11 May 2012 Life at Toolik, part 1

Where am I living?

I wanted to give you a glimpse of life at Toolik Field Station and talk a bit about what life is like at a remote field camp in the Arctic. The camp is located 357 miles north of Fairbanks and about 100 miles south of the Arctic Ocean. Toolik was a work camp as the Alaska Pipeline was being built, then was converted into a field station in 1975. The camp is run by University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Toolik operates much like a small town. In the winter there is a skeleton crew that lives and keeps the field station operating. Starting April 1, more staff and scientists start arriving. Trucks drive up (like the one I that brought me to Toolik) two times per week delivering supplies and people. Each group of scientists and their students are assigned lab space and use Toolik to access remote field sites by snow machine, helicopter, or foot.

The Food

When you think about a remote field camp, you might thinking I am eating freeze-dried food or cooking over a camp stove. Not at Toolik! There is an amazing kitchen staff that feeds us well. So well that you have to check your eating so you don't end up putting on extra pounds. The dinning hall is always bubbling with people talking about the exciting science that they experienced that day. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with various research teams about their work. There are also ample snacks so we don’t get hungry when we are out in the field.

Accommodations

The accommodations consist of one heated dorm, for winter and short-term visitors, trailers divided into rooms and weather port tents. I am in a trailer room, which has a desk, chair, dresser and bed. The most important feature is the small space heater that you can turn on to keep the room warm at night.

As the weather gets warmer and more people arrive, the weather port tents will fill up quickly.

Question to Ponder

What special considerations are there for building a field station that can house up to 150 people in the middle of the Arctic tundra? I have told you about where we sleep and eat, but what other needs would all these scientists have and how would the Arctic make meeting these needs more challenging? I’ll give you some time to think about the challenges of Arctic living. I've given you one hint with the photo below Stay tuned for Life at Toolik, part 2 next week.