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WRANGELL - The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, SEACC, was founded in 1970 to protect the land and wildlife of the Tongass National Forest. The SEACC board of directors is made up of people who have made this region their home, from Seattle to Yakutat. Current Board President Stephen Todd is a Wrangell resident. SEACC board members and staff all came to Wrangell this past week to hold meetings on topics they felt were of public interest. The main two topics that were brought up were the Ro...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — The state has signed a $2.1 million contract with ALCAN Timber Inc. for a timber sale on state and federal forest land in southeast Alaska. The timber sale includes about 481 acres (195 hectares) within the Southeast State Forest and Tongass National Forest on the northwest end of Gravina Island, the Ketchikan Daily News reported Saturday. State Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige signed the three-year contract Wednesday. The Vallenar Bay sale involves about 16 million board feet (38,000 cubic m...
The Tongass National Forest recently announced that Joni Johnson of the Petersburg Ranger District is the recipient of the Alaska Region's 2018 Hakala Award for Conservation Education and Interpretation, making her the regional nominee for the National Gifford Pinchot award. Joni received her Hakala award at the National Association of Interpreters (NAI) annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana this fall. Joni uses her passion of teaching to create effective and original interpretive and...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A state agency plans to swap land in southeast Alaska for federal land that can be developed for timber sales. The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority board on Thursday approved a land exchange with the U.S. Forest Service that will trade 18,000 acres (7,284 hectares) of trust lands for 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) of federal land, the Juneau Empire reported. The trust lands are scattered throughout southeast Alaska and the exact amount to be traded must be worked out. Wyn Menefee, director of the trust authority land o...
WRANGELL - Students at Evergreen Elementary School have spent the past few days making Christmas ornaments. Some students drew pictures of Alaskan wildlife, others made miniature wreaths, and another class made poinsettias. All these ornaments are not only fun projects for students to work on. They will be travelling up to Juneau in the coming weeks to hang on the governor's Christmas tree. Tory Houser, with the Forest Service, said that the Wrangell district of the Tongass National Forest has...
It was clear to Sam Bunge that he was going to Vietnam after he graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1967. He participated in the university's Reserve Officer Training Corps in preparation because he didn't want to join the United States Army as a private. "I wanted to have a little bit of control of what happened," said Bunge. His first year in the army was spent training. He completed his basic training in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. Since he was entering the army as...
Roadless areas are the cornerstone to the economy and well being of southeast. The Roadless Rule is working for its designed purpose which is to ensure that the 99% of the economy that depends on intact old growth forest is protected from the less than 1% that wants to clearcut it and export it round. It is a myth that old growth is a renewable resource. There is a limit to how many 300 yr. old logs can be piled on a log ship bound for China. The ecosystem itself probably takes three times that long to mature. It’s simply unsustainable. A...
The 2001 Roadless Rule, covering 58 million acres of National Forest Land, including the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, was pushed through the entire national rulemaking and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes in 15 months. The 2001 Roadless Rule was promulgated by the outgoing Clinton Administration just eight days before President George W. Bush was inaugurated. The Roadless Rule was justified by the Clinton Administration’s claim that a national level “whole picture” review of National Forest roadless areas was neede...
On Sept. 25, a meeting was held by officials from the United States Forest Service to inform the public about the state’s plan to alter the Roadless Rule which prevents the construction of roads in nearly 60 million acres of land throughout the country. About 55 percent of the Tongass National Forest and 99 percent of the Chugach National Forest is subject to the Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule was put into effect in 2001. In 2003, the Tongass was exempt from the Roadless Rule but reinstated in 2011. The USDA initiated an environment impact st...
WRANGELL — In 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a nationwide regulation on the management of roadless areas in national forests across the country. The “Roadless Rule,” as it’s known, generally prohibits timber harvesting and road construction in roadless areas.The rule affects 58.5 million acres of land across the country, based on information provided by the Forest Service. According to Nicole Grewe, with the Forest Service, about 55 percent of the Tongass National Forest is designated as roadless area. The Roadless Rule ha...
The Nolan Center was littered with maps of the Tongass National Forest Sept. 5. Members of the Wrangell and Petersburg Ranger districts came by to hold a public meeting on the Central Tongass Project, a series of proposed long-term renovations in the area. Dave Zimmerman, with the Petersburg Ranger District, explained that the Central Tongass Project covers both the Petersburg and Wrangell districts, an area that stretches across the Wrangell, Mitkof, Kupreanof, Kuiu, Zarembo, and Etolin islands, as well as a section of the mainland. According...
Clarification To the Editor: Thank you to the Petersburg Pilot for the coverage of the 1st annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Walk/Run. I would like to clarify that while my granddaughter Amalia was correctly identified as Alaska Native, I am not. I am however a proud member of the Seetka Kwann Dance group, founded in 1990 and led by Jeanette Ness. Many thanks to SEARHC, WAVE, PIA and Petersburg Parks and Rec for coordinating this event and to all who participated. Karin McCullough Senior exemption thorny issue To the Editor: The...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Trees soon may be cut down in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, and federal officials want the public’s input on the matter. A new rulemaking process for an Alaska — specific version of the Roadless Rule — which prevents timber harvest and the building of roads on 0.01 million square miles (0.03 million square kilometers) of roadless lands in southeast Alaska — is now open for public comment. A notice published last week in the Federal Register, the official journal of the federal government, opens the first official ve...
