Yakutat, Alaska (KINY) – The thirteenth annual Yakutat Tern Festival is May 30-June 2, 2024, and will feature a variety of fun and family friendly activities to celebrate the natural and cultural resources of the area.
The festival’s Keynote speaker is Denny Olson, Conservation Educator for the Flathead (Montana) chapter of the Audubon Society. Denny will be offering a suite of youth focused activities, as well as delivering his keynote presentation entitled “The Wonder of Birds.”
Tongass National Forest staff will lead other events, with wildlife biologist Susan Oehlers giving a presentation on monitoring Aleutian Terns, District Ranger Nathaniel Catterson leading a field trip to view the festival’s namesake, and special uses administrator Samantha Lodell leading a field trip to Harlequin Lake in the Russell Fiord Wilderness area.
Field trips will access sites identified in the Southeast Alaska Birding Trail, a virtual guide to 200 birding hotspots across the Alaska Panhandle developed in 2019 by Audubon Alaska, the USDA Forest Service and Juneau Audubon Society.
Other events include watercolor painting workshops, the Wildman 5-k run fun, Hubbard Glacier charter boat tours, “bird yoga”, and a wide variety of youth activities in partnership with the National Park Service, Alaska Sea Grant, Ocean Conservancy, the Wrangell Institute for Science and the Environment, and other partners.
