Thank you so much for riding along on the journey to the North Slope a while ago. Today we will be hanging out at Toolik Field Station, a research station operated and managed by the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) with cooperative agreement support from the Division of Polar Programs, Directorate for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The field station is located at is located at mile 284.5 of the Dalton Highway, 370 miles north of Fairbanks.
When I got here, I got a coffee mug and a polaroid photo to put up on a board that everyone walks by on their way into the dining hall. I am an artist in residence and in the middle of the board as a “Toolik sponsored guest” but I can also look at the board to figure out who is who and where people are working. I also got assigned to a half of a weather port tent, which is pretty simple but quite cozy. It gets cold at night so I’m glad I brought my sleeping bag. We also learned a bit about water conservation (waste water gets flown out so needs to be conserved), logistics (there is a sauna on the lake that is open on certain days and times for bathing), and getting around (there are bikes and places to walk and places to sign out on a big white board). Meals are delicious and there is a wall of candy and snacks that are always available.
The first place I went to explore was the boardwalk that goes to the moist acidic tundra (MAT) right by the field station. I saw a muskrat and a yellow-billed loon fishing right by the inlet stream my first night. At various places there are research projects set up along the boardwalk.
You cannot miss the little hexagon plastic enclosures, cameras watching the tundra, towers measuring the weather, tubes, and grids set up. There are some greenhouses and some places where the plants on the tundra seem to be doing some very strange things, for example in one strip the tundra turns to green sedge, or there was a lot of shrubby dwarf birch in one section and cloudberry in another section whereas the tundra outside the experiment area is a mix of all different plants.
The next day first full day Amanda (who is the Spatial and Environmental Data Center Manager) gave me a tour and explained some backstory about the experiments along boardwalk and pointed out some great places to walk to and see other types of tundra. She also helped me identify some of the tundra plants and told me where there was a field guide in the dining hall as well as a list on the board of plants that were flowering (Bonsai Botany). In mid-August it was fall so most plants were changing colors and not flowering, but there were a few doing some different things.
The experiments along the boardwalk are all different. Some of them are current. Some of them are LTER (long term ecological monitoring research) projects that started in the 80s and are now being left alone to see how the tundra recovers. Scientists are experimenting with different manipulations of the environment and seeing how the tundra responds. In different plots they may be adding nutrients, increasing temperature, changing snowpack to simulate what might happen as a result of climate change and some of those experiments have been going on since the 80s.
In my personal work I’ve spend a lot of time drawing changing landscapes, recently focused on glacial landscapes. I’ve been documenting change in real time and creating work that is a meditation on and a space to hold our feelings about losing the landscapes and the places that we love. I don’t believe that what is left will be terrible; the plants, fosses, and lakes growing along the edges of recently glaciated spaces are some of my favorite places; but it will be different and the change is a loss.
What struck me about being at Toolik was that I got to spend time with the tundra in various potential futures. I got to hang out in a strip of tundra (next to a snow fence) where the snow lasted longer and piled up higher, so that when it melted it warmed the ground so much that the permafrost melted and the plants changed to a green sedge bog with flowing water and blooming monkshood. I got to peer into little walled gardens (Open top Chambers or OTCs) where plants have an easier time growing and because they are a few degrees warmer get to hold onto their leaves a bit longer into the fall. I got to spend time with alder shrubs that currently don’t grow here but might one day if their range increases. Scientifically it is interesting to find out how plants will adapt and what will change, but as a person I found it emotionally significant to get to spend some time in these potential future tundra spaces.
I loved walking around in the rain thinking about our future and getting to know the tundra. My time at Toolik was pretty wet and it rained every day I was there. There were a few nice gaps in the clouds to do some sketching. I mostly visited the tundra at various places that I could walk to from the field station, but there was so much there to see, and way more than I could even capture in a few days. I did a lot of walking around, thinking, and taking photos, and sketching when the weather was good enough.
The people at the field station are amazing. Researchers are there from all over the world and a lot of the staff have worked there a long time or work in other polar field stations or just travel a lot. Everyone has a story and pretty much wants to be there. The person working on plumbing is also a botanist who will show you cool bog plants and the person who drives the shuttle has years of experience leading tours in Alaska and will tell you a wildlife story or two.
So much work goes into running a field station. It is a huge luxury to walk in and get fed amazing meals three times a day. It made me feel like my work was supported and important to get to work in such a place. I appreciate how much work all of the staff do. There are also quite a few scientists on staff doing drone imagery, working for the Environmental Data Center, and collecting data and information for scientists. If you want to experience a taste of this check out the online herbarium and the daily naturalist reports. Several of the projects that were happening when I was there involved designing online classes for students to be able to experience and learn from the environment and research around Toolik without being there in person.
On my last night there I gave a presentation on my work and invited people to sketch the landscape along with me. It was really fun to get together and make art with everyone. I led a guided sketching exercise with photos and steps that I follow from a spot I worked on by the lake, but it was really fun to see how everyone’s sketches looked different.
Thanks for following along on my artist residency with me and thanks to Toolik Field Station and the Bureau of Land Management for hosting me at the Dalton Highway Artist in Residence. I have ideas for projects that I want to do as a result of the residency and I will publish a sketchbook of work from my time there.
Just wow, Kristin - what a remarkable trip, and your art is stunning.
What an exciting experience!