Back in Mali. End of dry season and all is hot. Stayed in same hotel with a/c that didn’t work well. Stayed in Bamako 2 nights, then up country for an all day drive after which our butts were very relieved to be over. Country looks more like desert with this being dry season end.

Mangoes are in season, and hard to stop eating them. Ripe right off the tree.

Due to funeral, we just greeted de la peche people. Director Konteh won the language battle with his 2 sentence winner “How are you. I am fine. Bara and I put rods together and practiced casting in the Niger. Very low water and lots of trash and feces along river bank. Sara and Aimee went to Bara’s home for a cooking lesson with his wife and daughters. Went to Peace Corps Babas in afternoon and ordered two suits. Long nap in afternoon. 100 degrees and even with a/c still sweating in bed.

Hooter hunting ends tomorrow, and king salmon are just starting to show up. I caught one with Kurt last night near the road-side rocks that people fish from last evening. We were off the rocks a ways in the boat. The king hit hard, and then jumped 10 times or so – cartwheeling 3 feet in the air. The fishermen on the rocks sighed “ooohh” everytime the fish jumped. And we thought he’d throw the hook with every jump. We finally got him to the boat and there’s no feeling like that first king of the year. I told Kurt I always feel like it’s the last one I’ll get on and maybe never get another one. Most years I catch just a few sport fishing.

This morning I arrived a couple hours before low tide, and Jeff and Kurt (in their boat) were just netting their first king of the year. I put my two lines out. One deep with an 8 oz sinker and one near the surface with a 3 oz. I’ve been using whole herring on a trolling hook with bead chain, and getting a nice troll roll. As I was checking the deep line, the shallow line took off, and I couldn’t believe I had another one on. This one didn’t take near the time the one did last evening, and was bigger. As I told Kurt, I think I take more care getting the fish tired before I try netting it when I’m alone than I do when I have a person on the net. I got this one in the net the first try. I called my coach from Bolivar, who left a few days ago, and said he’ll have to come for 2 weeks next year.

Tonight we’ve invited half the town, it seems, over for a salmon cookout. It’s in the high 50’s, and we’ll be happy if the rain holds off as forecast till late tonight so we can use the deck I built last year.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

The don’t ask, don’t tell in the military has reared its ugly head again. I call this the last great hate. Used to be whites hated minorities because they looked/talked/ate/acted different from them. Then, guys like Michael Jordan, Willie Stargell, Richard Pryor, Tiger Woods, all the great Latino baseball players, etc. came along. 24 hour television also brought the races and cultures closer together, and so even though there still seems to be a strong undercurrent of racism seen in the venom spewed at President O’bama, all races seem to be able to unite under the last great hate: homosexuality. Right wing, independent, and religious zealtots who want the government out of their lives, do want the government in their bedrooms. Or at least their neighbor’s bedroom. They’ve decided we can agree we can join hands with other races and cultures and unite to hate gay people whereever they may be. I might beat my kids and evade taxes and cheat on my
wife, but at least I’m not gay.
‘
Gotta Stop Health Care
So I looked at what was passed for the health care bill, and scratch my head at all the venom and hate directed towards it, the Democrats and the President. “Government forcing me to buy a policy?” Where’s all the uproar for repeal of government laws requiring auto insurance if you drive? Never hear a peep about that. What about government required FDIC insurance for bank accounts? Or government required unemployment insurance premiums?

Why would people who are insured NOT want everyone to be insured? Do they think we aren’t already paying for those who are not insured? Of course we are. Hospitals aren’t going to turn away someone for lack of means to pay. They make up for it by charging more to us who can. I’ve seen nowhere that premiums for most of the uninsured will be free – only that they may be subsidized. These folks will not be getting free health care LIKE THEY ARE NOW!! However, I do believe it remains to be seen if the system will work from the get go. I understand that premiums will be based on age, so those much older may have much higher premiums, and I’ll wait to see if that part works out or has to be changed. I also have to see if I’m missing other things. What I hear from our Republicans is the bill is “too expensive” or “too much government interference” – one of which, at least, also voted for the Patriot Act when he wasn’t lobbying for new roads in
Florida. Our Democratic Senator only said the bill is needed to address the health care issues. Neither side gives much detail for or against the bill, just broad maxims.

