Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 326
WRANGELL — After carbon testing, a skull found on Government Slough last year has been found to be more that 1,000 years old – and is of Native Alaskan heritage. The skull, which was discovered by Wrangellite Vena Stough while hunting near the slough on Oct. 5, was first turned over to the Wrangell Police Department, who then handed it over to the Tongass National Forest supervisor’s office in Petersburg. According to U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Bob Dalrymple, the testing showed a range...
Dilution is the solution for pollution sums up the Parnell Administration policy when it comes to cruise ship discharges in Alaska waters. A bill being moved quickly by state lawmakers will repeal a 2006 citizens’ initiative that requires cruise ships to meet Alaska water quality standards at the point of discharge, and instead create mixing zones for dumping sewage, hazardous chemicals and other wastes. Alaskans won’t know where those zones are, as House Republicans rejected amendments to require disclosure of the locations. The measure, intro...
According to the Tongass National Forest District Rangers, there is a growing problem with abandoned vehicles and long-term parking on remote road systems near Petersburg and Wrangell. Rangers claim these vehicles are impacting public and contractor access to public lands, creating a safety concern, contaminating the environment with hazardous materials and creating an eyesore for the public. The Ranger Districts are responding to public requests to control the problem by designating long-term p...
January An elderly man was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street at Gjoa and Nordic Drive. The gentleman was crossing inside the crosswalk and was grazed by the vehicle’s mirror as it passed. The victim was thrown approximately 20 feet. He was on crutches at the time. Rock-N-Road Construction was granted a contract to demolish the Romiad Building to make room for the new library. The building was demolished for $22,499. The Petersburg City Council discussed condemning LeConte RV Park for s... Full story
Planning and preliminary design work has begun for a new electrical transmission line intertie that would extend west across the Tongass National Forest, from the Petersburg area to Kake on Kupreanof Island. According to Project Manager for the Intertie, Mark Schinman, the Kake – Petersburg Intertie would transmit power to Kake at either 69 or 138 kilovolts and consist primarily of single wood pole structures. Schinman also explained that two primary alternative routes are being considered. The two routes generally follow previously i... Full story
Nick Popp, Petersburg High School's Vocational Shop Teacher, addressed the Petersburg City School District School Board in order to bring the board up to date with the equipment that was given to PCSD through a Forest Service grant that began some years ago. The history of the Forest Service grant began several years ago with Paul Anderson. Anderson, at the time was on the Resource Advisory Board, RAC. Popp explained that RAC was spending a lot of money on signs for the Tongass National Forest and Anderson suggested that RAC and the Forest...
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has notified the Forest Service of an investigation into allegations of misrepresented and omitted pertinent information from its application for permission to store logs from the Tonka Timber Sale during log transfer to Klawock. DEC’s letter requires the Forest Service to respond in writing by Dec. 19 and was prompted by a request by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm on behalf of its client, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council i...
A skull found near the mouth of the Stikine River in October may require radiocarbon date testing to determine if it came from a Native Alaskan. The skull, which was discovered by Wrangellite Vena Stough while hunting near Government Slough on Oct. 5, was first turned over to the Wrangell Police Department, who then handed it over to the Tongass National Forest supervisor’s office in Petersburg. According to Forest Service anthropologist Jane L. Smith, the office of the Alaska State Medical Exam...
October 13, 1982- She hasn’t heard a phone ring since early childhood and the ring of the doorbell is lost to her ears. The noises that keep life running smoothly for most of us still evade Petersburg resident Kathi Hammer, but a scraggly, two-year-old mutt is changing that. Bingo, a tri-colored springer spaniel trained at the Applegate Behavior Center in Jacksonville, Ore., was delivered to Mrs. Hammer recently and is one of the first hearing ear dogs placed in Alaska. The dog aids its master in the same manner as a seeing-eye dog s...
KETCHIKAN (AP) — The Tongass National Forest stakeholders’ group known as the Tongass Futures Roundtable has voted to support a proposed land exchange in Southeast Alaska. The Tongass Futures Roundtable voted earlier this month to support the land exchange between the U.S. Forest Service and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. The deal involves nearly 39,000 acres of federal and Mental Health Trust lands. As proposed, the exchange includes about 20,900 acres of federal land in the Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island area, and about 18,...
Master carver Tommy Joseph poses near the Main Street totem poles which he carved for the city in 2000. Joseph last week during the Tongass Rainforest Festival taught Carving Halibut Hooks, a 13-hour workshop. He also was the keynote speaker, presenting Warriors of the Tongass, and was the special guest of a potluck at the Seaside restaurant....
THORNE BAY — The Thorne Bay Ranger District is mourning the loss of District Ranger Kent Nicholson, who passed away unexpectedly last weekend at his home on Prince of Wales Island. Although Nicholson had held his current position in Thorne Bay for less than a year, he enjoyed a long career in Southeast Alaska. Nicholson joined the Forest Service in Hoonah in 2004, when he was hired as a civil engineering technician. Soon after, Nicholson accepted a promotion to forester at the Petersburg R...
