Western Arctic Parklands

Six months ago Siikauraq Whiting applied for her dream job as superintendent for the Western Arctic Parklands. After a lengthy process, she was selected over more than 100 nationwide applicants in early January. But then on Valentine’s Day, Whiting received the news. She had been fired along with around 30 or so other probationary Park Service employees statewide.

In Frank Herbert's Dune, the inhabitants of Arrakis work covertly to terraform the desert in the hopes that plants would eventually cover the surface of the planet. Something similar is already happening in the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, but without direct human intervention

According to federal court documents, 66-year-old Matthew Owen transported caribou hunters in the Noatak National Preserve, located about 100 miles north of Kotzebue, in 2019 and 2020. His wife, Julie Owen, 60, is charged with one count of providing false information and one count of a permit violation.

Maija Katak Lukin is Inupiaq and grew up in Kotzebue and the Sisualik fish camp, where she’s spent her life subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering. She says her work balances the land stewardship of her ancestors with more modern federal protections.