Is Your Trip APLIC-able?

Have you ever wanted to...
Go birding, see Denali, visit the Fairbanks Recreation Areas, catch a fish, drive the Alaska highways, hunt wild game, try mineral collecting, visit the National Parks, Preserves, & Wildlife Refuges, stay in a Public Use Cabin, float a river, plot a route on a trail map, purchase USGS Maps, watch wildlife, & more?
The Fairbanks Alaska Public Lands Information Center (FAPLIC) is an integral component of the community of Fairbanks which supports the appropriate use and enjoyment of Alaska's public lands and resources through "one-stop shopping" for public lands information, trip-planning assistance, and resource education. The interagency partnership embodied as FAPLIC encourages visitors and residents to seek meaningful, safe and enjoyable experiences on public lands and inspires to conserve and sustain the natural, cultural and historic resources of Alaska. The APLICs were established by an act of Congress in Section 1305 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980.


FAPLIC has all the information you're looking for to go on your next adventure. Stop in the Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center to plan your trip, watch a movie, and see our expansive interpretive exhibits on Alaska.
Click on the links to the right to start planning your Alaskan adventures!


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Winter is HERE!

Two of us here at FAPLIC decided to round up the gang and head up to Chena Hot Springs to do the experts-only Far Mountain Traverse as a dayhike (!!!), as described in Kyle Joly's Outside in the Interior, with a soak at the hot springs to ease the muscles upon return to the car. It's a 26 mile loop that has over 14,500 feet of elevation change, which is like walking up to High Camp on Denali from Wonder Lake! The book says if you're looking for something more adventurous than this trip (as a multiday route), you need help. To do it in a day sounds like my kind of adventure!
The weather was supposed to be pretty nice on Sunday (9/26/2010), with a few clouds and diminished winds from the week before and no precip until later in the week. Too bad that forecast didn't hold out...
We ended up dropping down to the Monument Creek Trail from the low, rocky ridge, after summitting Far Mountain, due to the treacherous weather and our inability to stay comfortably warm in the unexpected conditions. Still a pretty good day hike at 22 miles in a winter storm!







































Monday, September 6, 2010

2300 miles in one state

My mom had never seen Alaska, so in six days, I drove her 2300 miles around the state. Spanning from Toolik Lake on the Dalton Highway to Valdez and Whittier on Prince William Sound, and from Eielson Visitors Center on the Denali Park Road to the Root Glacier Trail outside of Kennecott in Wrangell-St Elias National Park, including a crossing of the Denali Highway in the late evening light, she definitely saw Alaska and captured a better idea of what life is like in our great state after driving almost half of the Alaska Department of Transportation's 5600 miles of maintained roads!

Go get an oil change and hit the road!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

One berry, two berry, red berry, BLUEBERRY!

Get your buckets—blueberries are out in full force! In many places, there's more blue on the bushes than green, and the berries are bigger and jucier than ever. A couple of us had the chance to check out our favorite picking spot over the weekend, and were amazed to find that the berries were not only ripe earlier than normal, but were more abundant than we have ever seen—we picked more than 30 cups in two hours!

We filled our tupperwares with the most common type of blueberry in Interior Alaska, the bog blueberry. These berries come from a hardy shrub that can survive throughout the circumpolar north in a variety of soil conditions and temperatures, from alpine tundra to low elevation bogs and open woods. Look for low-growing bushes with small leaves that are green on top and paler underneath—and of course, when the season is right, you'll see clusters of bright blue that hug the branches.

Blueberries are a staple for Interior Alaska people and animals, and the tiny fruits, along with other foods like walnuts, may carry surprising health benefits. A recent UAF study suggested that blueberries help fight inflammation in the central nervous system—a condition associated with diseases like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's. The berries are also packed with antioxidants and provide vitamins A, B, and C.

So get the canning jars, pie crusts, and pancake batter ready! Blueberries can be found throughout the Fairbanks area now, especially in open tundra and cleared spaces. If you're looking for a nice picking area, or just a place to hike, bike, or relax away from town, APLIC staffers are happy to point you in the right direction. But don't expect to hear our secret spots!
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Interior Alaska Top 10 Spring To Do's:

1. Get your bike tuned-up to ride to work 2. Build and put up a birdhouse 3. Be the first to float the Delta-Clearwater 4. Listen to all the bird songs of spring 5. Go for a hike and get a glimpse of Denali 6. Plug in your freezer 7. Participate in the Spring Bird Count 8. Go fishing for grayling 9. Witness hundreds of cranes fly in to Creamer's Field 10. Search for the first flowers of spring

Alaska Top 10 To Do's

1. See the Aurora Borealis dance in the sky
2. Travel north of 66ยบ 33', beyond the Arctic Circle
3. Pan for gold in a wild Alaskan stream
4. Float part of the Yukon River, the longest in Alaska
5. Set foot on one of Alaska's many glaciers
6. Take a photo of Denali, the "Roof of North America"
7. See the 800 mile long trans-Alaska pipeline
8. Catch some rays under the midnight sun
9. Mush a dog team through the Alaskan wilds
10. Catch a salmon on its annual upstream migration

What the Bear Dug Up: October

What the Bear Dug Up: October
Tanana Valley State Forest

The Tanana Valley State Forest's (TVSF) 1.81 million acres lie almost entirely within the Tanana River Basin, located in the east-central part of Alaska. The Forest extends 265 miles, from near the Canadian border to Manley Hot Springs. It varies in elevation from 275 feet along the Tanana River to over 5,000 feet in the Alaska Range. The Tanana River flows for 200 miles through the Forest. Almost 90 percent of the State Forest (1.59 million acres) is forested, mostly with paper birch, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, black spruce, white spruce, and tamarack. About half of the Tanana Basin's productive forest land (1.1 million acres) is located within the State Forest. About 85 percent of the forest is within 20 miles of a state highway.
The Forest is open to mining, gravel extraction, oil and gas leasing, and grazing, although very little is done. Timber production is the major commercial activity. The Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest, a 12,400-acre area dedicated to forestry research, is also located within the TVSF.
The TVSF offers many recreational opportunities including hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, hiking, dog mushing, cross-country skiing, wildlife viewing, snow machining, gold panning, boating, and berry-picking.

Above photo: The Tanana Valley State Forest, overlooking the Middle Tanana Valley in summer.

Click for Fairbanks, Alaska Forecast
Click for Fairbanks, Alaska Forecast

Did You Know?

When the land of all the National Parks, Preserves, and Monuments in Alaska are combined, they total over 46 million acres and encompass more than 55% of all the land in the National Park Service.