As I settled into my seat on a plane that barely had room for a middle aisle, I reflected on the absurdness of my situation. It’s almost unbelievable to me, someone who has never visited Alaska until just a few weeks ago, that this is a completely normal way to get to remote Alaskan villages. Unfortunately, my Brooks Range adventure got delayed due to weather, making a pit stop in Bettles because we were unable to land in Coldfoot. It was overcast and drizzling, but that did not stop the mosquitoes, they seemed very excited to meet me.
The Koyukuk River starts to rise
It was raining pretty hard by the time we finally reached Coldfoot. Once I confirmed my ride to Wiseman was on the way, I got a text from Mollie Busby, one of the Wiseman residents: “Be ready to go if you can- Wiseman creek is flooding.” Sure enough, the only road into Wiseman was pretty much underwater by the time we got there. Fortunately we were just barely able to get through, but the river was rising rapidly and it looked like it wasn’t going to let up any time soon. Right after we got through the flooded section of the road, we ran into Steve, another Wiseman resident who was moving his dogs up to higher ground. The water was creeping up to where the dogs were, almost reaching the lowest dog boxes.
Steve’s dogs try to avoid the encroaching river.
Obviously Mollie, her husband Sean, and Steve were concerned about the flooding, but they told me that last August, they had an even bigger flood that did much more damage. It seemed like last year’s flood lessened the impact and significance of this flood because it wasn’t as bad. Hearing this, I thought about the increased natural disasters that I have seen in my own life: increasing wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, where I grew up, and the growing hurricane and tropical storm threat in the southeast, where I have lived for the past 3 years. Climate change is undeniably getting worse and natural disasters like flooding are only increasing. It poses a unique threat for Wiseman and other similar rural communities along the Koyukuk River, where the roads are often unpaved and there are few roads to begin with, and even fewer options if one road gets washed out. If political reasons don’t manage to push rural residents out, the changing and encroaching river might pose a similar threat.
The only road in and out of Wiseman is almost impassable.
Aftermath of the flood
The next morning after my delicious breakfast of eggs and sourdough pancakes with Berni and Uta, the hosts of Arctic Getaway, I ventured out to see what the river looked like. The road was still partially covered in water, but it was probably passable if needed. Just by looking at the rocks on the ground, I could tell that the river came up quite a bit more than what I had witnessed last night. NOAA records say that the flooding crested at 4am at 13.49 feet, up from 9 ft earlier that day, putting it just under a major flood. In speaking with the residents, they inferred that most of the water had come from snowmelt, in contrast to last August’s flood which was caused by heavy rainfall.
Later that afternoon, I went on a hike with Mollie, Sean, and Steve along their dog mushing trails to see a different part of the river. The beginning of the trail winds by Wiseman Creek where I could see some of the damage that the flood last year had done to the cut bank- a large part of the the steep edge of the river had broken off, and according to Steve, there was a new section that had been eroded the night before. We also took a look at the airstrip and sure enough, a chunk of the road next to it had completely eroded away, making the road impassable. In addition to all of the damage done by the flood, there is also the risk of an influx of people coming into the area due to the land transfer and new government funded antimony mines. More people using the same few trails and roads to get around, on top of more frequent flooding, will exponentially deteriorate the land and the resources that the residents of Wiseman rely on.
Reflecting on the implications of the flood
As we continued onward to the top of a hill overlooking Wiseman, the residents told me about the geology of the surrounding area, shared knowledge of the plants and trees, and how they used their dog mushing trails. I was surprised to hear how knowledgeable about their environment they were, but upon reflecting, it makes sense. In order for these people to live here, they have to be able to use and understand the land, plants, and animals, and do use it sustainably; there’s really no other way to be able to survive in a place so rural. One thing that Mollie said to me that stuck out was that they chose to live here and have this unique lifestyle, because if they didn’t want to, they wouldn’t- it’s that simple. Because of this, the threat of climate change causing worse flooding and wildfires poses a significant threat to these people and their way of life of sustainable stewardship of the land and subsistence practices. As unfortunate as flooding is and the damage that it brings with it, I feel lucky to have been there during that time to be able to see and learn how the community unites and deals with what the world throws at it.