I don’t ever remember this kind of venom from the right during the Clinton years, and think it has more to do with having a young, black president than it does with policy issues. Sarah Palin’s rise to popularity through name calling, with little in the way of specifics of contention in the bills, seems to exemplify the intellect of her followers. And the Texas politician who yelled “baby killer” in Congress, yet was a big backer of the war in Iraq and didn’t have a problem killing tens of thousands of innocent babies and women and children in carpet bombing in Iraq.

And how many people against health care have a clue about how much we’ve spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan war. Isn’t this, according to them, for our national security so there is no price too high to pay? To me, this amounts to “National Health Care”, since I assume they equate security with not being killed ourselves.

Student Aid
It never fails to amaze me how politicians can screw things up. In such a landmark bill like the health care bill, why would the Democrats put in a rider? Now this part of the bill is providing more political hay because it’s causing the corrective bill to have to go back to the House with changes, all because there’s a problem with the student aid rider. This rider practice is always screamed about by both sides but always used by both sides, as money always talks louder than words.

Clinton sorry again.
I rarely hear Dems say much bad about Clinton, but here he is again apologizing for something that clearly was a mistake at the time. I read in the paper today he said his policy of dropping tariffs to countries like Haiti so his Arkansas farmer’s rice could go there more cheaply was a mistake. Seems Haitian farmers quit growing rice, and now the country can’t come close to feeding itself. This has been America’s broken policy not just in Haiti, but places like Sierra Leone, too – begun long before Clinton, and known long before Clinton to be detrimental to developing country food independence and local farmer well-being. Bring in US imports of cheaper rice – many times right at the same time the local rice is coming to harvest – and drive down the price of rice so the farmers are discouraged from growing more for sale. In Salone, they could turn to other cash crops like coffee and cocoa, which aren’t going to do much for them nutritionally.
Clinton has also apologized for not doing anything in the massacre in Burundi in Africa – even after all intelligence told he and Madaline Albright that the shit was about to hit the fan. Tens of thousands died by machete, and all they could do was go back decades later, lay a wreath, and say “whoopsi!”. I’m still reaching for what he or his wife did do well, or why I would trust him now in Haiti. It’s not unlike Al Gore, who was all against signing on to the Geneva Summit on reducing carbon emissions when he was vice president, yet after he was done suddenly finds God in global warming.

ANWR and Caribou

A friend asked the other day about oil development in ANWR. I told him my opinions on both sides of the issue, including how the Porcupine Herd is different than the smaller herds that occupy Prudhoe Bay and western Alaska. Unlike these increasing herds, the Porcupine herd is much larger – over 100,000 animals – and has been declining for unknown reasons in recent years. I’ve not checked recent numbers, so perhaps the population has stabilized. I do remember it had dropped from 150,000 to 125,000 or less animals. This herd uses eastern Alaska and Western Canada for it’s range. The part it uses in Alaska in ANWR is a place where the mountains bow northward, on a plain about 50 miles from the ocean to the mountains. I realized yesterday as I was on my rounds that what I was looking at WAS that bow. I’d always thought the mountains looked closer here than in Prudhoe Bay, and realized I was located right on the western boundary of ANWR, and so was
looking at the very topography I had only looked at on topographic maps before. From where I sat in my truck to the base of the mountains seemed even closer when I thought about a herd of 100,000 or more animals using that plain to calve. It certainly would be a sight, perhaps not unlike the buffalo in the west before they were killed off. Anyway, it gave me pause for thought as to what, if any, impact oil development might have there – maybe a pipeline from a drilling pad and nothing else might not bother the herd, or would it? It surely seems that directional drilling, where the actual drilling and oil extraction would be done outside the refuge with a pipe drilled down, and then sideways under the refuge, would be much less of an impact, yet defenders of the refuge were staunchly against this, too, last time I heard.