Due to very low public use, the cabin at Binkley Slough has been removed from the U.S. Forest Service’s public reservation system – a situation not unusual among other structures in Southeast. Because of this, the USFS is looking for public comment on whether a number of cabins across the Tongass should be removed from public use. “Many of these cabins are dilapidated and have not been on the cabin reservation system for many years,” stated Tongass National Forest supervisor Forrest Cole in an email. “The cabins that were available for rent...
Listen to Your Dog - with certified professional dog trainer Vickie L. Buchholz. Wednesday, Sept 5, 6:30 pm. Learn how to listen to and understand your dog. Understanding how they communicate, at various skill levels, with one another and with humans, will help us build a stronger relationship with our dogs. Tongass Rainforest Festival - Halibut Hook Carving Workshop with master carver Tommy Joseph. Sept 5 - 8 - Wednesday & Friday 6 – 9 pm, Saturday 9 am – 4 pm - Free - Must be able to attend ALL classes and be 16 years of age, call the lib...
JUNEAU — Regional Forester Beth Pendleton affirmed the Tongass National Forest supervisor's Tonka Timber Sale Record of Decision Monday, July 23. The 2,085-acre sale area encompasses most of the National Forest System lands on the southern half of Lindenberg Peninsula on Kupreanof Island, located across Wrangell Narrows from the Petersburg road system. Four appeals were received on the Tonka project, raising various issues related to economics, water quality, wildlife, and NEPA. One issue, raised in two of the appeals, related to the use of A...
Rep. Peggy Wilson, R-Wrangell and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka in May wrapped up the 27th legislative session, including a 30-day special session. They passed several pieces of legislation that benefit the Southeast region, and passed a capital budget that includes projects to benefit both Wrangell and Petersburg. “For the region itself, I thought we did very well,” Wilson said. “Basically the capital budget, we came out really good with the capital budget for the region. I made several trips...
Robert G. Dzur was born at home on an Indiana dairy farm on July 18, 1934. He died in Eureka on May 27, 2012 at the age of 77. Bob contracted polio while a toddler. His mother, dismayed by lack of doctors’ treatment, brought him home and massaged him with warm oil which cured his paralysis. He earned a degree in forestry from Purdue University and was hired by the U.S. Forest Service, Six Rivers. After serving in the U.S. Army, he returned to the Forest Service-Shasta-Trinity, Tahoe, Plumas a...
May 12, 1982 - A 41-2 strike vote by International Longshoreman’s Warehouse Union cold storage workers at Petersburg Fisheries Friday night was brought about mainly because of workers’ concerns that their overtime hours will be cut back, and because, under proposals made by the PFI negotiating team, workers would have to put in almost three times as many hours before they would be eligible for top wage, according to ILWU Local 85 President Cathy Montgomery. At Whitney-Fidalgo, ILWU cold sto...
Forrest Cole, Tongass National Forest Supervisor, last week announced the decision to allow the Tonka Timber Sale on Kupreanof Island to proceed. Now an official appeals process will take place for those opposing the sale. For those in favor, a planning process will begin. According to the Forest Service the sale will provide an estimated 38 MMBF (millions of board feet of timber) of timber, and create up to 183 jobs. These jobs will include stevedoring, road construction, barging and transportation, fuel delivery and mill jobs, said...
Alaska Congressman Don Young spoke about a program to revitalize Southeast schools, local businesses and sea otter pelt market possibilities during a brief stop in Petersburg on Tuesday. Young met with the Economic Redevelopment Council on Tuesday in City Council chambers. The hour-long round-table invited members of the council and the community to speak their minds. Young first spoke about the importance of the fishing industry in Southeast Alaska: “You can't just build up a work-force over ni...
There's a new Ranger in town. Jason Anderson, 38, is now at the helm of the U.S. Forest Service office in Petersburg. An avid-outdoorsman, the father of five, said he is welcoming the responsibility of the Tongass National Forest. “The job of forest ranger has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. It's got the same purpose, but technology has caught up,” Anderson said. “I guess the earliest rangers had a horse and a gun, or in this area their main purpose was to aid the fishing indus...
Field inventories needed To the Editor: The Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan FEIS of 1-23-2008 provides for the sustainability of the resources of the Tongass National Forest yet the proposed Tonka Timber Sale only provides for viable populations of deer for subsistence. Definition of these 3 key words are (1)Sustainability- to provide for support of and sustenance or nourishment for. (2)Resource- something that lies ready for use or that can be drawn upon for aid to the care of a need. (3) Viable- able to live and likely to survive....
A lack of information about the elk on Etolin Island sparked a collaborative study between the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) last year. With the use of tracking collars, the study attempts to collect more data on the non-native species, such as population numbers, their habitat and their effect on the environment and other animals. Last week, ADFG Aerial Wildlife Biologist Richard Lowell came to Wrangell to discuss the elk study as part of the Chautauqua lecture series at the Nolan Center. Since...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — More than 12,000 acres of the Tongass National Forest's oldest and largest trees are being targeted for logging under a bill that would place wide swathes of forest lands in private hands, an Audubon report says. “These are the ancient giant tree stands,” said Audubon Alaska policy director Eric Myers. “These are effectively the redwoods of the Tongass.” Audubon Alaska used U.S. Forest Service data to look at the potential impact of a bill pending in Congress that would allow Sealaska Corp. to pick choice lands in the natio...
