
Tributaries
Tidbits from the Headwaters

Glennallen Area Flood Disaster
Flooding occurred in Glennallen last week that impacted homes, businesses, public offices and infrastructure. At the peak of the flooding, pilot cars were needed to escort traffic through flowing water on the Glenn Highway and virtually all downtown businesses, offices and schools were closed.

Wisdom at VHS College and Career Fair
A panel of local entrepreneurs spoke to the Senior and Junior class at Valdez High School specifically about what it takes to succeed in any endeavor in life and not to be discouraged when life doesn’t go as you planned.
The History of the Copper Center Agricultural Experiment Station, 1903-1908
The history behind the Copper Center agricultural experiment station goes back to 1898 when the federal government decided agricultural experiment stations should be established across Alaska and funds to start them were provided through the federal Hatch Act of 1887.

Valdez Student Receives Highest Musical Award at Regional Festival
Valdez middle and high school music students performed in local and regional ensembles at the annual regional music festival, this year hosted at Anchorage Christian School (ACS). Of the 14 students who participated, 11 of them qualified to participate in the Alaska Solo and Ensemble Competition at the state level, which will be hosted at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) in May.

Valdez Medical Clinic: Fixing an Airplane While Flying it
In a letter last week to their patients, Dr. Kathleen Todd, M.D. and Dr. John Cullen, M.D., announced that Valdez Medical Clinic LLC will be transferring management to Providence Valdez Medical Center.
April in the Garden
April was a busy month in the garden for Strelna resident Tenley Nelson.

Consider the Anthill
Ryan Strickland is a PhD student at the University of Arkansas working on building models of glacial features. His goal is to help predict glacial outwash floods. His focus is on determining whether and how observable small features, or microtopography, on glacial surfaces influence how meltwater reaches streams.

Upstream Rocketry Club Qualifies for National Competition
Students from Upstream Learning’s rocketry club are the first in Alaskan history to qualify for the American Rocketry Challenge (ARC), which will be held near Arlington, Virginia, on May 20.
Golden Eagles Fly Over Nabesna
WISE annually provides science lectures for the public in the late winter in the Copper Basin. On April 8, WISE and the Wrangell Mountains Wilderness Lodge at 28-mile Nabesna Road hosted an in-person group of about 30 people interested in learning more about raptor migration.

Vaping: The Invisible Problem in Our Schools
Statistics on increasing vaping trends in Valdez schools have brought about greater efforts by the school district staff to educate students and prevent this behavior during this school year.


Chosen Frozen
On March 21 a crowd of enthusiastic adults and students gathered on 2 Mile Lake near Chitina for Chosen Frozen. Even though it was overcast with a little breeze, spring was in the air!

Getting Ahead of Flooding
On April 6, the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) held a meeting at the Glennallen American Legion to discuss mitigating and preparing for spring flooding risk. The meeting was led by Bruce Cain, who is a board member for the Glennallen Improvement Corporation.

Mathletes Represent Copper Basin in Fairbanks
MathCounts is a national program that exists to get Middle School students excited about math. The Upstream Learning MathCounts team had the privilege of competing in the Alaska State competition at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They earned this opportunity by placing first in the Alaska Rural Chapter MathCounts competition in February.

Olympic Snowboarders visit Valdez Schools
The Natural Selection Tour, featuring 24 snowboarders from around the world, finished their competition in Valdez on March 28th. Among competition finalists were Olympic Gold Medalists and X-Games finalists and medalists.

Kenny Lake Hockey Practice
Kenny Lake children have been meeting two to three times a week since early February for a short season of hockey practice. We had two groups: a ‘Learn to skate’ program for beginners ages 3 and up coached by Judith Lorenz and a hockey group (8-12 yo) coached by Gabe Doty and assisted by Ms. Lorenz.

ROAR Spring Recycling Update
As spring advances (hopefully) and the rather large amount of snow recedes, (hopefully), it seems a good time to look ahead at what is happening with recycling in the Copper Basin. People bringing aluminum cans and paper to the ROAR transfer site will notice it becoming rather crowded over the next month.

Letter to the Editor
We would like to thank all the local coaches and team volunteers who have invested in our children’s lives this year.

On the Way to the Outhouse
Between the age of 1 and 2, our first daughter loved sitting in my lap while I read to her. We read “Go Dog Go,” “Are you My Mother?” stories from the Bible, Mother Goose rhymes, “Baby Talk,” and many other books. In the midst of reading all these fun children’s books, I decided I wanted to write a children’s book as well.