In the summer of 1992, the Student Conservation Association sent six interns to Kupreanof Island to build a fish pass. Two of the interns, Lane Bagley and Chuck Najimy, soon became fast friends. Twenty-six years later, their sons, with the SCA helped rebuild the same fish pass that their fathers built. Like their fathers, Steven Bagley and Cal Najimy created a bond over the weeks from working, living and fishing together. Plus, both had grown up hearing the same stories about their fathers’ t...
The Petersburg Marine Mammal Center is hosting a summer science camp this week to expose middle school aged kids to the scientific jobs available in the community. "We're excited," said Sunny Rice, Petersburg Marine Mammal Center board member and marine advisory agent with the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences/Alaska Sea Grant. "It'll be fun. It's always lots fun. Lots of energy. It's good to expose them to things they might want to do later on in life." Although, the summer camp is...
WRANGELL - Early on Thursday morning, several members of the U.S. Forest Service left Wrangell with some guests for a trip to the Anan Wildlife Observatory. Present on the trip were Michael Saxton and Leslie Skora with the Katmai National Park. They were visiting Anan for an "information swap," they explained. They wanted to learn about some of the best practices in wildlife observation they could take from Anan, and also provide some tips to the Forest Service in the Wrangell district. Acting...
WRANGELL — The Wrangell Ranger District is hosting a public meeting at the James & Elsie Nolan Center in Wrangell on May 31 from 7-8 pm in order to include community input into the development of a Long-Term, Sustainable Cabin Management Strategy in order to be responsive to developing trends and challenges, while ensuring the Forest continues to provide for a high-quality cabin experience through an array of opportunities. This effort was inspired by increasing maintenance costs, decreasing budgets and significant changes in usage trends. Pub...
WRANGELL — Wrangell’s annual birding festival is gearing up for a week of activities late next week. This year’s Stikine River Birding Festival will be the 21st, put on cooperatively each year by Wrangell’s Convention and Visitor Bureau and the United States Forest Service. Highlighting birding opportunities on the Stikine River, the event also encourages wildlife conservation and is an opportunity to hone new skills. “This year we’ve brought back more of the art and photo aspects of the festival,” said Corree Delabrue, an interpreter w...
WRANGELL — Sen. Dan Sullivan stopped into Wrangell for a lightning tour Friday, arriving on the morning jet and taking off that afternoon for Ketchikan. His visit to Wrangell was the first since being sworn in, making the community one of his campaign stops in October 2014 while running on the Republican ticket. On a brief break in the session, he had earlier in the week attended training for the Marine Corps Reserves before heading back to Southeast. “I really just wanted to get back to the community and see all you guys, see what the issue...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The bodies of two experienced mountain climbers who are presumed dead likely won’t be recovered for months, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers said. Megan Peters said summer is the soonest that authorities could launch a recovery effort in southeast Alaska, though even that depends on snow and ice conditions and the risk to crew members. “We like to be able to provide closure to families also,” Peters said. “There are times where unfortunately we’re just not able to do so.” The agency said earlier this week tha...
Forensic accounting essential To the Editor: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" We’re all familiar with this thought experiment in observation and perception. So what if an investigation by the Washington Office (WO) visits the Petersburg, and Thorne Bay Ranger Districts and concludes in a report never intended to be made public, that thousands of trees fell in our public forest illegally? Does it make a sound in local newsprint when finally revealed? Not a peep was heard from the Pet...
WRANGELL — The Forest Service held a public input session with Wrangell residents last week, as it puts together ideas for a 10- to 15-year project to benefit the Wrangell and Petersburg districts of the Tongass National Forest. The Central Tongass Landscape Level Analysis would plan for a major project on a large scale that would increase the number of activities authorized in a single analysis and decision. It reflects a larger effort nationwide to improve the USFS environmental analysis process, and the approach is hoped to allow site-specif...
Four Petersburg young men were awarded the Eagle Scout honor at a ceremony on Monday, coming after more than a decade of scouting each, about 325 requirements and at least 21 badges. The Eagle Scouts, Van Abbott, Britton Erickson, Charles Christensen and Anders Christensen were honored in front of about 100 people at the House Cross House, a ceremony that included congratulatory remarks from their dads. "It's really amazing that four people would come through the same troop and get their eagles...
WRANGELL — The United States Forest Service is developing a new initiative for the Wrangell and Petersburg districts, encompassing state and private lands in addition to those managed federally. Tongass National Forest supervisor Earl Stewart last month issued a call for participation to the general public, seeking input on the Central Tongass Landscape Level Analysis. The announcement explains the purpose of the CTLLA will be to in a single analysis and decision plan a spatially large project for both districts, at the same time increasing t...
January The Borough assembly started approval of a program called Local Improvement Districts, which asks Petersburg residents whether they would pay for road work in their neighborhoods. The Petersburg School Board discussed the possible loss of federal funding through a program called Secure Rural Schools. The school district reported a case of a Pertussis, or whooping cough, confirmed in Petersburg. Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter said it was not a public health emergency. An engineer led...
