A note on authorship:
Since JuneauNature’s banner prominently calls this DiscoverySoutheast ‘subsite’ “Richard Carstensen’s JuneauNature,” it should be fairly clear who’s talking. Unless otherwise noted, it’s me—RC.
Let me introduce myself—Richard Carstensen. Born in Philadelphia in 1950, I came to Alaska as a 27-year-old wannabe mountain man. Discovering that 1) wild Alaska presented no need to retreat to mountains, and 2) tanning deer hides was hard work, I quickly settled on the more realistic goal of becoming a well-rounded naturalist. I’ve tried to explore and document as much of Southeast Alaska as possible, teaching, interviewing, writing, drawing, filming, mapping and consulting. In recent years, what’s most excited me is the intersection of natural and cultural history—what a naturalist can contribute to the question Why do we live here? You’ll find my bio on the DiscoverySoutheast staff page.
JuneauNature is the ‘nature-content’ site for Discovery Southeast’s mother site. With help from an amazing community of naturalists, scientists and outdoorsfolk, JuneauNature is already the most comprehensive online source for many aspects of Southeast Alaskan natural and cultural history. (See NATURE for links to other great Southeast nature sites, and CULTURE for links to our region’s outstanding heritage sites). Stay tuned, as it gets even better!
Place names convention:
In all my writing and cartography since publication of Haa L’éelk’w Hás Aani Saax’ú: Our grandparents’ names on the land (Thornton & Martin eds 2012: abbreviated “T&M12”), I’ve used Lingít place names whenever available, followed by translation in italic, and colonial name in parentheses. Example: Kadigooni X’áat’, island with spring water (Spuhn Island). Euro-names are typically distracting preemptions, or worse; Spuhn, for example was a principal in the Northwest Trading Company who leveled Angoon. Where the Lingít went unrecorded I may reluctantly default to the colonial name, often acknowledging its inadequacy with a parenthetical “(noTN?)”
For more background on place names, see Naming our home.
Our deepest thanks to the Juneau Community Foundation—Blackwell Fund, for supporting this site and our recent publications!
