The picture essay opening this difficulty brings you to Teshekpuk Lake in Alaska’s Western Arctic. I traveled there to see a spot Audubon has lengthy labored to assist defend. Earlier than I arrived, I understood Teshekpuk as a core breeding space for birds and one of many world’s most essential wetlands. I knew its safety mattered far past Alaska.
Nonetheless, some locations can’t be totally understood till you expertise them. Understanding comes by means of the lens of huge landscapes with out one other individual in sight, snow beneath your boots, howling wind towards a tent at night time. It comes from trying throughout a horizon the place lake, sky, and snow merge, whereas the panorama waits for the season to show.
We arrived anticipating spring, however we found a spot nonetheless held by winter’s grasp. Snow and ice coated the bottom. Heat, gear, security, and each step required consideration. The Arctic strips life to necessities, which can be why the birds felt so vivid.
In three days, shifting throughout the tundra on skis and snowshoes, we noticed practically 30 species. Snow Geese. Loons. Cranes. Ptarmigans. Their calls carried throughout snow and open air, typically shut sufficient at night time to really feel simply past my tent wall.
As Audubon’s CEO, I transfer between worlds. In the future could also be a boardroom with companions and spreadsheets, one other frozen floor with binoculars and bear spray. Selections made in a single world have penalties within the different. At Teshekpuk Lake, I used to be reminded of what all this work is in the end for: following birds and the science to the place conservation issues most.
Arctic spring is temporary, considerable, and exacting, with solely a slim window for all times to start once more. As snow and ice give approach, water flows, bugs emerge, and the panorama comes alive. A delayed thaw impacts meals availability. Climate shifts cascade by means of the tundra, affecting species and processes which have existed for millennia.
That is what birds assist us see. They make the invisible seen, revealing the well being of locations throughout flyways. In addition they remind us how deeply linked these locations are. Migration is determined by the place birds start, the place they finish, and each secure haven alongside the way in which.
You do not want to camp at Teshekpuk Lake to really feel linked to it.
For this reason Audubon’s work spans the hemisphere, from working lands and marshes to forests, coasts, city parks, and huge landscapes. You do not want to camp at Teshekpuk Lake to really feel linked to it. Birds have made the connection for us. They carry Arctic whispers into our communities and yards.
“Bending the chook curve” begins with birds however reaches far past them. It means defending the locations life is determined by in a altering local weather. Teshekpuk jogged my memory of how miraculous and private this work is. Birds join us to locations we might by no means expertise and name us to look after them as our personal.
This piece initially ran within the Fall 2026 difficulty because the Audubon View. To obtain our print journal, turn out to be a member by making a donation today.
