Jim DuFresne - Alaska

The seven kayakers following the Savonoski Loop in Katmai National Park were settled in for the evening, sipping mugs of hot tea, when across the Grosvenor River a brown bear appeared. It was a young male, maybe 200lb, 300lb tops. He followed the bank for a short spell and then splashed across the river and came within 30yd of their four Kleppers, folding kayaks composed of a light wooden frame and a rubberized canvas hull that a brown bear, even a small one, could mangle in minutes. The kayakers stood in unison, grabbed pots and pans and banged them while chanting hey bear, whoa bear! For a brief moment everybody stared nervously at each other, acknowledging the others existence, then the young bear decided that whatever the kayakers were selling, he didnt want and scrambled off into the woods.

Alaska is where human beings stand on an equal footing with nature. Nowhere else in the USA is there such an undeveloped, unpopulated and untrampled place.

Tourists who make the long journey north solely to discover the unspoiled character of this final frontier are still often stunned by the grandeur of what they see. There are mountains, glaciers and rivers in other parts of North America, but few are on the same scale as those in Alaska. This state has the third longest river in the USA, 17 of the countrys 20 highest peaks and 5000 glaciers, including one larger than Switzerland. The Arctic winters are one long night and Arctic summers one long day. In Alaska, there are king crabs that measure 3ft from claw to claw, brown bears that stand over 12ft tall, farmers who grow 90lb cabbages and glaciers that discharge icebergs the size of small houses.

In other states protests are staged to save a wetland or a woodlot or a park. In Alaska the battleground is an entire ecosystem. At almost 20 million acres, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is the size of South Carolina, encompassing 18 major rivers and the greatest variety of plant and animal life including 36 species of land mammals of any conservation area in the circumpolar north.

The battle over drilling for oil in the ANWR has been raging since the 1980s, but has intensified with the recent price surge at the pump. With gas breaking $4 a gallon at one point in 2008, the ANWR again took center stage as one of the most contentious issues hovering over Alaska. The question of drilling not only pits environmentalists against free-market conservatives but Alaskans against Outsiders and even Native tribes against each other. The sudden rise in the price of other resources copper, gold, zinc and silver to name but a few has had a similar effect, with a marked increase of mining projects around the state delving into nature in an effort to retrieve what is needed elsewhere.

Many Alaskans moved here, or simply stayed here at the end of their trip, because of Alaskas overwhelming beauty. But in choosing to reside here they have to make a living in a place where there is little farming and even less industrial manufacturing. Hovering near 7%, Alaskas unemployment rate is one of the highest in the country. This is why the vast majority of Alaskans are in favor of opening the ANWR to the oil industry and building a natural gas pipeline across the state, running south from the vast deposits in the North Slope. Both schemes represent jobs, an economic boom, and a new source of revenue in a place where oil royalties account for more than 80% of the state treasury.

The burden of unemployment also accounts for why the majority of Alaskans are in favor of their beleaguered bridges to nowhere huge, costly spans across the Knik Arm north of Anchorage and from Ketchikan to the lightly populated Gravina Island in the Southeast. To the rest of the country these projects represent pork-barrel politicking (spending designed to win votes) at its worst, but to locals they are avenues to expansion, offering flat land on which to farm, develop light industries and build affordable housing.

New road construction is also a contentious issue within the state, particularly the ongoing saga of building a 51-mile road north from Juneau to Skagway, where roads connect to Canada and eventually to the Alaska Hwy. The price tag stands at $400 million a small price to pay, say many Alaskans, to help an isolated city where declines in logging and fishing have driven workers away and where the proposal to move the state capital to a more central location is almost constantly under consideration. But moving the capital is not the heart of the issue its really about expansion and confronting nature in a state where less than 1% of the land is developed. Its about making a year-round living, even when the cruise ships arent in port.

Alaskans are acutely aware of the issues, both local and global, that they face. They are aware that their state is at a historic crossroad. Few question global warming in Alaska. Melting glaciers, grasshoppers in the Mat-Su Valley and Native villages slipping into the sea because of the disappearance of Arctic ice quickly ends any debate about climate change in the Far North. Alaska is known for its abundance of wildlife, yet in 2008 the polar bear was listed as a threatened species by the US Department of the Interior. The numbers of Cook Inlet beluga whales have decreased so dramatically in recent years that they are being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act, and the king salmon run was so weak up the Yukon River in 2008 that even residents with subsistence rights were restricted from filling their quotas.

Alaskans also realize they face a changing of the guard in Washington DC. They may have disdain for the nations capital, seeing it as an Outsider intruder, but the reality is they have reaped the benefits of pork-barrel funding thanks to their elder statesmen, Congressman Don Young and former US Senator Ted Stevens. Stevens is already gone, voted out in late 2008, and Young is also climbing in age. Stevens was found guilty of political misdeeds and Young is also under federal investigation. Its obvious in Alaska that new faces are just around the corner and when they arrive the states time at the funding trough may be sharply limited.

In the end, however, Alaskans will prevail. They are a hardworking breed, ingenious at surviving in one of the harshest climates in the world. Rugged and individual, they can endure the coldest winters, the worst earthquakes and even summers when the rivers arent choking with salmon. They will prevail because, like every tourist who steps off the boat, they also have been overwhelmed by the nature theyve witnessed and, affected strongly by this incredible land, they have chosen to stay.

You cant see all of Alaska in a summer and you cant plan an Alaskan trip in a week. This is no quickie getaway. For most travelers the 49th state is a big land thats far away. Its size means visitors need to focus on the regions that interest them the most, while its short, but busy, summer season almost demands advance planning. The less time and the tighter the budget you have, the more youll want to plan the trip and have reservations in place when you arrive. Its easy to travel in Alaska but not at the last minute.