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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —Tourism leaders in Alaska are asking Congress to increase U.S. Forest Service recreation funding. Tourism leaders representing 49 businesses in Southeast Alaska wrote in an open letter last week that the U.S. Forest Service’s budget has shrunk by nearly half in a little more than a decade, hampering growth in southeast Alaska’s visitor industry. The U.S. Forest Service’s funding for recreation on the Tongass and Chugach national forests declined 46 percent from 2004-2014, the businesses said. That’s hurting businesse...
PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Mental Health Trust and federal government have a bunch of work that needs to be done before a land swap approved last year can happen_ work that has to be completed within the next two years. KFSK-FM reported Thursday that the legislation set a two-year deadline on completing surveys, appraisals and other studies of the land. The federal government is giving the mental health trust about 31.3 square miles (81 square kilometers) of the Tongass National Forest near Ketchikan on Prince of Wales Island. W...
WRANGELL, Alaska (AP) – State plans to store contaminated soil near a recreation area in the Alaska Panhandle could be stalled by the U.S. Forest Service. CoastAlaska News reports, state officials seek to move nearly 20,000 cubic yards (15,291 cubic meters) of lead-laced soil in a rock quarry south of Wrangell. Officials say they want the soil moved because it poses a threat to marine environment and have prepared it with phosphate-based product so the lead won't leach into soil or waterways. To move the soil, the state needs a road permit, w...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) – The U.S. Forest Service and an Alaska-based Native corporation announced the transfer of 12 square miles (31 square kilometers) of land from the Alaska Native corporation to the Admiralty Island National Monument. The land is part of the 34 square miles (88 square kilometers) Sitka-based Shee Atika Corp. logged between 1984 and 2002 after the Sitka urban corporation selected it as part of its land entitlement under the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act. Under an agreement between the Forest Service and Shee Atika s...
June 29, 1917 – After July 3, according to a law passed at the late session of the territorial legislature, a preliminary to marriage will be the securing of a marriage license. This is to be furnished to contracting parties by the U.S. commissioer of the district in which they reside. Both parties are required to be identified by the commissioner before issuance of license. If either party is under legal age, consent of parents or guardian must also be furnished to the commissioner. The license costs $2.50, and the commissioner collects $...
This Congressional legislation was enacted for the purpose of establishing an area within the Tongass National forest in Southeastern Alaska for the preservation and continuity of nature and wilderness. This action was honorable, noble, and vital and there was complete agreement among the people most associated with nature, as the U.S. Forest Service, hunters, fishers, nature lovers, and the general public that could enjoy it. At this time the Forest Service allowed the public use of these...
Petersburg was paid a visit by longstanding United States Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on Monday, part of a wider tour of Southeast that includes Ketchikan and Juneau. Extra chairs had to be brought into the Borough Assembly chambers to accommodate the audience, and people stood at the room's back and sides. Seated front and center, Young explained the session would be an informal way for people to give input and ask questions. "I'm here primarily to hear what's on your mind and what you'd like to...
Fluoridation proven safe To the Editor: The safety and effectiveness of community water fluoridation has been scientifically proven and documented for 60 years. Dental decay is still the number one disease of children. Water fluoridation can greatly reduce decay across the population. The safety and efficacy is supported by over 100 National and International organizations, the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Public Health Service(CDC), the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization, and the...
WRANGELL – The Stikine River Birding Festival celebrates the spring arrival of migratory birds, including hundreds of thousands of shorebirds to the Stikine River Delta. The 20th year of this Wrangell festival takes place April 27-30, 2017. This year’s schedule is now available online at www.stikinebirding.org. Highlights include family activities, photo and art competitions, birding excursions, bird banding demonstrations, and guest speakers. Presenters this year include Dan Ruthrauff from the USGS Alaska Science Center, who will share his...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a resolution opposing H.R. 232 — an act sponsored by Alaska Congressman Don Young that would transfer up to 2 million acres of Tongass National Forest to the state of Alaska. The assembly voted to table the resolution during its last meeting and rewrite some of the language member Bob Lynn said wasn’t in the best interest of the borough. The rewritten language, in part, states, “…transferring ownership of major portions of the Tongass National Forest within the Petersburg Borough to the State of Alaska w...
We find the Borough Assembly’s opposition to H.R. 232 to transfer up to 2-million acres of the Tongass National Forest to the State of Alaska very short sighted. According to their Resolution #2017-07 they would trade shrinking numbers of government jobs, dwindling federal handouts in the form of Payments in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools funding for the opportunity to move acres of federal land into State ownership. Make no mistake. Government is a poor landlord. But with the transfer of Federal land into State hands, the landlord m...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly tabled a resolution opposing H.R. 232—an act sponsored by Alaska Congressman Don Young that would transfer up to 2 million acres of Tongass National Forest to the the state of Alaska. The land that would go into state control includes subsurface lands, roads, campgrounds and cabins and the resolution cited concerns that logging would supersede other land uses. “Whereas, the Alaska Timber Jobs Task Force from which this federal land transfer strategy originated was heavily weighted to timber industry rep...
Rethink flouride To the Editor: I would like to request the Borough reevaluate its practice of adding fluoride to our water supply. It is time to investigate what the current research is on the safety of fluoride after so many years of public use. I found that fluoride in drinking water does give dental benefits to people across the board, and over and over I read, “the benefits outweigh the risks.” But that made me wonder, if there are recognized risks associated with fluoride introduced into the drinking water of municipalities, why don...
