Fort McPherson (Oct 23/06) - It's a blustery day in Fort McPherson, and Neil Colin is standing on the steps to the Tetlit Service Co-Op. He is only wearing a light jacket, but seems unaffected by the weather.

"It's too warm," he said. "We've never had a winter like this, that starts late. The water's barely frozen over."

Indeed, Colin knows these things because he's taken care to write them down.

About 36 years ago, around 1970, he started writing things down in a journal: Things like gas prices, the political climate, numbers of caribou and, sometimes, the weather.

"I remember things," Colin said. "Like, in 1950, you could buy ten gallons of gas for $5.50. And that included the jerry can."

But, he added, it often helps to write things down.

As a winner of this year's Gwich'in Achievement Awards, where he was recognized for teaching hunting techniques to community members, Colin said he's recorded changes to the caribou herd in his journal.

He said he's worried about two trends he sees: namely changes in the weather, and the disappearance of caribou.

"There's hardly any porcupine caribou," he said. "I don't know what caused it -- but I've seen people go out and get ten. You don't need that much."

Another trend he sees is increasing traffic on the Dempster Highway, which Colin has documented since it came to McPherson in 1979.

"There's too much traffic, it's interfering with the caribou," he said. "All these trucks going by, it makes a big noise."

As scientists and biologists from Canada and the world try to understand caribou, development and climate change in the North, it's clear they should talk to people like Colin.

He's been documenting the facts - a page a day, notes and observations -- for almost 40 years.