Arete Alaska

About Arete Alaska

On the west bank of the Kuskokwim River, Akiachak keeps summer in a narrow window, and the grass seems to know it has to hurry. Arete Alaska brings lawn care to this Yup'ik village, mowing and trimming the green that comes up between boardwalks, homes and fish racks once the river ice has gone out. Beyond the last house the tundra runs flat to the horizon, stippled with ponds and nodding cottongrass, and a cut yard reads as a small, deliberate shape against all that open country. June light lingers so far into the night that a lawn can be finished after supper with the river shining silver behind it. It is tidy, hopeful work in a place where every warm week counts.