This is Alaska, where Mother Nature still rules

This introduces a new series of columns I have been given the opportunity to write. Before I start to tell the stories about people and topics of interest around the Mat-Su Valley, it only seems fair you know who I am.

I am a 39-year resident of Alaska, having moved here from Vicksburg, Miss., at age 10. Although I was gone for 14 years serving in the U.S. Navy, I never gave up my residency. I even made sure I voted.

This column is dedicated to the interesting people, places and events that make the Valley home to all of us. I do not intend to get into politics. That I will leave to the talking heads; however, I may slip and make a political comment on occasion, but am sure my editor will make me remove it.

If you think you have a topic that may be something other readers might enjoy hearing about, feel free to contact me at the e-mail address at the end of this column.

Mother nature recently reminded my neighbors and me just who was here first. We live less than a mile north of downtown Palmer in a subdivision that has many school-age children. Two weeks earlier, our grandson, Drew, and a couple of his friends had a close run-in with a moose in the woods around the area; close enough that Drew was stepped on by the moose and lost a shoe that was taken right off his foot.

The police were called and the area searched — the moose was gone and Drew’s shoe has not been found. On that same October late afternoon, my wife and 10-year-old grandson are calling for me. As soon as I arrive in the living room I find a young moose calf looking directly into our front window.

It was not alone.

Its mother and sibling were right there eating what was left of the wife’s front flower bed and then moving to the mountain ash and apple trees around our front yard. They stayed around our yard for about 10 minutes, even with our three Jack Russell terriers bouncing off the walls. Finally, the traffic ran them off with one of the calves actually jumping through our lawn swing on its way to catch up with its mother.

This was a reminder that we were not the first to live in this area, and nature was, and still is, the real master in Alaska. Those of us who have lived in the Valley for a long time are acutely aware of this, even though we sometimes grow complacent of our surroundings.

More and more people are moving into the area and many are not used to living this close to the large, wild animals that roam the same paths, and even streets, we regularly use.

Having lived in the Valley from Chickaloon to the Butte, I have had my fair number of encounters with the animals with which we have to learn to share our beautiful land and homes.

For those of you new to the wilds of the Valley, please remember that this time of year the snow buildup is causing many moose and their calves to move to lower elevations, and like any good mother, a moose will defend her offspring of she feels threatened in any way. Just walking between a mother and its calf can be enough to lead to an unwanted — and sometimes dangerous — encounter.

For those of you who plan to be out and about around the Valley, whether in your own yard or out making use of the area’s many recreation paths, even in our own neighborhoods we have to remember Mother Nature still rules in Alaska.

James Strickland is a Palmer resident and can be contacted at drew@mtaonline.net.