A deadly helicopter crash in Alaska's remote North Slope claimed the life of a prominent shorebird scientist at a research and conservation nonprofit in Plymouth.
The death of Shiloh Schulte, a wildlife biologist who led efforts to restore the American oystercatcher population, was confirmed Saturday by his wife and by his employer, Manomet Conservation Sciences. Schulte, 46, lived in Kennebunk, Maine, where he previously served on the town's Select Board. He had two daughters.
"Shiloh was a deeply respected member of the Manomet Conservation Sciences team, whose passion for shorebird conservation and unwavering commitment to protecting our planet inspired everyone fortunate enough to work alongside him," the organization said Saturday in a statement.
Schulte had traveled to Alaska to conduct conservation work, the statement said. He and the helicopter pilot were flying west from Prudhoe Bay to an area where he planned to outfit shorebirds with recording devices when the helicopter crashed on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Manomet Conservation Sciences.
The region Schulte was visiting has become a flashpoint in the debate over balancing the nation's energy needs and confronting climate change. The oil company ConocoPhillips wants to establish an oil drilling venture there known as the Willow Project.
Schulte had also planned to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where he was to lead a crew tracking the migratory routes of whimbrels, another shorebird, with satellite transmitters, Manomet Conservation Sciences said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash of the Robinson R66 helicopter killed the pilot and passenger, the only two people aboard. Authorities have not announced what caused the crash and are investigating.
Alaska Public Media identified the pilot as Jonathan Guibas, 54, who worked for Pollux Aviation in Wasilla. Guibas's mother told the news organization that Guibas had joined the company about a month ago, and had previously lived in California, Guam, and Virginia.
The crash occurred on the first day of the bird study, about 20 miles west of Deadhorse in North Slope, the northernmost section of the state, Clint Johnson, chief of the safety board's regional office in Alaska, said Friday.
"It's in a very remote part of Alaska," Johnson said. "There's nothing there. It's treeless, barren, in the middle of no place."
Earlier last week, the region had been visited by high-ranking members of the Trump administration.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin toured parts of the North Slope to advocate for President Trump's desire to open parts of the Alaskan wilderness to drilling and mining.
The helicopter had taken off at about 10:40 a.m. The pilot had received special weather clearance, known as VFR, or visual flight rules clearance, Johnson said.
North Slope Borough Search and Rescue traveled to the crash site on Wednesday and retrieved the victims' bodies; on Friday afternoon, NTSB investigators visited the scene, which is only accessible by helicopter, he said.
An NTSB meteorologist and air traffic controller are working with investigators, who plan to transport the helicopter wreckage to Deadhorse to continue their work, according to Johnson. Officials plan to place the wreckage in a sling tethered to a helicopter for the journey back to Deadhorse, which has an airport, he said.
Last Saturday, Schulte shared photographs of violet-green and tree swallows he had spotted at Creamer's Field, a wildlife refuge in Fairbanks, Alaska, according to his Instagram page.
Schulte coordinated an American oystercatcher recovery program that was launched in 2009 at Manomet Conservation Sciences. Conservation work by the program and its partners along the East Coast helped to rebuild the American oystercatcher population by 45 percent, the organization said.
"Shiloh gave his life in the service of something greater than himself, dedicating himself to preserving the natural world for future generations," the group's statement said.
In March, Schulte discussed progress in regrowing the population of the American oystercatcher, a striking shorebird with long, orange-red bills and black-and-white plumage that lives along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, according to a news release from Manomet Conservation Sciences.
In 2008, he said the population had dropped to fewer than 10,000 birds across the Americas, a 10 percent decline. Conservation efforts reversed that slide and there are now more than 14,000 birds.
"This success proves that when we commit to conservation, we can restore declining species," he said in a statement on March 13.
Following the devastating BP oil spill that released millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Schulte led a crew of researchers enlisted by the government to document the environmental impact on wildlife.
Schulte's team was hired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to locate resident oystercatchers in coastal Louisiana and outfit the oiled ones with radio transmitters to track their health, he told the Globe in 2010.
He earned a doctorate at North Carolina State University, where he studied American oystercatchers on the Outer Banks and helped to band and track the birds, according to his biography on the website for Manomet Conservation Sciences. As an undergraduate student, Schulte studied wildlife biology at the University of Vermont.
He was a competitive distance runner and earned a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do, the biography said.
In April, he ran the Boston Marathon, finishing the race with a time of 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 50 seconds. The time placed him 137th among 2,386 men between ages 45 and 49 who competed, according to results from the Boston Athletic Association.