<\/a>Leanne Bulger kneels at a hole in the forest floor that pumps out cool air. At her shoulder is her daughter Rose. Rosie Fordham, Bulger’s co-worker, holds Bulger’s daughter Violet. (Photo by Ned Rozell)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
The fist-size opening in the forest floor seemed to be exhaling. It exhausted so much air during the spring that it had built its own chimney of frost that looked like a snowman.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Bulger seemed interested in taking a look someday. But she was so busy handing chunks of frozen ground to people at the open house that I figured she might forget.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
She emailed a day later. We set up a meeting during which we could walk out to the hole and she could measure its exhalations. Those might include methane, the exhaust of tiny organisms feasting on ancient plant or animal life that had been frozen for centuries.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
That afternoon, Bulger pulled up in my driveway. As she stepped out of her car, she apologized about not being able to get a babysitter. Then, out of the car popped her daughters. Rose is 6. She wore leather boots that might have been on the wrong feet. Two-year-old Violet followed when freed from her car seat.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“The girls will be going on a science expedition today,” Bulger said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
<\/a>Six-year-old Rose Bulger balances on a fallen log above two holes in the forest floor related to permafrost thaw. (Photo by Ned Rozell)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Bulger apologized again for not being able to secure the gas-measuring kit she had hoped to bring. Her boss, Go Iwahana of the International Arctic Research Center, was using it elsewhere.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
With Rose skipping down the forested path after we were joined by Leanne’s colleague Rosie Fordham, we were on our way to the exhaling hole in the ground.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
On the way, Violet’s rubber boots fell off as her mom carried her on a hip. Rosie picked them up.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Violet then insisted on walking by herself. Spruce needles clung to her socks as the expedition slowed to a two-year-old’s pace.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The rest of the party was fine with that. It was a sunny day, with new, mint-green leaves unfolding around us, songbirds singing from high branches, and none of the first-hatch mosquitoes that would be thick in a few weeks.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
<\/a>Rose Bulger, 6, holds grouse feathers she found during a family science expedition on the UAF campus. (Photo by Ned Rozell)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
As the science party progressed slowly through the woods, Bulger said her husband was just about to retire from the military. After years of moving across the country as a military wife and mother of four children, she was looking forward to pursuing her own career.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“My husband asked me, ‘What’s your dream job? Not just what you’d do to pay the bills, but something you’d really enjoy,’” she said. “I told him<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
‘I want to be a research scientist.’”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
For now, she is what Iwahana calls a “student researcher,” helping him in his studies of permafrost, frozen ground that is a relic of colder times and underlies much of northern Alaska.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
After a 30-minute walk, we reached the natural feature I started noticing in February, when emissions from a slump in the ground formed a frost chimney. Back then, I could feel air blowing softly on my cheek when I bent down. It had continued to pump air ever since, even after the chimney melted.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t