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The Borough Assembly approved a letter on Wednesday to Alaska's congressional delegation asking they postpone enacting a bill that would transfer borough land to a Urban Corporation in order to gather the opinions of local residents that would be impacted by the decision. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Fulfillment Act of 2020 looks to authorize land transfers to five Southeast Alaska native communities that did not receive land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska island village plans to use an advanced version of an ancient renewable energy system to lower its high energy costs. The village of Kake wants to build a biomass district heating system to warm its public buildings while saving the community nearly $100,000 annually in energy costs, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Tuesday. Kake was awarded a federal Department of Agriculture grant to design its biomass system. The village is now seeking funding. The system planned for Kake, on Kupreanof Island south of Juneau, woul...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a final Alaska Roadless Rule that exempts the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 provision that prohibited road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvests. The Record of Decision identifies the selected alternative, provides the rationale for the decision, and explains that the exemption does not authorize any specific projects in Alaska. Proposed projects must continue to comply with the 2016 Tongass Land Management Plan and be analyzed under the N...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. government ignored the requests of some Alaska Native groups to uphold national Roadless Rule restrictions in the Tongass National Forest, tribal officials said. The U.S. Forest Service recommended lifting the rule completely and is expected to make the decision official before the end of October, CoastAlaska reported Friday. The agency started a 30-day clock last month to completely exempt Tongass National Forest from the 2001 regulation. “It's just another broken promise to tribes as far as we're con...
Pilot publisher Ron Loesch won a 2nd place award from the National Newspaper Association for his editorial supporting lifting of the Roadless Rule on the Tongass National Forest. The editorial appeared in the November 21 edition of the newspaper in 2019. Judges commented: "Well written editorial commentary on how federal regulations affect a local population." The Petersburg Pilot also received an honorable mention for its special investigative story about the airport terminal space squeeze...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska conservationists are urging state and federal officials not to reopen wolf hunting season around Prince of Wales Island. They are imploring officials to do so in order to allow the population of wolves to recover from last season’s record harvest, CoastAlaska reported. Much of the island is part of the Tongass National Forest, which makes state and federal governments in charge of managing hunting and trapping. The U.S. Forest Service had postponed the federal subsistence wolf season until Oct. 31. The sta...
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to exempt the country’s largest national forest from a ban on timber harvests and road building in roadless areas, a move conservation groups denounced Thursday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, under which the Forest Service falls, announced Thursday the upcoming release of a final environmental review identifying a preferred alternative to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the so-called Roadless Rule. Once the review is released, at least 30 days must pass before a final decision is made. The Tong...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service issued a deadline to the operator of an Alaska island boat shop to tear down the historic complex and leave, but the owner said the agency’s demands are unrealistic. The federal agency ordered Sam Romey to vacate Wolf Creek Boatworks on Prince of Wales Island, CoastAlaska reported Thursday. Tongass Forest Supervisor Earl Stewart said in an Aug. 14 letter that the boathouse and shop building must be removed by Dec. 15. Ownership of the land parcel occupied by the shop is scheduled to be tra...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Critics and proponents are debating the merits of changes to federal environmental policy, including the effects on management of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The largest U.S. national forest will probably be impacted by the Trump administration’s recent revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Wednesday. Supporters have said the changes streamline a regulatory process that hampers development on federal lands. Natalie Dawson, executive director of Audubon Alaska, said the upd...
Can't afford boondoggle To the Editor: Senator Stedman's diatribe defending his second road to nowhere is totally unpersuasive (Petersburg Pilot, July 2, 2020). His persistent opposition to public involvement smacks of a backroom deal gone wrong. But that does not matter. We simply cannot afford this boondoggle given Alaska's deficit spending and more pressing needs. This road was a last-minute addition to a capital budget done without adequate public hearings. True to form, Senator Stedman...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A Colorado company agreed to a $7 million cleanup plan for Alaska’s only uranium mine, which has left radioactive waste in the Tongass National Forest. Newmont Corporation is expected to fill the former Ross-Adams Mine in the Prince of Wales Island area, CoastAlaska reported Monday. A plan has been in the works for decades to close and clean the open pit mine area on the slopes of Bokan Mountain at the head of Kendrick Bay. The remote area is used by residents for fishing halibut and other activities, said Eric Rhodes of...
Turbulent Times To the Editor: We live in turbulent times. Everywhere in the lower 48 it seems monuments and statues are being toppled. Even in Alaska I've heard talk of removing certain statues of historical figures, and many worry that vandalism or some form of statuary dismemberment may be perpetrated I hope our local constabulary is keeping close watch on our own local statue, that bronze likeness of Bojer Wikan that dominates the Memorial Park. In his lifetime he frequently expressed his...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservationists have asked the federal government to provide better protection for a wolf population in Southeast Alaska. A letter sent to the supervisor of Tongass National Forest says a record number of 165 wolves killed by trappers threatens wolves on and around Prince of Wales Island, CoastAlaska reported Monday. The April 13 letter to Forest Supervisor Earl Stewart was signed by representatives of advocacy groups Defenders of Wildlife, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and the Center for Biological Diversity. ...
