Alaska Answers

Q. Alex wants to know, What is Alaska’s biggest resource?

A. Perhaps I should look this up, but I really think I know. It would be oil as first, probably, and then military spending, tourism and fishing. Not sure in which order those would be, but they are all big.

It was 1968 when the biggest oilfield in North America was discovered in Prudhoe Bay. The oil was found on state land, so that meant that overnight the state was very wealthy, and remains so to this day; although it’s unlikely that such a large strike will ever be found again. I said unlikely. Not impossible. Discovering oil meant the building of a 9 billion dollar pipeline, and that provided the means to affluent living for thousands of people.

Our military population figures largely in boosting our economy, even with the downsizing of some bases. Quite a few military families, upon completing their military service, opt to stay and live in the state, getting jobs in the private sector and continuing to input the economy.

In the summer, we host over a million and a half tourists. Many private citizens, as well as businesses, profit greatly from this influx of visitors. I have two friends with bed and breakfaats in their homes and they make enough in the summer to totally pay their mortgages for the year round. And one of them even added a nice motor home in which they tour the lower 48 in the winter.

Our bountiful waters produce over 6 billion pounds of seafood yearly, so that is a big thing. Especially after the studies showing the superiority of wild Alaska salmon over farmed salmon, our salmon sales, already great, really leaped upward.

Hope this helps, Alex. Take care, Bonnie J.

Q. I’ve heard that you sometimes see wildlife, even in the city. up there. Is this true? Thanks, Maureen.

A. Oh, yes, we certainly do. That’s because each of our cities sit basically on the edge of the wilderness. We have less population than other states, and so our cities are farther apart, and not strung together with a bunch of suburbs. Drive outside town a couple miles here, and you are in wild country. So, in the winter, for instance, you can’t blame a moose for coming in out of the back country, and walking where the going is easier.

You will sometimes see a big moose walking a downtown street; looking a bit bewildered of course. Usually, wild animals find their own way back to where they belong, but sometimes they have to be helped. Many an Anchorage-ite has found a curious black bear rattling around their garbage cans, or their dog food bowl, on the edge of the city. Sometimes one even makes it to the commercial district! Usually with a bear, the Department of Fish and Wildlife sedates them, and moves them back to the wild.

We have had our share of wildlife right in our yard…moose eating our new crab apple trees; a moose and her ‘teenager’ peering in our dining room window; moose licking the salt off the sides of our car back when they used a salty mixture to sand the roads. Believe me, nothing makes a car look sillier than moose slobbers all along its sides!

We live in a neighborhood, in the town of Wasilla, but right on the banks of a nice creek. There are fresh water otters living somewhere in the creek banks because one evening in the fall we saw one pull a spawning salmon from the water and stand on the bank enjoying his supper! Another time, in the winter, I happened to glance out the window and saw movement up by the culvert that passes under our road and here came 4 otters, having fun on the ice of the creek. I watched them traverse the whole length of the creek, sliding on the ice like happy children. They would run a few feet, then flop onto their bellies, legs spread out and would sliide as far as they could. Then they would scramble to their feet and run a few feet and flop down and slide again. It was hilarious and I loved watching them disappear out of sight downstream.

More recent, in fact yesterday, there was a big bald eagle roosting in a cottonwood tree above the creek, intently looking down. I thought to myself, I bet he is fishing! So I watched. Suddenly he dived to the creek and came up with a wiggling trout. He sat on the tree limb and energetically tore the poor trout apart, and hungrily ate it down. You couldn’t wish for a more up close and personal example of the old food chain. Then, almost daintily, he turned and cleaned his beak off on the tree trunk, swiping first one side of the beak and then the other against the rough wood.

So, yes, we do indeed live alongside the wild up here! (and then of course there is Uncle Joe, but that’s a story for another day!)-BJ

Q. Why are mosquitoes so big in Alaska? -Linda

A. Well, they have to be big to be known as the state bird! Not really, the willow ptarmigan is our state bird. Some people claim our mosquitoes are twin engined, but I’ve not seen one with twin engines.

The bad news is that we have between 25 and 40 species of the little devils. Both male and female feed on plant sugars, but only the females feed on blood. They need it to produce eggs, to hatch out and devil us all over again!

The good news is that there are no diseases carried by mosquitoes up here. We have never recorded a single case of west Nile virus, for instance. So although you might lose a little blood in our fair State, you will never be ill, or lose your life from them.

Believe it or not, they do serve a purpose. They are part of the necessary food chain. Baby salmon depend on them for food, as do birds and other larger insects, but I can’t help wishing they didn’t have those stingers!

Dragonflies are a natural solution to them. Sometimes we buy dragonfly egg cases from a catalog, in the spring, placing them in tubs of water til they hatch. Those years are darned near mosquito free. One dragonfly can eat a couple thousand mosquitoes an hour! Or was it a day? Well, whatever, they love those mosquitoes!

One year will differ greatly from another in mosquitoe woes. Some year we hardly have any and other years they are a menace. Best thing to do is carry a long sleeved shirt, and a can of repellent, and go ahead and have fun. Life’s wonders are always balanced out by its woes, but it is still a good world I think. Hope this helps. -Bonnie

Q. I’m a preschool teacher in West Des Moines, Ia. We are going to do a theme about Alaska this coming winter. We would like some ideas on special snacks children eat which are just known in Alaska. Also, any science experiments known to Alaskan children. I work with 3 yr olds. Thank you. -Heather

A. I am so sorry, Heather, that I let a big space happen between the start of this web site and my current resumption. I should be on top of things from now on. When you say ‘this coming winter’ I am not sure if you mean the winter of 05-06 or the one now coming up – 06/07.

