Throughout the summer, we invite specialists to share their expertise daily in the field and through evening presentations.  You may want to time your visit at Camp Denali to coincide with one of our Special Emphasis Series sessions.  Our regular program of guided hiking occurs simultaneously. 

This series is available exclusively at Camp Denali.

For 2011 Special Emphasis Series information, click here.

2010 Special Emphasis Series

Scott Weidensaul
Acclaimed Author, Field Researcher,
and Bird Enthusiast

June 4-6 & 7-10

Scott Weidensaul is the author of more than two dozen critically acclaimed books on natural history, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Living on the Wind, about migratory birds; Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent’s Natural Soul; and his latest, Of A Feather: A Brief History of American Birding. His writing has appeared in a host of publications including Smithsonian, Audubon and The New York Times.

A native of the Pennsylvania Appalachians, where he still lives, Mr. Weidensaul’s passion is birds, especially bird migration. A longtime bird bander, he directs a major research project tracking the migration of owls, and is part of a continental effort to learn why more and more western hummingbirds are wintering in the East. Mr. Weidensaul is a frequent visitor to Alaska, where his work has taken him into almost every corner of the state, including Denali.

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Field trips will focus on Denali’s remarkable breeding birds, which will have just returned from wintering areas as far-flung as Asia, Africa, and South America. Bird watchers of all skill levels should find these outings rewarding.

Mr. Weidensaul’s two evening presentations will explore the wonders and dynamics of bird migration, and how wild America–including the wilderness landscapes of Alaska on which so many species depend–has fared in the past half-century.

Visit Mr. Weidensaul's website.

Staff Naturalists and Guest Lecturers

June 11-13 & 14-17

The wildflowers of Denali National Park and Preserve create an extravagant, multi-colored microcosm of nature’s handiwork amidst a vast mountain landscape. Whether you are simply attracted to observation of nature’s floral displays, lured by macro photography, or drawn to plant taxonomy, we invite you to join us for Denali’s season of wildflowers.

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Naturalist staff and guest specialists will lead field trips
for botanizing and wildflower photography. We will explore marshy lowlands, boreal forest, rolling tundra hillsides, and windswept heights, discovering plants that are strategically adapted to these unique biological niches of the Far North. We will discuss the characteristics of taiga and tundra, river bar colonizers, cushion plants, and sedge tussocks, and will talk about how plants flourish despite the rigors of mountain weather, glacial terrain, permafrost, and the brief growing season.

Evening programs will explore topics such as far northern plant adaptations, pollination, the role of wildfire, traditional uses of northern plants, and how some plants provide evidence of climate change at northern latitudes.

Sarah Roeske, Ph.D.
Research Geologist
University of California, Davis

Karl Mertz, Ph.D
Geology Instructor (Emeritus)
California State University, Sacramento

June 18-20 & June 21-24

Widely recognized for her research in Alaska, Sarah Roeske brings 30 years of experience studying Alaskan and Cordilleran tectonics and structural geology. First introduced to Alaskan geology as an undergraduate, she then did field studies on the Kodiak Islands for her Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Since the early 1980’s she has conducted annual fieldwork in Alaska, from Sitka in southeast Alaska to the Brooks Range. Dr. Roeske’s research focuses principally on modern and ancient plate boundary faults and mountain-building processes, including the role of the Denali fault in the development of the Alaska Range.

Dr. Roeske will be joined by her husband, Karl Mertz, who received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a focus on sedimentary geology. His career has been dedicated to teaching undergraduate geology, most recently at California State University, Sacramento. Dr. Mertz brings a wide mix of field experience as a geologist, teacher, and naturalist.

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Dr. Roeske’s evening program will cover mountain-building processes, with an emphasis on Denali. She will discuss the roles that plate tectonics, local faulting, and glacial activity have in forming North America’s highest peak. Dr. Mertz will present an evening talk introducing glacial features and processes, which dominate much of the landscape visible within Denali National Park.
 

Kesler Woodward
Artist, Professor of Art Emeritus
University of Alaska, Fairbanks

July 2-4 & July 5-8

Kesler Woodward is one of Alaska’s best-known artists, and is equally well known for his work as an art historian and curator. He served as Curator of Visual Arts at the Alaska State Museum and as Artistic Director of the Visual Arts Center of Alaska before moving to Fairbanks in 1981.  Mr. Woodward is currently Professor of Art Emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he taught for two decades before retiring in 2000.

Mr. Woodward’s  paintings, depicting scenes from Hudson Bay in Arctic Canada to the Bering Strait region of Russian Siberia, are included in all major public art collections in Alaska and in museum, corporate, and private collections. In 2002 he served as Denali National Park’s first Artist-in-Residence. He has published six books on Alaskan art since 1990, including the first comprehensive survey of the fine arts in Alaska, Painting in the North. He has lectured on art of the circumpolar North from Alaska to Georgia, New England, and the British Museum in London.  In 2004, Mr. Woodward received the Alaska Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.

Emphasis:

Evening programs will explore artists’ depictions of Alaska and the circumpolar North, with a special emphasis on historical and contemporary artists’ images of Denali and its environs.  Mr. Woodward will discuss the way individual and societal views of the relationship of people to the land subtly but inexorably shape the way land and animals are depicted by artists of all eras.  He will also be available to work with any guests interested in working on their own paintings and drawings of the Denali region.

Visit Mr. Woodward's website.
 

Tom Kizzia
Author, Former Reporter
Anchorage Daily News

July 16-18 & 19-22

A longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Tom Kizzia has traveled extensively in off-road regions of Alaska and written about urban-rural politics and the changing way of life in predominantly Native villages. His two-year travel series known as “Northcountry Journal” was the basis for his first book, The Wake of the Unseen Object (Holt:1991). That work was later named one of the “Alaska 67,” the best non-fiction books about Alaska cited by the Alaska Historical Society.

