NORTHERN LIGHTS AND SHADOWS: Sixteen Years in the Alaska Bush
Life in the Alaska bush is changing rapidly. Many bush dwellers can now communicate using cell phones, a growing population rambles hell-bent across wilderness while seeking new forms of recreation, and the numbers of Alaskans who live subsistence lifestyles are dwindling.Wilderness, assaulted from all sides, must be protected to ensure that wildlife has room to roam and procreate, thereby providing healthy populations for consumptive and non-consumptive uses.Having subsisted on Alaska’s bounty, I owe a huge debt to wilderness and to the birds and animals that depend on wilderness for their survival. By writing a book that describes many of our experiences in the Alaska bush, I have recorded a way of life that will eventually disappear.We must be wise stewards of our natural resources or they will disappear, causing future generations to wonder why we didn’t act before it was too late.