The two foods which come to mind immediately are: Squaw Candy and Eskimo Ice Cream. Squaw Candy is smoked dried strips of salmon fillet; sometimes also called salmon candy, salmon jerky or dry fish. It is really tasty.

Eskimo Ice Cream is a mixture of berries beaten up with seal oil and fresh snow. Sometimes shortening, sugar, and raisins are added. Recipes vary a bit from region to region.

How many kids do you have in class? If it is not too late for your Alaska study, I would be happy to send you a small sample for each of Squaw Candy. I would need a mailing address. I think it would be too hard to send you Eskimo Ice Cream! If it is not too late for your Alaska study, let me know at bonnie@alaskaanswers.com and I’ll see what I can do for you. Thanks for writing. -BJ

Q. How is the hunting and the fishing? -Dose

A. Hi Dose! Well, what is one degree up from wonderful? That is how it is. Although I did hear one horror story this summer.

My pastor took a month off to guide some hunts and the outfitter he worked for, who shall be nameless (actually I don’t even know his name) – anyway, he had the bush pilot set them down in this area, where they never should have been, and left them. He would fly back in and pick them up when the hunt was over. Well, first of all, he set them down in an area that was having smoke from some wild fires. They weren’t in any personal danger there, but animals don’t like smoky areas, and quickly flee. So there were practically no animals. Did get a bear I think. Then, the weather turned ugly, and the plane couldn’t return until about a week late and they were virtually out of food!

On a brighter note though, most hunts go well. You just need to use a reputable, guide and outfitter and they can put you right where the animals are. Most hunts are successful.

The fishing is good. You will be jealous to know we live right on a trout stream. The salmon also come up to spawn each fall and that is fun to watch. In fact, I can easily see Cottonwood Creek right from where I am sitting since it bisects our two acres, and flows very close to my kitchen door. Incredibly, though, we are not ‘fishermen’ really. We do fish at times, but we’d rather watch them, but if someone else catches them, I’m happy to cook them up! I have some wonderful recipes. The best fishing trip (in quantity) was when we were first up here. We decided to go ice fishing. Went to Strelna Lake out by Chitina. We used an ice auger to make a hole in the ice. Put our lines down and immediately began catching fish. We got to laughing and wondering if they would bite on marshmallows we had with us? They did. Then we took it further and wondered if they would bite on bare hooks? They did! We caught 38 nice trout in 45 minutes! Returned home so triumphantly and began bragging to a neighbor, who was familiar with the ‘rules’. Turned out we were only allowed 15 a day! Oops! Well, we couldn’t put them back, could we? So we did the only sensible thing – had one whale of a fish fry!

Just be sure you pick up a book of regulations and you’ll have a wonderful time.

Q. I have been in the fishing charter all my life. I hold a USCG captain’s license. Would there be jobs for me in the fishing industry? -Kelly

A. Of course you could, Kelly. After all, Alaska has more coastline than any other state; therefore, more water related businesses. A good place to look is on the state jobs website and just click on the seafood industry part. Go to www.jobs.state.ak.us It should take you right to where you want to go. I was talking to someone in the department of Fish and Wildlife and he said that fishing in general has declined a bit due to the influx of farm raised fish into the world markets; as well as the U. S. in general not eating as much fish, but it is still big business.

Since you want to get into the fishing industry, I’m guessing you like to eat fish. I know the most wonderful recipe for halibut. Believe it or not, it came with our electric bill from Matanuska Electric Assoc. It has a rather unappetizing name I think (Sour Jack Halibut) but it is world class in flavor and appearance. So simple too. Just lay some slices of halibut on a baking pan (mine were about 3/4″- 1″ thick). Cover them with a nice thick layer of sour cream, then a good layer of sliced Vidalia or Walla Walla sweet onions, then a thick layer of shredded pepper jack cheese. Bake uncovered for about 20-30 min. (depending on thickness of the halibut).

I’m wondering, Kelly, with your license, maybe you would want to think about getting into the tourism business. That is big in this state and is a lot of fun as you meet people from all over the world. You should be able to find links to the tourism industry on the state website also. Good luck!

Q. What are some foods popular in, & possibly particular to Alaska? -Carol

A. Well, now, this is a fun one. Where do I begin? I think in the fine restaurants you will find featured: halibut, salmon, king crab, most any sea food. Since wild game can’t be sold commercially, you won’t find that when eating out (other than maybe reindeer sausage) but if you want a neat experience, wangle an invite to a common home and you might find moose, caribou, and bear on the menu.

Alaska doesn’t have much in the way of fruit trees – although a couple varieties of smaller sized apple grow here, but wild berries are very plentiful. We have picked currants, blueberries, salmon berries, watermelon berries, lowbush and high bush cranberries, and moss berries to name a few. There is nothing so beautiful as a home canned jar of wild currant syrup. Unless it is a stack of sourdough hotcakes to go with it.

A lot of rural kitchens have a pot of sourdough starter waiting for it’s call into ‘action’. Some starters go back a century supposedly. Bread, muffins and hotcakes are made from it. The old gold miners got the nickname of ’sourdoughs’ because they used so much of it. It is said that they even took the pot to bed with them on really cold nights to keep it from freezing. Some of those sub zero nights were referred to as ‘one dog nights’ or ‘two dog nights’ depending on how many dogs you had to have in bed with you to keep the sourdough pot and yourself warm!

When our boys were young and running a trapline out in Copper River country, we ate all kinds of things. We tried to fully use whatever they found in their traps – so our dinner table sometimes featured strange meats such as porcupine, or lynx! One thing for sure it would be very hard to starve to death in Alaska.

Most of the bed and breakfasts in Alaska try to feature uniquely Alaskan goodies.