They say teachers make 200 decisions a day, that seems about right. After 5 years in the military i'm a bit used to making instant sound decisions. You never know who is going to show up in Arctic Village. Yesterday three individuals arrived at the school requesting help for a project to monitor permafrost. One of the girls was from the US Geological Survey based out of Boulder, CO. She was actually an anthropologist working for USGS with a team of two other scientists. The scientists worked for the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council based in Anchorage, AK. This agency has many facets, but were brought here to monitor permafrost throughout the Yukon River watershed. Arctic Village is on the shores of the Chandalar River which feeds into the Yukon River.
Two of my High School students wait for instruction on how to use the permafrost probe. We discovered about 1/4 mile from the school the permafrost layer started about 100cm from the surface.
Another student probes along the grid for permafrost.
The shallowest point to the surface was about 60cm, other spots were deeper than the probe at 120cm.
The anthropologist shows a student how to use a GPS. Two more watch in the background. You might ask why is an anthropologist part of the survey team. She communicates with the indigenous people their observations of climatic change and permafrost The sensors buried in the ground only provide so much data, the people that have lived on this land for generations know so much more.
There will be 20 permafrost data collecting stations located along the Yukon River watershed.
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