Join host Mike Chmielewski and his guests, Karin Sonnen, an Alaska State Rangeland Management Specialist at USDA-NRCS and Lisa Ongtowasruk, a third-generation reindeer herder from Wales, Alaska. Listen in as they discuss rangelands and herding reindeer in Alaska.
The United States has about 770 million acres of rangelands. Private individuals own more than half of the Nation’s rangelands. The federal government manages 43 percent of the rangelands. State and local governments manage the remainder. These diverse ecosystems produce an equally diverse array of tangible and intangible products. Tangible products include forage for grazing and browsing animals, wildlife habitat, water, minerals, energy, recreational opportunities, some wood products, and plant and animal genes. These are important economic goods. Rangelands produce intangible products such as natural beauty and wilderness, satisfying important societal values. These are often as economically important as the more tangible commodities.
Alaska is home to 22,000 to 25,000 domesticated reindeer, owned and managed by 16 different individuals and entities. Together these pastoralists graze more than 20 million acres of rangeland from the southern and western Aleutian Islands to the far northern and western reaches of Alaska, including the Seward Peninsula, the Pribilof Islands, and the Bering Sea Islands of Nunivak and St. Lawrence Island. Reindeer were brought to Alaska in the late 1890’s and are native to Siberia and parts of northern Europe. Although technically the same species as the North American caribou, reindeer have been bred for different characteristics over the last several thousand years, including being more sedentary and having strong site fidelity to a home range. Reindeer are smaller than caribou, fawn three weeks earlier than caribou, and will tame down quickly with some herding and handling.
Photo/Text Credit: USDA/NRCS