of her associate trailblazers, dog entailed, joined us on the trail. The hunting began right away- the treasure has been easy to find so far. Unfortunately, the dog has also found his prey. Spitting and hissing, a sea otter backs into the rocks.

To our great chagrin, we were forced to evacuate the beach- too many intruders invading our turf. Alas, in one final effort to loot the waterfront we excavated what seems to be a radiator and piling post. A passing gent was kind enough to aid the transportation of our treasure onto the trail. The haul out was long and arduous, taking a toll on our muscular and respiratory systems. Finally, our journey had come to the end. Mother and I loaded the cargo into the back of the caravan with help from Sharon. At last we set forth to the homestead for a short refresher (and wash). From there we attempted to place an order at the local sandwich shop- they are grievously closed for a short season. Instead, we made the lengthy trip to town to dine in the local Greek eatery.

More to come. This is adventurer A.D.Roe signing out.

Sea glass on Upper Boyscout Beach. Photo by Ashleigh Roe. — Sea glass on Upper Boy Scout Beach. Photo by Ashleigh Roe.

Upper Boy Scout Beach. Photo by Ashleigh Roe.

Upper Boyscout Beach treasures. Photo by Ashleigh Roe. — Upper Boy Scout Beach treasures. Photo by Ashleigh Roe.

Vagabond ventures: Monika Fleming

Published on April 20, 2016April 29, 2016 by Kelly Ireland

Anchorage is the largest city UAA geology major Monika Fleming has ever lived in. She grew up in Chewelah, Washington where only 2,607 people reside in three square miles. Monika has climbed mountains rising, in feet, more than six times her hometown’s population. Additionally, she traveled out of the country on her own and worked in numerous national parks. Her journey through life hasn’t always been clear, but her love of the outdoors and for adventure has driven her to new and unexpected places.

Fleming grew up hiking and skiing with her family; yet it wasn’t until college that she fell in love with the outdoors. After suspension from BYU Idaho for smoking cigarettes, she started working at Yellowstone National Park in a fast food joint in Mammoth Hot Springs. There she developed a love of geology and began spending her days in the mountains around the park and, by the end of summer, was doing twenty-mile mountain summits. The free spirited culture of working in a national park took hold of Monika and gave her a “go get em” attitude for adventure.

When summer came to a close, Fleming went back to BYU Idaho for the fall trimester. Then, during winter trimester, she returned home and became a snowboard instructor at her hometown mountain, 49˚ North Resort. Another instructor and fellow BYU student, Drover, suggested Monika take a course called Spring Summit when she returned to school in the spring.

Upon spring enrollment, Monika joined Spring Summit – an 18 credit six-week outdoor management course. It was another chance for Monika to live her life to the fullest. The course included ropes courses, desert survival, backpacking, mountain biking, rafting and canyoneering. One of the most stand out experiences for Monika during the course was rafting a 46-mile portion of the Colorado River known as Cataract Canyon.

“Cataract Canyon, that’s the canyon, that has a series of 29 rapids that scarred me for life, but now I’m trying to be a raft guide because I want to not be scared. Water just freaks me out. It’s always freaked me out because it’s so powerful.”

Monika’s raft was flipped by a hole and everyone on the boat had to cling to the raft as they went through class 3 and 4 rapids before flipping it back over. Monika decided to spend the rest of the trip on the pontoon boat to avoid flipping. However, danger was not behind her.

Monika sat next to a 4 to 5-month pregnant classmate at the front of the pontoon raft. The girl wasn’t hanging on tight enough as they came over a huge rapid and was bucked off in an area called Devil’s Gut – where getting sucked in means death. Monika alone was attempting to retrieve her, screaming for help, when a guide cut the motor, pulled her in, started the motor again, and avoided imminent danger in about two seconds.

Despite the danger she and the rest of her classmates had faced Monika wasn’t willing to back down from conquering the outdoors. Following the class Monika traveled back to Yellowstone for the summer before returning to BYU Idaho for the fall semester. Her love of the outdoors shortly overcame her desire to finish school though.

“I decided that I basically had my associates degree minus four credits, but I just didn’t really want to be at BYU anymore. I had some friends from Yellowstone who were going to go work in Colorado for the winter so I just finished my semester and went down to Colorado and became a ski instructor.”

At the end of the ski season Monika decided to make her way to Glacier National Park. She worked as an employee dining room chef in Swift Current cooking meals for all her co-workers with almost no experience in a kitchen. The decision to go to Glacier was Monika’s first big leap of faith for the outdoors.

