About 10 years ago, Genelle Winter noticed that berries in Metlakatla were much smaller than normal. So did a lot of other people in the community. Some berries were completely dried up and some bushes produced a second or even third set of flowers to try to reproduce. She said it was one of the early warning signs of what was officially deemed a regional drought in 2018.
“And then all of a sudden, all of those indicators that we had been taking note of made sense,” Winter said. “It all kind of fell into place.”
Winter, who works for the Metlakatla Indian Community in Southeast Alaska, said she’s also noticed other changes in berries since moving to Metlakatla three decades ago. She said service berries or saskatoon are thriving.
“We’re seeing more and more and more of it,” Winter said. “And I’m purely speculating that it’s because it prefers the drier conditions… It also likes more sunlight. So it’s moving into the developed areas.”
Wild Alaska berries are one of the most nutritious and antioxidant-rich foods available. But Metlakatla is just one of many Alaska communities noticing dramatic changes in berry production. In the past few years, people have reported late salmonberries in Seldovia, insects on cloudberries in Trapper Creek, oddly shaped low-bush cranberries in Anchorage and early blueberries in Fairbanks.
The changes impact berry harvests that Alaskans rely on for nutrition, culture and connection to their environment. Berries are expensive to import, so many Alaskans can’t replace them in their diet if they have a low harvest year. And any changes in berries also impact the animals that eat them, like ptarmigan, voles and bears.
Climate change is altering many different aspects of where, when and how berries grow. For the past two decades, researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, or UAF, have been studying berries in Alaska.
Katie Spellman, an expert on Alaska’s wild berries and a researcher at UAF, said she hears reports on changes in berries from communities throughout the state.
“In some places it’s changing abundance or timing of the berries,” Spellman said. “And in some places, it’s increasing insect pests on their plants, or flowers frying up due to wind or drought conditions.”
Spellman and her colleagues have been collecting reports from Alaskans about berry growth and harvest. They’re also collecting data on berry size and quality, life cycle timing and impacts of snow pack to help Alaska better understand and respond to the impacts of climate change. Some of their data for blueberries dates back to 100 years ago. Their aim is to make sure Alaskans can pick both wild and cultivated berries in the decades to come.
The good news, Spellman said, is that Alaska berries are not going to disappear.
“None of them are going extinct,” Spellman said. “They might shift their regions so that we have to start using other berries as substitutes for the ones that we’ve traditionally picked.”
But she said because of climate change, Alaska now experiences more variation year-to-year in temperature, rainfall and snowfall. All of those factors impact berries in a wide variety of ways. One of the more sensitive berries, she said, is cloudberry.
“[It] used to be way more common when I was little growing up here and now, you dare not tell anybody where you found your cloudberry,” Spellman said.
Because climate change impacts are unpredictable, Spellman said the best way communities can adapt is to have a diversity of berry plants. UAF works with interested communities to gather data about how berries are growing near them and to come up with plans about how to adapt as climate change shifts berry habitats.
She said communities are getting creative to make sure they have access to berries long-term. One solution she said she loves is for blueberries in Hoonah.
“They’re actively managing the canopy in certain patches on the north side and south side of slopes,” Spellman said. “So that in hot years, the north side is more productive, and in cold years, the south side is more productive, so that they always have some sort of berry patch for their community to go to.”
In Metlakatla, Genelle Winter is part of a team working to increase community resilience and food security.
Because the community has noticed serviceberries are thriving, they’re including the species in their unfolding food forest plan. Winter said they’re planting as many fruiting and edible plants as they can throughout the community, swapping them out when ornamentals need replacing.
“We’re all really working hard to try to make sure that we’re preserving these species for future use, as well as trying to document the knowledge associated with how to use and how to preserve the various berries,” Winter said.
She and her colleagues are working with kids to plant, harvest, and gather data about berries and other fruit in Metlakatla. They hope that means people in Metlakatla can harvest berries for many generations to come.
UAF is holding a free online class on Aug. 28, from noon-1 p.m, for Alaskans who want to learn more about climate change impacts on berries and how their communities can adapt.
