A massive storm in 2022 brought flood waters to this part of Alaska, and the tundra was inundated with salt water for days.
Kavlakuaraq, also known as black berries or crowberries, are noticeably absent from the tundra that surrounds Chevak and Hooper Bay. Many residents believe salty flood waters from Typhoon Merbok’s storm surge and a cold, rainy summer have kept the plants from producing the berries, which are normally plentiful.
“I noticed that the areas where they flooded, some of the plants, many, like the medicines and the berries, they’ve all gotten bad,” Bell said. And he said that it’s not just the crowberries. Lowbush cranberries are also missing, and many of the medicinal plants he uses don’t look healthy.In Hooper Bay, Bell’s family and friends in Hooper Bay call him “the botanist.”
Now in his fifties, Bell has spent his whole life studying the land and plants that blanket the tundra along Alaska’s Bering Sea coast.This area has flooded before, but Bell said that previous floods haven’t had nearly the impact on local foods. It’s not just the plants that haven’t returned this year.Lots of residents are also reporting fewer birds of prey and predators on the landscape. And that may be because those animals haven’t been able to find their own food: mice.
“They’re called teardrops. We call them utngungssaq and then those long roots, we call it marallaq. So those are the two main ones that we get every year for ingredients, like if we cook our seal soup. At the end of it, we add those.”