“This was the first thing I’d really done totally on my own. The school thing I did on my own, but that was with a school program. I just drove up to Montana and I was totally by myself. I’ve had friends and connections and stuff like that, but this was totally just kind of on my own.”

During her summer in Glacier National Park Monika did a lot of hikes and solo summits. She also met a guy named Samurai, who every year visits Nepal. Samurai invited Monika and two others (Shannon and Hayden) to Nepal to work in an orphanage with him at the end of the summer.

“I saved up money, I bought a plane ticket, saved up more money to live off of and then I flew to Nepal… We stayed in an orphanage for a month just on the border of India… That was like a really eye opening experience that was the pinnacle of this kind of wild crazy traveling kind of like freedom thing going on. That kind of grounded me. It put a lot of things in perspective, I’ll tell you that much. Nepal – they have nothing. They have tourism, they don’t manufacture anything, they make rice and millet and it’s sandwiched right between India and China and that’s how most of the world lives.”

Seeing poverty first hand Monika gained a greater appreciation for what she had and fueled her desire to experience more of the world. During Hayden, Shannon and Monika’s stay in Nepal they planned a trek in the Himalayas. Just one day into the trip Shannon and Hayden turned around, but Monika continued with their Nepali guide.

“We went to this place called Machapuchare base camp and it’s in the Annapurna region. That’s where most people go trekking if they go to Nepal because they have Everest base camp and Langtang National Park which is right north of Katmandu.”

Machapuchare Mountain, standing at 22,793 feet with two peaks has never once been summited. Since summiting is illegal, many climbers don’t want to climb any portions of Machapuchare. Monika is one of the few who has hiked parts of the mountain.

“There’s all this mysticism around it. No one’s summited it because there’s a god that lives up there, no one’s summited it because the mountain itself is a god, all this different stuff.”

While Monika didn’t summit the mountain she took a Feldspar heart shaped rock home with her as well as important life lessons.

“I actually broke on that trip because I was just out in the middle of the Himalayas with this guide. We were not near any tourists anymore. We were just in the Himalayas. There was people on the side of the mountain, like families, chopping wood and it was just really freaking real. The water wasn’t clean where I was at. They were boiling it, but it had chunks in it. It was really hard. It made me realize what a prissy – I mean how lucky we are.”

Spending time in Nepal brought things into perspective for Monika. Going first hand into the outdoors brought Monika back to her beginnings. In a journey with many detours she decided that pursuing geology was the path she needed to take.

“Maybe you could call it an existential crisis, but it was something, it was good. That’s what brought me here. I ended up here after that. I wanted to go back to college and I knew what I wanted to study. I wanted to go to Western Washington University, but my credits wouldn’t transfer there and I’ve always wanted to live in Alaska… I just kind of took a gamble coming here.”

Monika since Nepal, moved to Alaska in 2014 and has been attending UAA ever since as a geology major. This summer Monika plans to do some sort of guiding job, most likely rafting despite her previous experiences in Cataract Canyon. Until then Monika has been shredding the slopes of Alyeska and sneaking in outdoor recreation classes at UAA including a sea kayaking class this April.

White Rim bike trail in Canyonlands National Park. Monika biked 100 miles on the trail with her Spring Summit course. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming. — White Rim bike trail in Canyonlands National Park. Monika biked 100 miles on the trail with her Spring Summit course. Photo courtesy of Canyonlands National Park.

Monika's Spring Summit class in Little Wildhorse Canyon near Moab, Utah. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming. — Monika’s Spring Summit class in Little Wildhorse Canyon near Moab, Utah. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika canyoneering in Moab, Utah during her Spring Summit course from BYU Idaho. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Emily Panky Arapaho Basin Colorado — Monika and Emily Panky at Arapaho Basin in Colorado. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika and Liz Laderback doing some side country snowboarding at Steamboat Springs in Colorado. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika hiking in Zion National Park on a road trip with friends from Colorado. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming. — Monika hiking on Angel’s Landing Trail in Zion National Park on a road trip with friends from Colorado. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika and Natalie Chaddock in Zion National Park. Photo courtesy of National Park.

