Page 163 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

WESTERN INTERIOR ALASK A  161

The Boreal Forest

Most of Interior Alaska is cloaked in the vast circumpolar boreal forest that also covers
much of subarctic Canada, northwestern Russia, Scandinavia, and Siberia. In hilly or well-
drained regions, the term “boreal forest” includes dry lands, such as the rolling country
around Fairbanks, which are typically covered in white or black spruce and birch. This
region also includes taiga, “little sticks” in Russian, which refers to the stick-like black
spruce forest that dominates the typically boggy and low-lying muskeg that prevails in
much of Alaska’s Interior. These rich, lake-dotted lands produce a wealth of berries and
are home to most of Alaska’s lynx, bears, and forest-dwelling rodents such as beavers,
porcupines, martens, and ermines.

Shrubs, mosses, and White spruce, birch, and aspen
lichens form the ground dominate Alaska’s dryer areas
cover beneath the trees. and highlands.

Boreal Fauna
At different stages in its regrowth after a wildfire, the boreal Black-
forest supports a changing succession of wildlife. Northern capped
hawk owls are among the first to inhabit the forest, followed chickadees,
by red foxes, martens, and spruce hens as the forest matures. tiny song
birds, do not
migrate in
Spruce hens, marked by
Red squirrels mottled feathers, usually the win ter
spend summer nest in exposed and are
cutting and bluffs or under evident all
storing green spruce trees. year round.
spruce cones.
They nest in
trees, using
ground bur rows
mostly as
caches.
Northern
hawk owls
are atypical
of most owls
because
they hunt Red foxes are recognized
during the by their white-tipped tails
day, preying Martens, who feed mainly and black “stockings.” These
on voles, mice, on voles, have non-retractable omnivores are found across
and occasionally claws, used for climbing as well the Alaskan Interior in hilly,
small birds. as holding prey. forested country.

160-161_EW_Alaska.indd 161 02/05/17 2:30 pm