Heath Whitacre, of the Petersburg Forest Service, went into detail on the Forest Service's efforts to maintain and restore watershed conditions in the Tongass National Forest late last month as part of a series of science talks featuring local professionals. A properly functioning watershed can create and sustain habitats that can support a diverse population of aquatic wildlife, including salmon. According to Whitacre, 80 percent of the Southeast Alaska commercial salmon harvest comes from...
Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have identified a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago. The new species, Gunakadeit joseeae, is the most complete thalattosaur ever found in North America and has given paleontologists new insights about the thalattosaurs' family tree, according to a paper published recently in the journal Scientific Reports. Scientists found the fossil near Keku Island near the village of Kake in 2011....
It’s been a long time coming but payments should soon be in hand for Alaska fishermen, processors and coastal communities hurt by the 2016 pink salmon run failure, the worst in 40 years. The funds are earmarked for Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Chignik, Lower Cook Inlet, South Alaska Peninsula, Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Congress ok’d over $56 million in federal relief in 2017, but the authorization to cut the money loose languished on NOAA desks in DC for over two years. The payouts got delayed again last October when salmon permit hol...
A patchwork of logging roads already exists, and the project would connect those roads to make a 35-mile, single-lane road between Kake and 12-mile Creek north of the city of Kupreanof. The money was allocated in 2012 by State Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, as part of a program called "Roads to Resources" meant to help access to natural resources. "We need to have a transportation system in Southeast," Stedman said in a phone interview. "This road is part of a bigger drive to help stabilize and exp...
January 23, 1920 The Petersburg members of the Boy Scouts of America have offered their services to the Petersburg Fire Department to assist in keeping the crowds back from any fire which might occur and to maintain the fire lines. Their offer has been accepted by the firemen and in the future the boys will be on duty maintaining fire lines for the firemen. At a regular meeting of the Fire Department, the Boy Scouts were made volunteer firemen. Also the scouts decided to observe Universal Good Turn Week February 8 to 14 1920, in honor of the te...
Every year since 1991 Fish Factor has selected “picks and pans” for Alaska’s seafood industry - a no-holds-barred look back at some of the year’s best and worst fishing highlights, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year. Here are the 2019 picks and pans, in no particular order - Best fish scientist – Dr. Bob Foy, director of science and research at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center/Juneau – No one explains science better or with more passion. Biggest new business potential: Mariculture. Alaska is acting on plans to grow a $10...
January Following the shutdown of the U.S. government on Dec. 22, 2018, the U.S. Coast Guard stated it would continue offering essential services. The borough assembly approved $600,000 for a new baler. The USCG located debris from an overdue medivac aircraft that had three people onboard that was due to land in Kake several nights before. A decrease in air cargo coming into Petersburg affected the timely arrival of residents' packages after the retirement of Alaska Airlines' combi 737-400...
JUNEAU – As climate change rapidly alters conditions in southeast Alaska, lower snowpack levels have caused a massive decline of yellow-cedar trees. Without an insulating blanket of snow, the shallow roots of yellow-cedar trees freeze during late spring cold snaps. Left behind is a growing expanse of "ghost forests" of dead yellow-cedars, affecting roughly 678,000 acres (nearly the area of Yosemite National Park). The decay-resistant properties of yellow-cedar allow the trees to remain s...
The borough assembly failed to pass a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture and the United States Forest Service at an assembly meeting Monday expressing discontent with the process of reviewing the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. The letter, which was drafted by Assembly Member Chelsea Tremblay, notes that when the Forest Service presented their six alternatives to the Roadless Rule at a public meeting in November, it seemed as if the decision to go with the alternative six,...
The borough assembly took a neutral position on the future of the Roadless Rule at Monday's assembly meeting when they voted against a resolution that supported keeping the Roadless Rule intact and a resolution repealing it. Resolution #2019-14 was in support of alternative one of the draft environmental impact statement released by the United States Forest Service regarding the future of the Roadless Rule. Alternative one, or the do nothing option, keeps the Roadless Rule in place. Resolution #...
The roadless rule should remain intact To the Editor: The proposed Tongass exemption from the 2001 Roadless Rule is for the singular purpose of accessing the last bastions of high volume old growth timber, which will be largely exported in the round. If approved, this would be at great cost to taxpayers, and at great profit to Viking Lumber of Klawock and Alcan/Transpac Group of Vancouver, BC-both timber exporters. A recent report by Taxpayers for Common Sense, concluded that between 1999-2018,...
The value of Alaska salmon permits has ticked upwards in regions that experienced a good fishery this year while others have tanked. Not surprisingly, the record sockeye fishery at Bristol Bay has boosted sales of driftnet permits to nearly $200,000, up from the mid-$170,000 range prior to the 2019 season. Another strong run forecast of 48.9 million sockeyes for 2020 with a projected harvest of 36.9 million could increase the value even more, said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. What’s really raising eyebrows, Bowen said, is v...