Mr. Kizzia has covered many of the big stories in Alaska in the past three decades, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, commercial fishing wars, and the political career of Gov. Sarah Palin. He is currently writing a book for Broadway Books/Random House about Alaska conservation in the generation after John McPhee, as seen through an eccentric family’s long-running battle with the National Park Service in the Wrangell Mountains near McCarthy. He was a 1999-2000 Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. Mr. Kizzia lives in Homer, Alaska.

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Evening programs will explore the rich and sometimes tragic way of life in a part of Alaska seldom glimpsed by travelers. In assessing the powerful social, economic, and historical forces that weigh against survival of Alaska’s aboriginal landscapes, he will discuss the importance of attention to living, evolving cultures from a perspective that is neither sunnily romantic nor cynically dismissive. Mr. Kizzia will also be available to discuss current Alaska conservation issues, other events of the past three decades in Alaska, and the writer’s role as reporter and interpreter.
 

Dayton Duncan
Author, Filmmaker
Florentine Films

July 26-29 & July 30-August 1

Dayton Duncan is the author of ten books of American history and for twenty years has collaborated with Ken Burns on award-winning documentaries for PBS.  His and Mr. Burns’s most recent film is The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, broadcast in September of 2009.  Mr. Duncan was the writer and producer of the 12-hour series and was also the author of the companion book by the same name.  Other films he has written and produced include Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery; Mark Twain; Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip; and The West.

Mr. Duncan’s books include Out West: American Journey Along the Lewis and Clark Trail; Miles From Nowhere: Tales From America’s Contemporary Frontier; and many others.  He has also served as chief of staff to a New Hampshire governor and press secretary to two presidential campaigns.  President Clinton named him chair of the American Heritage Rivers Advisory Committee, and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt appointed him to the National Park Foundation.  He currently serves on the boards of the Student Conservation Association and the National Conservation System Foundation.

Emphasis:

Evening programs will include a short excerpt from the national parks documentary and a behind-the-scenes discussion of how the series was conceived and created.  A special emphasis will be placed on the story of Denali National Park, and how it fits into the larger evolution of the national park idea.

Visist the website of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

Bob Childers
Arctic Policy and Campaign Advisor

Dorothy Childers
Marine Conservation Advocate

August 13-15 & 16-19

Bob Childers is an Arctic policy consultant whose focus has been natural resources and the use of conservation initiatives to support subsistence and traditional ways of life. 

Dorothy Childers is the fisheries program director for Alaska Marine Conservation Council, a community-based organization of people working to protect the long-term health of Alaska’s oceans, as well as to sustain subsistence opportunities and the working waterfronts of our coastal communities. In 2007 she received a marine conservation fellowship from the Pew Institute for Ocean Science.

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Mr. and Ms. Childers will present two parallel conservation campaigns in which  they have collaborated with Alaska Native people to protect traditionally important places and resources. Mr. Childers will introduce us to the Gwich’in people of northeast Alaska and Canada, and to their campaign to protect their way of life through wilderness protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Ms. Childers will describe efforts of a group of tribal elders from the Bering Sea coast as they work to understand local observations of climate change, and seek to protect cultural and ecological features as melting sea ice opens the way for the northward advance of industrial fishing fleets. 

George Lepp
Professional Nature Photographer

August 27-29 & August 30-September 2

George Lepp is one of North America’s best-known contemporary outdoor and nature photographers.  His passion for natural beauty, technical precision, cutting-edge technology, and environmental responsibility is revealed in his beautiful and compelling photographic images. For over 30 years he has shared his knowledge through teaching courses in natural history photography in conjunction with universities, institutions, and the Lepp Institute.  In both the realm of photography and teaching, Mr. Lepp is a leader in the rapidly advancing field of digital imaging.

His published material includes illustrations for numerous books, two motion pictures, several magazines, and educational film strips.  He is the field editor for PC Photo and Outdoor Photographer, where he also writes a monthly column.

After decades of photographing, Mr. Lepp continues to find new ways to look at and photograph many varied subjects and locations.  Besides his passion for photography, he has a strong interest in preserving our natural resources, and promotes responsible enjoyment of the natural world.  This will be his fourth visit to Camp Denali.

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Formal presentations and extensive field time will explore composition, design, light, and the art of seeing landscapes.

*Please note that an additional program fee of $75/night is charged to each Autumn Nature Photography Workshop participant. The workshop is limited to 10 participants.

Visit Mr. Lepp's website.

Neal Brown, Ph.D.

Former Director of Alaska Space Grant Program and Poker Flat Research Range, and Science Enthusiast

September 3-5 & 6-9

After receiving a B.A. in physics from Washington State University in 1961, Neal Brown worked for NASA, where his interest in auroral phenomena was first sparked. At the time, the aurora was linked to understanding the earth’s atmospheric makeup, a key factor in spacecraft travel.

Dr. Brown went on to receive an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.  He also directed its Poker Flat Research Range from 1971 through 1989. Poker Flat is one of the nation’s busiest space research facilities and the world’s only university-owned rocket range. In 2008, he retired from his faculty position in the Physics Department and Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Dr. Brown is a consummate teacher and has been featured on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and Good Morning America.

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Dr. Brown’s two evening lectures will explore the aurora, its myths and science, sun dogs, noctilucent clouds, and other atmospheric phenomena. Hands-on instructional aids and displays will illustrate many of the discussed scientific concepts.

By early September, clear nights are finally dark enough to view the aurora. Join Dr. Brown in his enthusiasm for the north country’s mystical night skies!