Special report on Arctic takes broad view of ecological change

"Weird" seems to be the word most frequently used to describe the changes in the North Slope of Alaska.

Some bird breeds are disappearing and other previously unseen warm-weather breeds are migrating in. Foxes are feeding on duck eggs because the lemmings they usually eat are scarce. The entire food chain is evolving.

Glaciers are shrinking, sea ice is melting and polar bears appear to be drowning.

Arctic lakes have drained and disappeared.

The meat of grazing animals tastes different, seemingly because their diet is shifting to wildly proliferating shrubs.

All these observations are described in today's Seattle Times special report, "Arctic Out of Balance," a look at how ecological change — from oil development to global warming — is altering Northern Alaska.

Times environmental reporter Craig Welch went there this summer and came back with an overwhelming sense that "this is dramatic. It's everywhere and everybody recognizes it."

Photographer Steve Ringman came away feeling "everyone is tuned in to the changes. There are a lot of people who live off the land, and they see it every day. It's real."

What most readers know about this region probably has something to do with the debate over whether to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which is only part of the North Slope. Although the debate is very much in the news, the North Slope is "still a foreign place to a lot of people, even in the Northwest," said Assistant Metro Editor Ian Ith, who edited today's report.

Welch added that the debate is so focused on ANWR that it misses a bigger picture. "We wanted to step back and examine what's missing," he said.

"It's impossible once you're up there to ignore climate change, how much it is changing and how many ways that change reveals itself. It's changing everything, and nobody knows how far it's going, but it is faster than some people expected."

"Climate change is affecting the entire globe, but not on the scale that it's happening there."

A report in Monday's Times examines a remote Native community surrounded by oil development. The effects on how people live are dramatic. "Whether the trade-off is worth it depends on whom you talk to," Welch said.

Ith said, "One thing you won't find [in the story] is us coming to a conclusion about whether to drill. We made a conscious decision to step away from that debate for a moment."

Welch said ANWR has become such an "iconic debate," with many fixed points of view, that he expects people to make arguments on both sides of the issue after reading Monday's report. "But more is going on that isn't discussed widely," he said.

Earlier this year the Society of Environmental Journalists awarded Welch first place for "Outstanding Beat Reporting," which recognizes excellence in covering a range of environmental topics. His entry included coverage of an oil spill in the Aleutian Islands; how Northwest logging was changed by protection plans for the northern spotted owl; regulation of fishing trawlers to save undersea coral gardens in Alaska; and a series examining the environmental records of the presidential candidates.

Ith said he thinks Welch won the award because "he goes out of his way to tell stories about what is going on in the world as stories, not policy debates." Instead of writing just for people already vested in environmental issues, Welch asks what's the real story here for people who aren't involved in the policy debate.

"Our coverage isn't anchored in environmentalists vs. bureaucrats, business or industry," Ith said. The question of who is right and who is wrong "only takes you so far."

In going to the North Slope, The Times wanted to stay out of that box, Welch said. "When you look, it's never as simple as some people think it is."

One aspect of today's story that may not be apparent to readers is how hard it was to get. Welch and Ringman found shelter wherever they could, including sleeping in tents on an island of ice, armed with a shotgun in case a polar bear visited.

"When you go to the North Slope, there are no highways or roads. Getting around is really hard," Ringman said. "You have to be patient up there because it is so hard to get around, and I'm not patient. It was horribly frustrating."

One example was begging a bush pilot for days to take them to a lake. He finally agreed but would stay for only an hour. "There were lots of opportunities for us to feel defeated or exhausted," Welch said.

Still, there's no question the assignment was worth the effort.

"It was so different, absolutely treeless and stark, but beautiful. Sky and ice for as far as you can see, like a desert almost," Ringman said. "My favorite reporting is environmental, and it was an absolute thrill for me to photograph wildlife like that and see them in their natural environment."

Eating raw whale meat wasn't bad, he said, but fermented whale meat is "like something you'd pull out of your tackle box." He added with a grin, "It's a delicacy."

Ith's conclusion: "This was no junket. It was an adventure, taking people to a place they likely will never go."

Inside The Times appears in the Sunday Seattle Times. If you have a comment on news coverage, write to Michael R. Fancher, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111, call 206-464-3310 or send e-mail to mfancher@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists