is the scene of some of the most intense environmental debates on the planet. Fishing, forestry, pollution, climate change and resource exploitation are challenging the region's scientists, industrialists and policymakers. Yet Alaska still has some of the world's wildest places and largest wildlife populations.

Should we be trying to keep the Alaskan environment as pristine as possible? Or does the state's low population and unspoilt condition give us more room to use its abundant
natural resources?
In a series of four dispatches, Nature news's John Whitfield looks at these issues.

John Whitfield won a fellowship to
visit Alaska from the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources. www.ijnr.org


All photos
© J. Whitfield
unless specified.
Web Producer
Charlotte Westney.