The bill giving the green light to an exchange of thousands of acres of land between the Alaska Mental Health Trust and the U.S. Forest Service was introduced in Juneau this week. Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan, filed House Bill 155 on Monday. It authorizes the trust to go ahead with an exchange of more than 17,000 acres of trust land for 20,000 acres of rural Forest Service timber land. In the process, the exchange would eliminate the possibility of logging on trust-owned land on Deer Mountain and above the Mitkof Highway in Petersburg. Those...
A snag in Sitka that was holding up progress on a state bill to help the Alaska Mental Health Trust with its land exchange — and thereby prevent logging on Deer Mountain — has been resolved, putting the bill on track to be introduced this session. State and federal lawmakers, at the behest of the trust, have been working on legislation that would mandate the U.S. Forest Service exchange more than 20,000 acres of rural timber land for approximately 17,000 acres of trust land located near Ketchikan, Meyers Chuck, Petersburg, Wrangell, Sitka and...
WRANGELL – In its first meeting of the new year, the governing board for Southeast Alaska Power Agency looked ahead to political reshufflings at the state and federal levels. Meeting in Petersburg February 8, members of the board learned from SEAPA executive officer Trey Acteson a change in administrations at the federal level could be useful to the agency’s future operations. For example, only two commissioners sitting on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – which licenses hydropower projects – remain in place since the swearing in of P...
WRANGELL – The Forest Service (USFS) announced its permits for visiting Anan Wildlife Observatory this summer will be available at the start of next month. At 8 a.m. on February 1 members of the public will be able to reserve permits at the Recreation.gov website. Twenty permits will be made available for each day of the season, which runs from July 5 to August 25. Visitation outside this time frame does not require a permit. Reservations and payment can also be made by phone, at the 1-877-444-6777 hotline. Permits for 2017 cost $10 api...
January 20, 1917 – Postmaster Refling has received advice from the department at Washington that, owing to the difficulty in obtaining paper and skilled labor, the furnishing of “office-request” envelopes has been suspended for the present. These are the envelopes with the words, “After – days, return to - , Petersburg, Alaska,” printed on corner. It is stated, however, that there is ample stock of envelopes with only the stamp printed thereon; also that “special request” envelopes – bearing the printed card of the purchaser – may be had. Jan...
The state has so far not received any applications from a number of floathouse owners contacted last autumn. Since October, the Department of Natural Resources has been reaching out to identified owners of floating facilities anchored along the Stikine River’s tidal area, the land which is under its clear jurisdiction after resolving a longstanding dispute with the United States Forest Service last March. The floathouses being targeted are those anchored within the tidal influence of the river, which ends just beyond the terminus of Shakes S...
January Public Works rolled out the borough's highly anticipated blue cart recycling program. The borough received $820,117.61 from the annual raw fish tax. Dave Zimmerman was hired as the new Tongass National Forest Petersburg District Ranger. The assembly continued discussing the reallocation of the Kake access road funding. Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins took part in a budget crisis presentation at Sons of Norway Hall. The visit was the first of many by representatives throughout the...
JUNEAU – Plans for managing the nation’s largest national forest call for changes in timber harvests that one critic says will be “the demise of the timber industry.” The Tongass National Forest released a management plan update Friday that it says emphasizes young-growth timber sales in the forest covering much of southeast Alaska over old-growth timber. The plan would allow for a logging rate that management says will meet projected demand. Kristen Miller, with the Alaska Wilderness League, says the plan protects important places that sup...
WRANGELL – A number of Petersburg and Wrangell residents have been receiving letters from the state, informing them their float houses anchored along the Stikine River need to be permitted or else move. Since the late 1970s, the placement of float houses and temporary cabins along the river have made it convenient for locals making use of the river basin, be it for subsistence fishing, hunting, trapping, work or recreational purposes. While a number are there on a seasonal basis, this year some 18 have been identified as being situated y...
Suzanne Wood, co-founder of Mitkof Highway Homeowners Association, on Sept. 1, sent a letter to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority seeking records for the 11 August 2016 Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority’s Resource Management Committee Meeting and Executive Session and for the 24 August 2016 AMHTA Board of Trustees Special Meeting. The documents, according to the letter, “are necessary for us to ascertain how the Trust could transition from the ongoing and forward-moving AMHTA-US Forest Service administrative land exchange process to s... Full story
tWRANGELL – The City of Wrangell is applying to the United States Forest Service to give a historic boat a new home. The M/V Chugach was one of 11 ranger boats operating in the state during the first half of the 20th century. Built at the Lake Union Dry Dock and Machine Works in Seattle in 1925, the vessel was assigned to Cordova for work in the Tongass and Chugach national forests. It remains the last of its kind in the USFS fleet, continuing service until last year. The boat was restationed in Petersburg in 1953, it served from there more t...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A bear that mauled two cruise ship wilderness guides during a hiking excursion in Alaska attacked so quickly that there was little time to defend against the animal, the CEO of the cruise ship company said. The attack occurred after the guides and a group of hikers from the cruise vessel Wilderness Explorer rounded a “semi-blind corner” and found themselves between the bear and her cub, UnCruise Adventures CEO Dan Blanchard told the Juneau Empire in an interview published Tuesday. “I can’t express enough about how rapid...
