Letter from William A. Patterson III to Mr. C. Mack Shaver - The Ecological Role of Fire in Tundra Ecosystems of the Noatak River Biosphere Reserve
Patterson WA. 1982. To: Shaver C. Re: Letter from William A. Patterson III to Mr. C. Mack Shaver - The Ecological Role of Fire in Tundra Ecosystems of the Noatak River Biosphere Reserve
The following represents a preliminary report of activities for the Earthwatch Expedition "Fire on the Tundra" conducted in northwest Alaska between July 4 and August 1, 1982. We undertook the expedition in conjunction with a Man and the Biosphere (MAB) - funded project that involved the participation of scientists and staff from the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), Washington, D.C. and Johnson State College, Johnson, Vermont. Field activities centered on the Noatak Canyon region of the NPS - administered Noatak National Preserve (Figure 1), which has been designated a National Bisohere Reserve by UNESCO. The areas, which are essentially overlapping, occupy much of the 6.5-million acre Noatak River watershed in North America. Lying between the Baird Mountains to the south and the DeLong to the north, the Noatak River drains much of the west-central region of the Brooks Range. Our base camp was located at the western end of the Noatak Canyon (67° N. Lat., 162° W. Long.), approximately 100 miles upstream from where the Noatak empties into Kotzebue Sound. The campsite was approximately 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, 200 miles east of the International Dateline and 250 miles northeast of the Siberian coast.
- Type
- Administrative
- Authors
- Patterson, William
- Date of Issue
- 1982-11-17
- Publisher
- University of Massachusetts, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management
- Units
- NOAT
- Keywords
- Alaska, Baird Mountains, Earthwatch, fire, Letter, Noatak, tundra