It’s March 26 today, with blowing snow and a temperature slightly below zero – it was -7 when we checked at 515 am this morning. Visibility is down to being measured in yards, so no travel is allowed unless you’re part of a 2 or more vehicle convoy, and I’m sitting tight in my truck in the camp parking lot and monitoring my radio in case anyone needs me. Seems like winter is hanging on longer than I’d guess it would, as the temperature has only been above zero once, I think, over the past 12 days I’ve been here. But many days have been sun and more sun and just beautiful weather looking out over the coastal plain to the Brooks Range. I’ve seen an arctic fox and a few ravens this hitch, but that’s it for animal sightings.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Went hooter hunting earlier this week. Had to wait till late morning, as low tide was about noon, and I didn’t want the boat high and dry when I came out. It was a bit breezy, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to hear the male blue grouse hooting. As I was setting the anchor on the beach, I heard birds hooting, so I headed up into the woods.

I followed a trail I’d used deer hunting. I headed towards the nearest hooter. I was under the trees the bird was hooting from sooner than I’d expected. I thought he was up one tree. Then he hooted again, and it seemed like a different tree. I kept looking and looking, and then saw him. Lower in the tree than I expected. A dark silouette perched near on a branch, near the tree trunk. I worked my way around until I had a clean line of fire. I traded out the slug I keep in the chamber of my single shot 12 gauge just in case bruno is out early in the year for some bird shot. I fired, and the bird whirled down out of the tree. I admired the large bird, with the orange patch over his eye. I put him in my pack, and headed up hill to the next bird hooting.

This bird was 1/3 or more up the steep part of the ridge, so a good climb. I finally reached the trees the bird was in. I spotted this one sooner than the first bird – again, well down in the tree canopy, on a branch near the trunk. I aimed to shoot and had a hemlock branch in the way. I almost pulled the trigger anyway, and stopped myself in disgust. I thought “did you really hike all the way up here only to miss this bird, have him fly away, and waste the effort?” So I climbed up higher until I had a clear shot from a good shooting position. Then I watched the bird hoot awhile before I dropped him and put him in my pack.

As high as I was on the hill, the breeze was loud enough that I couldn’t hear more birds hooting, so I figured I had to side-hill until I got close enough to hear another. On the way, I came to a ravine that I had to descend down into and follow the creek, rather than risk crossing a deadfall across the creek, as it was a long, long way down. I walked along the creek, which didn’t have an uncomfortable amount of water as most of the snow had already melted and we’d had little rain of late. I came on an unusual sight for our part of the Tongass: a cedar branch. I looked up the side of the ravine to see where the branch came from, and finally picked out the smaller cedar tree. I saw another cedar tree along the way, making 3 cedar trees total I’ve seen on this side hill.

I worked my way down and out of the mini-canyon. I crossed the edge of a muskeg and was headed back into the woods when a grouse flushed from a dead snag in front of me, and flew into a nearby spruce tree 10 yards away. Scared the crap out of me. The hooters almost always do this if they flush from near or at ground level- they do not fly far. I worked my way into a clear shooting alley and dropped my third bird of the day. I put him in the pack, and was starting to feel the weight of the birds now.

I only had one shell left now, other than the 2 bear slugs. I heard a hooter below, and headed to the copse of trees the hoots appeared to be coming from. Then I heard a bird off to my right which seemed close, so I turned off across a muskeg and headed to that bird. When I heard him hoot again, I realized the bird was far off, so I turned back towards the earlier bird. Just as I entered the woods from the muskeg, a hooter was running along the ground off to my right. The bird froze as they always do, and I dropped my 4th bird. As I didn’t hear the bird I was after, I’m assuming this one had been up in a tree and come down to the ground. Getting 2 of 4 birds near the ground rather than up in the trees was unusual – it was like the birds were running all over and rutting like deer do.

Lots and lots of deer sign in the woods, but I didn’t see any deer. They had nipped about every skunk cabbage bud off everywhere I went. I didn’t see any fresh bear sign.

