Nathaniel Herz is an independent journalist based in Anchorage, Alaska, where he publishes the Northern Journal news website, newsletter and podcast.

Nat graduated from Bowdoin College and spent two years covering Olympic level cross-country skiing and biathlon before receiving his graduate degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. After moving to Alaska in 2013, he spent nearly six years reporting on government and politics for the Anchorage Daily News and four years covering climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic for Anchorage’s NPR affiliate station before founding Northern Journal in 2022.

Nat now focuses his work on Alaska’s natural resources — namely its fisheries and its oil, gas, renewable energy and mining industries. His work has taken him from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands to Southeast Alaska fishing towns. He spends a few weeks every summer harvesting salmon at a small commercial setnet site in Cook Inlet, near Anchorage, which supplies Camp Denali with some of its fish.