ALASKA-NEWS-RELEASE: The Fourth Annual Yakutat Tern Festival

["Lagodich, Carol J -FS" <cjlagodich@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Fourth Annual Yakutat Tern Festival

 

YAKUTAT, Alaska–The Fourth Annual Yakutat Tern Festival is June 5 to 8, 2014. The festival is a celebration of the natural and cultural resources of Yakutat, Alaska. Yakutat hosts one of the largest and southernmost known nesting colonies of Aleutian Terns, as well as Arctic Terns and up to 200 other bird species that nest in, or migrate through the area. The festival is family friendly and offers activities for birders as well as non-birders, including field trips, seminars, kid’s activities, evening banquets, bird banding demonstration, an art exhibit and other programs.

This year's keynote speaker is Heather Renner, wildlife biologist with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The featured artist is filmmaker, writer, photographer, and co-founder of the Lexicon of Sustainability Project (www.lexiconofsustainability.com) Douglas Gayeton. Alaska-based linocut artist Evon Zerbetz will also be conducting youth and adult workshops and displaying her art. Other area activities include sightseeing, hiking, fishing, surfing, canoeing, kayaking, and beach-combing.

 

In conjunction with the festival, celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act by viewing a wilderness film. The Meaning of Wild is showing at the high school at 4 p.m. on Friday, after 11:46 a.m. on Saturday, and 1:15 pm on Sunday. The short film, developed by the Sitka Conservation Society, illustrates the beauty and diversity of Tongass National Forest Wilderness Areas.

 

Two Russell Fiord Wilderness field trips are planned.

·       Harlequine Lake Field trip (Sunday, June 8, 2014).
This four-hour trip will leave the Yakutat High School in vans and drive 30 miles on Forest Highway 10 to the Dangerous River Bridge. The Harlequin Lake trail begins just on the other side of the bridge and is a short three-fourths of a mile hike to the lake and into the Russell Fiord Wilderness. The scenery alone makes this trip a must see: Harlequin Lake is the headwaters of the Dangerous River. Massive icebergs, calved from Yakutat Glacier, can be seen floating from shore. Yakutat Glacier is visible across the lake. Mew Gulls sometimes make their nests on the ice. Possible bird observations include Cliff Swallows nesting under the bridge, Artic Terns diving for fish, molting Canada Geese, and Red-necked Phaloropes. 

·       The Russell Fiord Field Trip on Saturday, June 7, 2014 is focused on youth.
This four-hour trip will leave the Yakutat High School in vans and drive 14 miles along Forest Highway 10 to the East Gate Road to the Russell Fiord Trailhead. This trail is three-fourths of a mile trail ending at the southern end of Russell Fiord. The trail is classified as moderate difficulty, with several short moderately steep rises, sections of very uneven surface, and can be wet and muddy, especially after recent rainfall. The scenery is gorgeous, starting with dense blueberry and salmonberry bushes, leading to old growth spruce forest and ending with a ring of gray trees caused when the Hubbard Glacier closed off the Fiord and caused the salt water to raise which in turn got to the roots of the trees and killed them. Birds observed from the shore may include murrelets, loons, white-winged scoters, pigeon guillemots, Aleutian and Artic Terns, gulls, phalaropes, and jaegers. Marine mammals such as seals and harbor porpoises are also occasionally observed here.

Please see www.yakutatternfestival.org, visit us on Facebook, or call the Yakutat Ranger District at 907-784-3359 for a complete schedule and more information. 

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