Monika on Ridgewalk Trail on Mount Allen in Glacier National Park. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika in Many Glacier Valley in Glacier National Park. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Hope Berntsen, Shannon Giles and Monika on the Pitamakan Pass to Dawson Pass trail in Glacier National Park. The trail is a 20 mile loop. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Grand Tetons camping on shadow mountain with jackson lake lodge employees — Monika camping on Shadow Mountain in Grand Tetons with Jackson Lake Lodge employees. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika Fleming at Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika at Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika in Nepal. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Samurai in Nepal. Samurai inspired Monika and two others from Glacier National Park, Shannon and Hayden, to come to Nepal with him after the summer was over working at Glacier. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Samurai and some of the kids he works with in Nepal. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika in Nepal with Jaminah, one of the orphaned children that Monika spent time with in Nepal. Here they are walking to the new school that the group Monika was in Nepal with raised money to pay for the kids to go to. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

High Camp in the Annapurna Region of Nepal. Machupuchara sits in the distance. Monika trekked with a Nepali guide all the way from the village of Nayapul then made her way to High Camp and then to Machupuchara. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming. — High Camp in the Annapurna Region of Nepal. Machupuchare sits in the distance. Monika trekked with a Nepali guide all the way from the village of Nayapul then made her way to High Camp and then to Machupuchare. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Katie Wasko and Monika fishing on the Kenai River in Alaska. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika fishing on the Kenai River on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Monika hiking up the North Face trail at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Monika Fleming.

Solitude seeker: Molly Liston

Published on April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 by Kelly Ireland

Molly Liston grew up in Homer, Alaska, where the forest came down into her backyard, and Roseburg, Oregon, where the Pacific Crest Trail meandered only about two hours from her home. She spent hours playing and hiding out in the woods and fell in love with the outdoors.

“My parents just would say ‘Go outside and play!’”

Her parents also inoculated in her the skills to get outside by taking Molly and her siblings skiing as early as three-years-old. For Molly, the outdoors is not just a hobby. She pursued a physical education degree with an outdoor adventure emphasis at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. In school, she began working with the current health, physical education and recreation director and associate professor, TJ Miller, running an outdoor program for student living on campus.

Molly now works at Pacific Northern Academy, an independent and non-sectarian private school in Anchorage, as the physical education teacher. It is Molly’s first steady job, but her desire for adventure cannot be tamed. In the summers she guides for Ascending Path or Chugach Adventures based out of Girdwood, Alaska. Molly also helps teach a few outdoor classes at UAA, including a beginning canoeing class that will be offered this summer. In her teaching Molly teaches her students that they can do anything.

“One of my major goals while teaching is to really empower students (both male and female) to try their best no matter where they begin physically or athletically… I encourage them to practice the things that they want to get better at and remind them that to be good at something it requires practice and repetition.”

Molly tries to be an inspiration to her students. She wants no one to ever feel as if they can’t do something for any reason.

“Another thing that I try to do is to simply be a positive role model. Most Physical Education teachers are the stereotypical athletic male and by being a strong athletic and female leader I hope to encourage those female students to break barriers in their own lives. It’s a very exciting and gratifying position to be in!”

Molly also works with college aged students at UAA. Molly’s experience landed her the job as an assistant professor for a 26-day expedition in the Brooks Range with UAA’s outdoor leadership program in 2014. The trip included hiking over 100 miles into the Brooks Range and rafting back out. There were nine students in the class, two were female.

Molly was the only female instructor so was left in a tent by herself, whereas everyone else had a tent mate, including the two other instructors who tented together.

“Yes, I felt very free because you are, you are really smelly and you just want your alone time so that was really nice, but I had to tear down my tent and set it up by myself every single day and cook all my own food. They all got to switch back and forth, so that was a little bit challenging.”

Molly is no stranger to working alone though. In 2012 she hiked the Oregon portion of the Pacific Crest Trail by herself. The journey started out as a trip between her brother Matt and her, but a week into the trip Matt couldn’t go any further due to injury. Molly, a capable outdoorswoman who is self reliant, wouldn’t let the idea of going alone stop her. She hiked about a month and over 500 miles by herself.

Molly and Matt had planned for such an occurrence knowing that he always gets hurt. He was nervous, but excited for Molly to continue. The two knew that she could make phone calls on her cell periodically when she had service and were confident in Molly’s abilities in the woods.

“We knew that it was going to be interesting, I mean, it’s tough, these things are still nerve wracking, but I’m not the first person to do that. There’s other women who hiked the whole thing by themselves.”

Despite the obvious dangers of being in the woods by yourself and of being a woman alone in the woods Molly found herself struggling with something much different than fears related to those dangers. Molly’s experience on the Pacific Crest Trail was a time of solitude and self reflection.

“You know it was really tough because there’s no route finding. When you have to route find you’re always thinking, you’re always like ‘okay I’m here,’ you’re looking at where you are on the map, but when you’re on the Pacific Crest Trail and you literally don’t have anything to think about other than yourself. It was very challenging – physically and mentally. I was really proud of myself. There was a lot of times I wanted to stop because of blisters or I don’t know maybe even being a little bit bored with myself because I’m such a social person. It was definitely very mentally challenging.”

While Molly battled with the isolation of the trail she finds the alone time to be one of the best parts of being outdoors.

“I just love how quiet it is when I’m by myself and just the freedom to be quiet by yourself, but then in the other aspect I love sharing the experiences with people.”

Matt and Molly starting their journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

Molly's brother Matt takes a quick break on the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston. — Molly’s brother Matt takes a quick break on the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

One of the last camps that Molly and Matt set up together in the first portion of Molly's journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. This camp was made on their seventh night of the trip near Red Lake Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston. — This camp was made on Molly and Matt’s seventh night of the trip near Red Lake Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

Molly Liston sits above Crater Lake on the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

Molly and Scout, Molly wears Chacos to help alleviate blisters while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston. — Molly and Scout, Molly wears Chacos to help alleviate blisters while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

Molly and Scout overlook the Sky Lakes Wilderness on the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

Molly and Matt celebrate their completion of Oregon portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston. — Molly and Matt celebrate Molly’s completion of the Oregon portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. Photo courtesy of Molly Liston.

Liston looks out towards Spencer Glacier. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Fireweed above Spencer Glacier. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly climbs through the grasses on the Spencer Bench Hike. Photo by Kevan Dee. — Molly climbs through the grasses on the Spencer Bench Trail. The trail takes hikers to the Spencer Bench Cabin on a 3 mile trail that climbs 1,800 feet. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Wandering through the woods of Spencer Bench Trail. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly and Tallie above Spencer Glacier. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly and Tallie explore Spencer Glacier. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly and Tallie kayaking on Spencer Lake. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly fishing on the BLANK river. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly backpacking on the South Fork Trail in Eagle River, Alaska. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly above Winner Creek Gorge in Girdwood, Alaska in the handtram. Photo by Kevan Dee. — Molly in the handtram on the Grewink Glacier Trail across the bay from Homer, Alaska. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Molly with her fish on BLANK RIVER. Photo by Kevan Dee. — Molly with her fish on the Talkeetna River near Decision Creek. Photo by Kevan Dee.

Alaska outdoor culture: Fostering women in the outdoors

Published on April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 by Kelly Ireland1 Comment

Alaska boasted as the largest state in the union, with the largest mountain in North America and the greatest abundance of wildlife is truly a wild place. The inherent nature of Alaska inspires people to get outside. One look at Denali and it’s plain to see that getting outside is one of the best parts about visiting or living in Alaska. Alaska is an incredibly unique place that invites those who live here to go play outside.

With so much to offer in ways of outdoor activities there is a definite outdoor culture in the state of Alaska. Women who are often underrepresented in outdoor spheres are active members of the outdoor community in Alaska. No one is pushed away from being an adventurer in Alaska, where adventure still runs rampant and solitude can actually be found.

Monika Fleming, a University of Alaska Anchorage student originally from Chewelah, Washington came to Alaska after a slew of adventures that took her all the way to Nepal. Fleming found her home in the last frontier where there is a strong community of outdoorsy people.

“Pretty much every Alaskan I’ve met has done some stuff, like every single one of them, and some crazy stuff too. Even if they don’t do it all the time, the stuff they have done has been really kind of advanced,” said Fleming of Alaska’s outdoor culture. “I’m just like ‘Oh!’ …In the classes I’ve taken there’s this one girl Courtney, she’s the head of the sororities or something like that. She’s really hardy and outdoorsy, but she just looks like you know, just Alaskans always surprise you.”

However, Alaskans who’ve been here their whole lives don’t feel like they are doing anything out of the ordinary. Lifetime Alaskan Kendyl Murakami, who currently studies biology at UAA, is inspired by how there’s so much to do. Despite the cold she feels like it’s impossible to stay indoors living in Alaska.

“I feel like most of us when we grow up in Alaska we grow up with all this expertise surviving outside so I don’t feel like we [women] have any crazy limitations. We all know how to make a fire. We could chop down some wood or cut it in half or whatever, so there’s not a lot of restraints,” Murakami said of Alaskan women.

Not only is Alaska accepting of women getting outside it actually provides a community for it.

“If women, or men, doesn’t matter, if they really want to do something in the outdoors I think Alaska has a phenomenal community to foster that,” said Molly Liston a P.E. teacher at Pacific Northern Academy, a private non-sectarian school in Anchorage.

