Sorted by date Results 326 - 336 of 336
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...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied Cascade Creek LLC, a private company seeking to develop hydropower in Thomas Bay near Petersburg, a pre-development permit. Cascade Creek previously had a preliminary permit to develop the Cascade Creek Hydroelectric Project. But now, it could be up to local entities to keep the project alive. The fate of the project is in the hands of Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) to decide. SEAPA, along with Petersburg Municipal Power & Light (PMPL) and Ketchikan Public Utilities have all shown...
