Climate 



Alaska is often thought of as a country of for- 

 biddinor cold and constant snows. It does contain 

 the greatest glaciers on the continent. Yet j^arts 

 of Alaska have a milder climate than does northern 

 New England. The southern coasts, particularly 

 of the Alexander Archipelago and of the Aleutian 

 Islands, have much fog and cloudiness, and as 

 much as 100 inches of snow a year in Southeastern 

 Alaska. Ketchikan has a growing season of 165 

 days; average temperatui-es are 33° for January, 

 58° for July; recorded extremes are 96° and -8° 

 F. ; and total annual precipitation is 150.9 inches. 

 Along the arctic coasts precipitation is slighter; 

 Barrow gets less than 40 inches of snow a year 

 with a total precipitation of 4.3 inches, has a grow- 

 ing season of only 17 days, and has recorded ex- 

 treme temperatures of 78° and -56° F. The great- 

 est extremes of temperature have been recorded 

 at Fort Yukon, on the Arctic Cii'cle: 100° and 

 -78° F. 



People and industries 



In this land lives a human population of 226,167 

 (1960 census), including Aleuts, Eskimos, and 

 Indians as well as outlanders of many nationali- 

 ties. Commercial fisheries, principally salmon, 

 comprise the chief resource-based industry; trap- 

 ping, mining, oil wells, lumbering, and agriculture 

 are of lesser importance. Tourism provides em- 

 ployment for many, as do construction and otlier 

 work connected with national defense. In a sur- 

 vey of the value of the wild vertebrates in the 

 economy of Alaska (Buckley, 1957) it was cal- 

 culated that wildlife "was worth more tlian three 

 times as much as the mining industry, more than 

 twenty times as much as agriculture, and more 

 than ten times as much as forestry. Even leaving 

 out the value of commercial fish, wildlife exceeded 

 mining in financial value." 



Cover types 



In a country of such pliysiograpliic and cli- 

 matic diversity, many distinct regions are readily 

 recognized. Various workers, enipliasizing dif- 

 ferent features of the environment, have nuipped 



the State as to geogi-aphic regions, life zones, bi- 

 otic provinces, plant communities, biomes, and bi- 

 otic areas. Perhaps the most generally useful are 

 the fore.st regions mapped by Taylor and Little 

 (1950) and indicated on pages 6 and 7. These 

 regions are as follows: 



1. Coastal forests of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophyU 

 la) and Sitka spruce i^Picea sitchmsis), with small 

 numbers of red cedar (Thuja plicata), Alaska cedar 

 (Cliamacriiparis nootkatensis) . cottonwood (Poputus 

 trichooarpa) , and occasionally white spruce (Picca 

 glauoa) and paper birch (BetuJa papyrifcra). These 

 occur from the southeastern panhandle west to Cook 

 Inlet and Kodiak Island, and up to elevations of 2..500 

 feet. 



2. Interior forests of white .spruce and paper birch, quak- 

 ing aspen (Populus treitniloidrs) , and sometimes bal- 

 sam poplar t Populus tacamahara), as well as willows 

 {Salix spp. ) and alders (Alnus spp.), found chiefly 

 north of the Alaska Range. Timberline is at about 1,500 

 feet but varies considerably with slope exposure. Two 

 distinct sorts are recognized, often interrupted by areas 

 of bottomland muskeg : 



a. Dense, heavy forest (taiga), mostly on the lower 

 slopes; black spruce {Picea mariana) and some- 

 times (in the southern interior) tamarack (Larix 

 laricina) may occur in swamps and bogs. 



b. Sparse forests of open woodlands, generally on the 

 upper .sloi)es ; similar areas at lower levels frequently 

 have been burned. 



3. Treeless tundra and grassland, above timberline on 

 the mountains, beyond the limit of trees along the 

 coasts. Grasslands occur on the Alaska Peninsula, 

 Aleutian Islands, and some southern slopes ; tundra on 

 the southern slopes of the Alaska Range, along the 

 western coast, and on the arctic shelf north of the 

 Brooks Range consists of lichens, sedges, grasses, forbs, 

 and mosses; willows and alders (rarely) may grow 

 along the course of streams. The dwarf resin birch 

 (Betula gUundulosa) is common and widepsread. 



Probably a special category sliould be recog- 

 nized to include the remote volcanic islands, 

 largely treeless, often batlied in mist, and some- 

 times closed in by pack ice: Tlie Aleutian cliain, 

 stretching westward to Attn Island, over 1,000 

 miles from the Alaskan mainland but within 250 

 miles of the Komandorskie Islands of Siberia; St. 

 Lawrence, Nunivak, the Pribilof group, and St. 

 Matthew and Hall Islands, in the Bering Sea; 

 and the small King and Diomede Islands in Bering- 

 Strait. 