When I got out to the beach, it was a bit breezy so I decided to stay another night at the cabin rather than crossing in a lump with the oil light blinking on my dash (turns out this was just an oil change reminder, when I looked it up in the manual at home). I cleaned the grouse at the cabin, using a technique a college buddy Eric Sjodin and Buddy Bender showed me while we attended college at UA-Fairbanks. The grouse is laid down on its back, and you place a foot at the base of each wing where it attaches to the body. Then you grab a leg in each hand and very slowly pull up on the bird. This will pull the innards and head with the legs, leaving the breast, mostly skinned, behind. The innards and head are then easily separated from the drumsticks.

I cooked up two birds when I got home. I forgot how much meat is on hooters. There was enough left over to make soup, plus freeze the other two birds.

Was supposed to go again today. I’ve been working as a spill responder for the regional oil spill response team while I’ve been home. The Princess Kathleen, a small (by today’s standards) cruise ship that sank in 80 to 120 feet of water near town in 1952 or so, has begun starting to leach some oil. So, the state and Coast Guard are overseeing pumping the tanks on the wreck. The oil spill response team has been monitoring the site, as well as assessing what kind of response would be needed with regard to boom, etc., to protect various bays and coves that have fish bearing streams dumping into them. I discovered I had a sliver in my eye this morning, so knew I better get it looked at after the oil spill response work, so I went to the emergency room instead of hooter hunting after work. After a 2.5 hour wait, the P.A. got the sliver out with a swipe of a swab on a stick, and that was that. Back to Prudhoe on Monday. Weather forecast calling for the
temps to reach 20 degrees by late in the week, so I’ll be lucky to get my whole 2 weeks in this hitch.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

This is a great read. And a book that I realized was written about the place I am sitting, only in another time and certainly another world before oil and internet and communications. 3 guys get to where I’m at from Nome by schooner, then build a place to live, then set out to live off the land over the winter and look for gold in the area the following summer. Lots more to the story as you’ll see if you read it.
–

A friend asked the other day about oil development in ANWR. I told him my opinions on both sides of the issue, including how the Porcupine Herd is different than the smaller herds that occupy Prudhoe Bay and western Alaska. Unlike these increasing herds, the Porcupine herd is much larger – over 100,000 animals – and has been declining for unknown reasons in recent years. I’ve not checked recent numbers, so perhaps the population has stabilized. I do remember it had dropped from 150,000 to 125,000 or less animals. This herd uses eastern Alaska and Western Canada for it’s range. The part it uses in Alaska in ANWR is a place where the mountains bow northward, on a plain about 50 miles from the ocean to the mountains. I realized yesterday as I was on my rounds that what I was looking at WAS that bow. I’d always thought the mountains looked closer here than in Prudhoe Bay, and realized I was located right on the western boundary of ANWR, and so was
looking at the very topography I had only looked at on topographic maps before. From where I sat in my truck to the base of the mountains seemed even closer when I thought about a herd of 100,000 or more animals using that plain to calve. It certainly would be a sight, perhaps not unlike the buffalo in the west before they were killed off. Anyway, it gave me pause for thought as to what, if any, impact oil development might have there – maybe a pipeline from a drilling pad and nothing else might not bother the herd, or would it? It surely seems that directional drilling, where the actual drilling and oil extraction would be done outside the refuge with a pipe drilled down, and then sideways under the refuge, would be much less of an impact, yet defenders of the refuge were staunchly against this, too, last time I heard.

It’s March 26 today, with blowing snow and a temperature slightly below zero – it was -7 when we checked at 515 am this morning. Visibility is down to being measured in yards, so no travel is allowed unless you’re part of a 2 or more vehicle convoy, and I’m sitting tight in my truck in the camp parking lot and monitoring my radio in case anyone needs me. My job this winter is the environmental technician on an ice road from Prudhoe Bay to the edge of the ANWR. Seems like winter is hanging on longer than I’d guess it would, as the temperature has only been above zero once, I think, over the past 12 days I’ve been here. But many days have been sun and more sun and just beautiful weather looking out over the coastal plain to the Brooks Range. I’ve seen an arctic fox and a few ravens this hitch, but that’s it for animal sightings.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com