EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Chena in Winter, Chena in Summer

Chena River
Fairbanks, Alaska

Explanation:  OK, I love photo points where I can return in a different year, to highly different ecological conditions, or more simply, in this week's example, to show a different season.

This is the rather historic Chena River in Fairbanks, Alaska ... winter and summer.  

The top image is from March 27, 2012.  The bottom image is from October 12, 2018.  OK, officially, the photos are from spring and fall, not winter and summer ... but the seasonal weather here in deep central Alaska make it more like winter and (late) summer.  

During winter, from November through February, the river freezes quite solid in the -50F degree weather, forming an "ice bridge" whereby vehicles, including cars and trucks, cross.  

The Chena River is also a leg in an annual "Yukon 800" mile, two-day, high-speed riverboat race, that includes the Tanana and Yukon Rivers as part of the raceway.  

According to local signage at Pike's Landing, the Chena River experienced a massive flood on August 15, 1967, but since then a flood control project was instituted that resulted in the building of Moose Creek Dam and Tanana River Levee that would better control such intermittent events.  

And the large sign across the river is obscured during a substantial portion of the year with snowfall, but year-round it still speaks my sentiments, exactly.