Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 66
WRANGELL - The Freeberg family moved to Wrangell in April of 2019. Kyle Freeberg moved here to take a position as the town's state wildlife trooper. He has a total of three years of experience as a state trooper, the previous two spent in Fairbanks. His year as state trooper in Wrangell involved enforcing state laws, educating the public about important hunting and fishing regulations, and as he said in a July 2019 interview, working to increase collaboration between himself and the community....
On June 22, Garitt L. Johnston, age 30 of Petersburg was issued a summons to appear in Petersburg District Court. Johnston is charged with six criminal wildlife offenses; two counts of Wanton Waste of Big Game, two counts of Take Moose Closed Season, and two counts of Take Big Game from a Boat. The charges are the result of an Alaska Wildlife Trooper investigation near Farragut Bay in Late October 2019. Arraignment is set for July 1st, 2020, in the Petersburg District Court....
The local Alaska Wildlife Trooper post held an open house on Saturday to welcome the community to their new location on Haugen Dr. and to introduce Petersburg's new wildlife trooper. Curtis Vik transferred to Petersburg from Eagle Rover, following Cody Litster's promotion to sergeant. Vik first joined the state troopers in 2002. Since then, he has worked with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation in Palmer tackling property crimes and major crimes. Then from 2010 to recently, he worked with a...
Over the past several months Cody Litster, Petersburg's Alaska Wildlife Trooper, has been busy settling into his new role as a sergeant for the Central Southeast Alaska's wildlife troopers, making preparations for a second wildlife trooper and moving into a spacious new facility by the airport. Litster was promoted in September of last year when the state decided to move the Central Southeast Alaska sergeant position, which was originally stationed in Juneau, closer to the area it supervises. Li...
WRANGELL - State Wildlife Troopers Kyle Freeberg, of Wrangell, and Cody Litster, of Petersburg, set up shop in Wrangell's downtown pavilion last Sunday afternoon with several hunting regulation handbooks and racks of moose antlers. As many eager hunters across Southeast Alaska are aware, moose season opens on Sept. 15. This is a registration moose hunt, Freeberg said, so anybody wanting to hunt moose will have to be registered with the Department of Fish and Game. The bag limit is one bull...
WRANGELL - A brown bear has been killed by Wildlife Troopers and Forest Service personnel after a run-in with a group of Alaska Crossings campers just north of Berg Bay, across the narrows on the mainland near Wrangell. According to information provided by Public Information Officer Ken Marsh, with the Alaska State Troopers, the encounter occurred on Sunday, May 26, around 3 a.m. A brown bear wandered into the Crossings camp and began rummaging through the group's food. The group had a bear...
The captain of the fishing vessel Alaskan Girl has been indicted on federal charges of discharging 16,000 pounds of pollutant into the waters of Sumner Strait in June 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. According to information provided in a plea agreement filed on April 15, the F/V Alaskan Girl skippered by Brannon Finney, was enroute from Wrangell to Petersburg with four bags, known as super sacks or brailer bags, onboard. Each 4,000-pound bag contained sandblast waste generated...
WRANGELL - Moose meat was an important topic of discussion at the Wrangell Fish and Game Advisory Committee meeting on Mon., Jan. 7. The process by which meat from a forfeited moose is distributed through town is somewhat disorganized, said Committee Chair Chris Guggenbickler. The committee, and others around Wrangell, is interested in seeing a better system of distribution set up, one with more local control. As many Alaskans know, there are some tight restrictions on moose hunting. Alaska...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Wildlife experts are calling this summer one of the busiest years of bear encounters they have seen. Biologists believe that poor berry crops and struggling salmon are motivating the hungry bears to wander away from the woods and go into towns, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Recent incidents include a black bear taking over the Juneau arboretum and another bruin that shut down a fish-cleaning facility. A rise in the numbers of young black bears may also be contributi...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A Juneau man could face criminal charges after one of his wolf traps mortally wounded a black bear cub, Alaska State Troopers said. A group of hikers found the cub severely injured near the Ready Bouillon Creek in late May after it stepped into the trap which was illegally left out on Douglas Island, the Juneau Empire reported . The snare caught the cub around both hind legs and cut the bear almost all the way to the bone, said Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game determined that the c...
Alaska Wildlife Troopers filed charges against two Petersburg teens who allegedly hit multiple deer with a truck last week, filmed it, and then uploaded it to social media. The teens, 17-year-old Sebastian R. Davis and 17-year-old Jasmine C. Ohmer, were charged on Monday with harassing game, a class A misdemeanor, according to court documents. Davis was charged with reckless driving as well, which is a special class misdemeanor. The charges stem from a video that emerged last week on Snapchat, a social media app. The video allegedly shows a...
Hunters around Mitkof Island who shot a moose illegally this year have helped provide more than 1,400 pounds of meat - doubling last year -- to 10 service organizations and the school district in Petersburg. The five moose that were shot and then surrendered to state troopers this season were processed last week. Major Lonnie Upshaw with the Salvation Army, and Cody Litster, an Alaska Wildlife Trooper, recently were at the Petersburg Community Cold Storage with a small group, loading more than...
Trooper Cody Litster was about to pack everything he needed for the day into his truck one Thursday morning when he got a phone call about a shooting in his jurisdiction, 50 miles away. "It seems like it's all making sense now that I've asked a few more questions," said Litster, on his first call with a school administrator in Kake, who reported the shooting. Litster, a wildlife trooper, was in Petersburg when he first heard from Kake, a small village with no local police that's two hours away...
