Iditarod Starting Point Moved Permanently To The North - Not Enough Snow In Wasilla, AK

[hatrack]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The modern challenges of global warming and population growth are catching up with the world's most famous sled dog race. Citing a warming climate and sprawling development, officials with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race said Wednesday they were implementing permanent logistical changes that in recent years have become the norm for the March event.

The March 1 ceremonial start in Anchorage will go 11 miles, seven shorter than the traditional route. The actual competitive start of the 1,100-mile race the following day will move 30 miles north to Willow from the traditional site in Wasilla — where the Iditarod has its headquarters and part of Alaska's fastest growing region.

"A lot of development in the area makes it less desirable, and there have been less-than-winter conditions," said Stan Hooley, executive director of the Iditarod Trail Committee. "It just doesn't make sense to us to make choices that are not in the best interest of both the two- and four-legged competitors."

Long gone are the early days of the race begun in 1973 to commemorate the 1925 delivery by sled dogs of lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome. Because of lack of snow, the competitive launch — called the restart — has not taken place in Wasilla since 2002. The following year, conditions were so dismal along some stretches of the race trail north of Willow that managers made the unprecedented decision to hold the restart in Fairbanks, more than 200 miles from Wasilla.

EDIT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_re_us/iditarod_changes_2;_ylt=AtUAw6jZyXQvoj4G0BNIEb9rAlMA

[dragonlady]

1. Another change: horticulture climate zones

I heard yesterday that the climate zones indicating what plants are hardy in what areas will change. Each zone number will shift one zone to the north, that is, Zone 5 will become Zone 6, and so forth. Amazing.

[GliderGuider]

2. Here's an animation of hardiness zone changes from 1990 to 2006.

http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

On average it looks like zones moved over a half-zone north in that time.

[fenriswolf]

3. heh thats the town i was born in

We moved out of alaska when i was six, I remember it being so beautiful. I remember telling my mom no way was it time to go to bed, its still light out (it was 11 at night) i remember filling bins of water and using them to build an igloo for the heck of it (everyone had snowmen) I remember the glacier cruise and the fishing trips with boatloads of samon, tuna, and one time i remember my pops hooking up an octopuss. I remember the eskimo canoe that was propped right outside the sitca library and how you could play inside. this story is very haunting to me as alska really is beautifull and gorgeous in the icy roughness. I grew up on poems by robert service and jack london, who would talk about the icy tundra and the men who inhabited it. somehow with this change of course of the Iditarod is like the closing of a chapter for alaska.