Pacific Northern Academy is just another example of Alaskan’s self reliant and adventurous way of life. The school’s mission is to “educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity.” Students at PNA are encouraged to play and be creative in their learning.

This self reliant attitude about education doesn’t end in the elementary and middle school of Pacific Northern Academy though. At UAA, an outdoor leadership program is offered to students via the health, physical education and recreation program. T.J. Miller the director of the program was Liston’s mentor when she went to college. Miller has lived in both Alaska and Colorado, working as a guide or outdoor instructor for the entirety of his life.

“You know I think up here, gosh, I see more mountain guides on Denali that are women than I saw in Colorado. I guess I would have to say it seems that Alaska has incorporated and embraced women a little more than other areas and I’m kind of comparing Alaska to Colorado, those are my two main states. And again maybe it’s social media, but I have seen more women in the industry doing well and excelling up here than other places.”

Regardless of what it is that makes Alaska such an outdoorsy place, one thing is for sure, there is no end to the possibilities of what one can explore. Undoubtedly there are thousands maybe even millions of untouched acres in the state just waiting to be explored and maybe a woman will be the next to conquer some astounding untouched outdoor feat in Alaska.

Cliff hanger: Kendyl Murakami

Published on February 25, 2016April 21, 2016 by Kelly Ireland

Starting at a young age Kendyl Murakami has been immersed in the outdoors. Kendyl has ten siblings and her mother fostered in her children a love of the outdoors taking them camping as a cheap alternative to other activities.

“Ten siblings is a lot to do like cell phones and all that stuff… We did everything outside.”

Kendyl to this day spends a lot of her free time outside. She enjoys camping, going to lakes, snowshoeing, skiing, hiking, kayaking and rock climbing.

“There’s so much to do in Alaska!”

Kendyl in recent years has been an avid rock climber and climbing is now her sport of choice. Kendyl first become interested in rock climbing after her older sister Julia took a rock climbing course at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Julia took Kendyl out and ever since they have shared a passion for the sport and partner climb with one another frequently.

“We went rock climbing in Spain, free climbing without ropes. That’s like what roped me down to rock climbing because that was so crazy! We went to this place in Spain that’s like the biggest free climb that you can do because it overhangs water. So it was kind of crazy like just falling because you get so high and you fall that far, but it wasn’t life or death scary, but you felt like you were dying.”

Kendyl travels frequently with her sister Julia. Traveling and rock climbing are Kendyl’s biggest motivators to work. Kendyl spent a year working for Village Inn and Suite 100 just to save money up for her trip to Europe which included her visit to Spain where she rock climbed with her sister Julia. After Europe Kendyl returned to work at Village Inn to save money for a trip to Hawai’i in February. That was then followed by a stint at ORSO’s to save for a visit to Myrtle Beach this last March. Kendyl now works as CNA. Julia always told Kendyl that travel is important and the two go as often as they can afford.

Kendyl and Julia in addition to their trip to Spain have done trips to Washington to chase routes.

“We’ve done other bouldering stuff in the Washington area where you bring your own pads, you hike in. Then you climb up however far you want or however far you’re comfortable falling. You either land on your pads. You only go ten or so feet up, fifteen feet if you’re really comfortable.”

There was also some more classic rock climbing the two did on the trip.

“When we were in Washington, there’s a thing they call tread climbing. It was already carabineered, clipped, routed so we just did that, but it was a double par. So that means you anchor in like 25 feet up so you climb like 10 or 15 feet and then you anchor into the wall and then you continue climbing. It’s like two pitch. It’s really scary because when you’re trying to anchor in you’re not actually tied to anything. That was probably the most coolest part we rock climbed.”

The two also spent time backpacking through California. They used the Rideshare service to get around and met numerous strangers along the way that quickly became friends. While in Sacramento they met two guys named Damien and Abel using Rideshare and ended up hiking Donner Summit to the Peter Grubb Hut which sits just of the Pacific Crest Trail near Sacramento with them.

Despite her vagabond lifestyle and the numerous places Kendyl has traveled there’s many places she’s yet to visit. And much, much more routes she would still like to climb.

“Yosemite is the king of all rock climbing. It’s crazy. They have so many pitches and it’s hundreds of feet up in the air. I’ll definitely go there one time.”

While Yosemite is her dream climbing destination, Kendyl is currently working as a CNA to save up for next trip. It won’t be long, however, before Kendyl travels to the mecca of rock climbing to finally conquer the great walls where women rock climbing legends before her laid the foundation for women in the sport of rock climbing. Kendyl may not be setting new paths, but she is conquering all the paths she has taken.