History and future of the Refuge
Rebound, succession, fish&wildlife, and aviation on our frontyard wetlands In 2011, Jeff Sauer at Juneau Audubon asked for a presentation…
2011 | Richard Carstensen | 36-minute slideshow
Three geopdfs for Áak’w Táak: 1) the ‘greater’ watershed, from IfSAR; 2) & 3) more detail for upper and lower inhabited portions.
Áakw Táak, inland from little lake (greater Mendenhall Valley)
On May 25th, to celebrate school’s end, Discovery Naturalists Steve Merli, John Hudson and I accompanied 50 teachers and staff from Dzantik’i Héeni Middle School across tidal flats at the bottom of T’áa Shuyee, board squared at end (Mendenhall Valley). We started at the end of Peninsula Road and got picked up at Industrial Boulevard. The walk traversed lovely salt marsh and uplift meadows at peak of spring migration. Here’s a slideshow summary.
SW over lower the flats to Áak’w Tá, little lake bay (Auke Bay). On the right, willow-alder wetlands advance onto raised tideland. In left mid-distance, Widgeon Ponds sit on compacted silt.
East over mouth of Steep Creek to the Visitor Center, April, 2002. Not surprising we have no Lingít place names for these features that were ice covered until the mid-1900s.
For navigation, I’ve prepared several geopdfs that you can load to the app Avenza, described in Tools>Field navigation Basemaps are high-res bare earth from 2013 CBJ LiDAR, and coarser 5-m pixel hillshade from IfSAR.
In this section
Spring trumpeters
Northbound swans, Áak’w Táak, inland from little lake (M-word Valley) April 4th, 2020. For the past week or more, birders…
2020 | Richard Carstensen | 3-minute video
Birds & plane safety
Beginning in late 2001, on contract with Airport EIS consultants SWCA, Bob Armstrong and I spent a full year surveying…
2004 | Richard Carstensen & Bob Armstrong | 14 pages
GeoPDFs Kaxdigoowu Héen (Montana)
High-resolution GeoPDF pair for field navigation at Kaxdigoowu Héen, going back clear water (Montana Creek). In apps such as Avenza, on…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 2 geoPDFs
GeoPDFs Valley & tribsheds
Medium-resolution GeoPDF pair for field navigation in Aak’w Táak, inland from little lake (Mendenhall Valley) and contributing valleys or ‘tribsheds’.…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 2 geoPDFs
GeoPDFs Áak’w Táak upper (Mendenhall Recreation Area)
High-resolution GeoPDF pair for field navigation in upper Áak’w Táak, inland from little lake (Mendenhall Valley). Includes on-foot destinations from…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 2 geoPDFs
GeoPDFs Áak’w Táak lower (Mendenhall Valley)
geopdf_valleyloweraerial2019 High-resolution GeoPDF pair for field navigation in lower Áak’w Táak, inland from little lake (Mendenhall Valley). Includes on-foot destinations…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 2 geoPDFs
GeoPDFs Airport flats
High-resolution GeoPDF pair for field navigation on the Airport Dike Trail and adjacent tidal wetlands. Also shows coastline on the…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 2 geoPDFs
Supplement to the CBJ wetlands surveys, 2016
In summer 2014, Koren Bosworth, Cathy Pohl, Andrew Allison and I surveyed wetlands throughout the CBJ. Although we were not…
2016 | Richard Carstensen | 31 page excerpt (of 512p)
Area descriptions for CBJ wetlands surveys, 2014
Supplement to the 2016 Juneau Wetlands Management Plan In summer 2014, Koren Bosworth, Cathy Pohl, Andrew Allison and I surveyed…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 8 separate pdfs, 2 to 5 MB
Willson-Baldwin invert study, 2004
During the Armstrong-Willson-Carstensen Hotspots study, 2002-03, Mary Willson teamed with Aaron Baldwin to sample intertidal invertebrates throughout the Mendenhall Refuge.…
2004 | Mary Willson & Aaron Baldwin | 42 pages
Spring migrants on the Refuge
Yellowlegs, peeps, and northbound songbirds on the Refuge dike trail.
2017 | Richard Carstensen | 90 seconds
Discovery’s education and research at The Glacier
Discovery Southeast celebrates 4 decades of research and education at Áak’w Táak, inland from little lake (Mendenhall Valley) glacierdiscovery from…
2017 | Richard Carstensen | 27 minutes
Raven’s-eye views of postglacial succession
Aerial views of post-glacial succession. Combines UAV perspectives with high-res orthophotography plus forest profile views in the LiDAR point cloud.…
2017 | Richard Carstensen | 20 minutes
Steep Creek Critters
Filmed all these clips in less than 2 hours at Mendenhall Visitor Center today. Never would have guessed what a…
2017 | Richard Carstensen | 3 minutes
Sydney Laurence in Áak’w Aaní
Part of a 2012 slide show for Juneau-Douglas City Museum on Alaskan landscape painter Sydney Laurence. I co-presented with Mike…
2012 | Richard Carstensen | 17 minutes
The Mendenhall Wetlands: a globally recognized Important Bird Area.
In 2009, with support from the Southeast Alaska Land Trust, Bob, Mary, Marge and I distilled much of the information…
2009 | Armstrong, Carstensen, Willson and Osborn | 82 pages
Teacher walk, Wigeon Ponds, West Refuge
Discovery naturalists Steve Merli, John Hudson and Richard Carstensen walked from end Mendenhall Peninsula Road to Industrial Boulevard with staff…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 4:21 minutes
GeoPDF Chookan Aaní (Mend-Penn) & West Refuge
High-resolution GeoPDF pair for field navigation around Chookan Aaní, grassy land (Mendenhall Peninsula) and the western Refuge, where Pederson Creek…
2018 | Richard Carstensen | 2 geoPDFs
Kaxdigoowu Héen: Three days on clear water
In 2013 I participated in a 3 day teacher’s conference called STREAM: a Pedagogy of Place. During this “place-based” conference…
2013 | Richard Carstensen | 7 pages