Voters in Petersburg are going to decide on October 3 whether off-highway vehicles should be allowed on most streets in town, prompting the question of how law enforcement responds to ATVs on streets now, and how they might if the Borough code is changed. The proposed ordinance change would allow for any off-highway vehicles -- side-by-sides, golf carts -- to be driven on every Petersburg street besides Haugen Drive, South Nordic Drive, Mitkof Highway and Scow Bay Loop. This does not include snow machines or snowmobiles. When asked about the AT...
A man who pled guilty this week to illegally shooting two bears on Admiralty Island in 2015 was sentenced to $13,000 in fines guaranteed, one-year probation and loss of hunting privileges for five years. Griffen Fales, 20 years old from California, appeared via phone before Judge Desiree Burrell in the Petersburg District Court on Tuesday. Fales pled guilty of two counts of taking a brown bear in closed season, two counts of fail to salvage, and one count of fail to possess a non-resident locking tag. An investigation from Alaska Wildlife...
The body of 24-year-old Jase Payne was found late Monday near a dock at Rocky Point Resort in Petersburg, Ending what had been a four-hour search by family members, state troopers and local police. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were notified at 6:52 p.m. on Monday that Payne was missing, last seen on the dock of Rocky Point Resort about 10 miles south of town. “Family members had been conducting hasty searches of the nearby Wrangell Narrows with no results,” wrote a press release from the State of Alaska daily dispatches. “Petersburg Alaska Wildl...
Alaska state troopers are asking for the public’s help in seeking the person who fatally shot a black bear and left it in a ditch along Mitkof Highway on Monday or Tuesday. Trooper Cody Litster responded to a call Wednesday morning of a black bear dead at mile marker 19 near Crystal Lake Hatchery. It had been shot but the bear had been dragged from the ditch and onto the road, left mangled and half eaten. “You wouldn’t want to eat in a wet, nasty ditch, right?” Litster said. “Might as well put...
The body of 24-year-old Jase Payne was found late Monday near a dock at Rocky Point Resort in Petersburg, Alaska ending what had been a four-hour search by family members, state troopers and local police. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were notified at 6:52 p.m. on Monday that Payne was missing, last seen on the dock of Rocky Point Resort about 10 miles south of town. “Family members had been conducting hasty searches of the nearby Wrangell Narrows with no results,” wrote a press release. “[A] Petersburg Alaska Wildlife Trooper and Petersburg Polic... Full story
WRANGELL – A new trooper has been selected to take the vacant Wrangell assignment, Alaska Wildlife Troopers confirmed this week. “We’ve had that position filled,” said AWT Captain Steve Hall. In October the Wrangell post was vacated with the resignation of Trooper Fred Burk. Burk had been stationed in the area about a year, following a push by locals and their legislative representation to retain the position, which had been under threat of reduction due to budget cutbacks. No trooper had been stationed in Wrangell through the spring and sum...
A 28-year-old Seattle man working aboard the F/V Odin was found deceased in his bunk by a fellow crew member Saturday morning. The cause of death is unknown, according to Tim Buness, Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department chief and Search and Rescue coordinator. The vessel, owned by Mark Severson of Petersburg, was located in Anita Bay near Wrangell, when the unresponsive Charles "Rhett" Richards was discovered. According to Buness, the U.S. Coast Guard and Wrangell Search and Rescue were in...
There are many positive and negative aspects to hunting moose in Petersburg, and one of the most notable negatives is dealing with the strict antler restrictions imposed on hunters. At times, it seems like hunters afield are literally rolling the dice when they pull the trigger. If the moose is legal, there is celebration, but if the animal is illegal it leads to a $300 fine. Thirteen moose were killed in the region this season that failed to meet the antler restrictions, and their meat was distributed to charity organizations and those in... Full story
WRANGELL - At 2:18 pm on Wednesday, following a search by the United States Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers, the body of an adult white male was located floating in Earl West Cove approximately 12 air miles southeast of Wrangell. The body was transported and positively identified as Kenneth Trammel by next of kin in Wrangell. The body will be transported to the State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy. The vessel has not been located. Relatives of 53-year-old Kenneth Trammel reported...
August 26 Brittaney Ruiz appeared before Magistrate Judge Desiree Burrell for an arraignment. The defendant pled guilty to a charge of Assault in the 4th Degree and was sentenced to 120 days in jail with 110 days suspended, $200 in surcharges with $100 suspended and two years of probation. Ruiz must also be evaluated by a substance abuse agency and may not drink alcohol or be on the premises of any establishment where alcohol is the primary item for sale. Jase Payne appeared before Superior Court Judge William Carey for sentencing. Payne...
August 12 F/V Spicy Lady captain Derek Gibb, 34, and permit holder Jaqueline Martens, 62, of Petersburg were served with a summons to appear for an arraignment in the Craig District Court after an Alaska Wildlife Trooper saw the seine vessel fishing in waters west of Craig that not currently open to commercial salmon seining....
On July 9, Thomas A. Stammer, 71, of Port Townsend, Wash. was cited by an Alaska Wildlife trooper (AWT) for sport fishing for Dungeness crab without a license near Duncan Canal. Bail is set at $210 with an optional appearance in the Petersburg District Court. On July 3 a Prince of Wales AWT contacted Charles Davis, 41, about a sport fishing incident in the fresh waters of Neck Creek. Davis was issued a citation for attempting to snag coho salmon in fresh waters and bail was set at $110 with an optional appearance in the District Court of...
