Sorted by date Results 3595 - 3619 of 5625
The month long moose hunting season is ready to begin next week, opening on September 15 and lasting until October 15. For the Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake game unit, last year’s moose season turned out being the third best on record according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game harvest data. Area hunters had a 13-percent success rate, with 103 males harvested by 772 participating hunters. A total of 1,061 permits had been issued. After a reasonably mild winter, the moose population appears to be doing well. An aerial survey of the S...
With the seasonal peak behind it, Alaska’s commercial fishing industry is expecting one of the worst shortfalls for salmon in recent memory. As of last Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s in-season blue sheet summary estimated just over 102,245,000 salmon had been caught statewide, with less than a quarter of that caught in Southeast. Despite a fair showing for sockeye, the state’s fishermen would be fortunate enough to harvest half the 263,463,000 salmon estimated caught last year. The news has not been good for the local comme... Full story
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A dog is back home safe with its owners after a pilot who had just landed a floatplane spotted it struggling in an Alaska waterway and rescued it. Pilot Mike Hudgins pulled the miniature sheltie named Misty from Tongass Narrows on Sunday. The animal had been swimming alone in the channel between the Ketchikan International Airport ferry dock and Taquan Air’s floatplane dock. Hudgins had finished giving a tour to a family when he called out to Misty, who was about 40 yards ahead of where he landed. “She started to turn...
Jon Pust comes from a family filled with musicians and artists, including a couple of cousins who are "topnotch painters." Pust used to work construction and drove some truck, but after he taught himself how to carve soapstone and alabaster into wildlife it suddenly became his career. After seeing some soapstone carvings with his wife Dawn, she challenged Pust to try his hand at the craft. "At first I thought she was nuts, but she finally talked me into trying it and I made three or four pieces... Full story
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA) board approved the sale of timber on two parcels they own in Ketchikan and Petersburg on August 24. According to the Trust, the sale will move forward if Congress does not pass legislation this session requiring the U.S. Forest Service to exchange land with equal timber values for the parcels. According to the Trust the two land parcels will be rendered valueless if they are not marketed soon. The parcel of land near Petersburg runs along a section of uplands along Mitkof Highway that is prone...
In last week’s article about halibut released it was stated the assumed mortality for released fish was 60 percent, but it should have stated 16 percent. Also a “trawl survey” was referred to as a “troll survey.” The Pilot regrets the errors....
LeConte Glacier is a treasure many locals might overlook, but PHS students have been gaining a new respect for the icy giant for over 30 years now, thanks in large part to Paul Bowen. He is not a glaciologist. He is not a certified surveyor. Bowen was simply a science teacher who's been intrigued by glaciers ever since 1952 when he spent three months living on one while conducting fieldwork. In 1962, Bowen's first year teaching at PHS, it only took a week or two before he asked his new students...
WRANGELL – A pilot study currently underway seems to be bearing good news for Wrangells water worries. In mid-July the city declared a state of emergency as its water treatment plant struggled to meet local demand. An appeal to residents and local seafood processors to limit water usage followed, allowing Public Works time to replenish its reserve tanks. By August 18 City Hall declared the crisis over, but still encouraged people to conserve water. The problem was primarily with the plants w...
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) – Gov. Bill Walker is holding off on implementing an administrative order that was recently at the center of a lawsuit between the state and a commercial fishing trade association. A release issued Thursday by Walker’s office says he is putting a moratorium on the order to allow more time for public input, The Juneau Empire reported. The order, issued in February, called for the transfer of several functions of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The move is expected to sav...
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...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A new report highlights the uncertainty of the University of Alaska athletics programs, with some facing elimination as the university prepares to make drastic budget cuts in coming years. The UA Anchorage and UA Fairbanks programs receive more than half their current budget from state funding. University officials are looking to significantly reduce those funds, The Alaska Public Radio Network reported. The Anchorage campus is getting $5.3 million from the general fund for athletics this year, and university o...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – U.S. Rep. Don Young is updating his financial disclosures to show ownership in a family farm dating to the 1990s and income from oil and gas leases, omissions that a Young spokesman called inadvertent but that Young’s Democratic rival in this year’s election characterized as a betrayal of trust. Young spokesman Matt Shuckerow said Monday that the failure to include the farm prior to his 2015 congressional financial disclosure was an oversight that became apparent after the 2014 death of Young’s brother, Russell, and the...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Juneau police are investigating a theft of four carved Tlingit shields that hung in the entryway of an elementary school. The shields were taken last week between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. “They sort of formed a gathering spot for families who are entering the building and waiting for their children,” Harborview Elementary School Principal Tom McKenna told the Juneau Empire . “It was also a spot where children were photographed to be honored for their achievements.” Anyone with information is asked to cont...
Earlier this month the buzz around a monster halibut caught by local commercial fishermen in Thomas Bay went crazy after news of the catch spread through social media sites. Many of the comments expressed amazement for the monster catch, but some talked about sadness because another "breeder" was taken out of the reproduction equation. Multiple people talked about the cruelty of killing such a remarkable fish or simply said, "Should have put it back." No matter what your stance is, there are... Full story
The local Rotary club is known for sending students on its year-long exchange program to study abroad, but this summer a PHS student took part in the club's short-term program. Gillian Wittstock spent four weeks with a family in Germany and the two girls who hosted her there recently traveled to Petersburg to stay with the Wittstocks. Gillian is the first local student to participate in the program. She says getting to know Svea and Vilja Zahnke in Germany really made it easy for everyone to... Full story
Two employees at Petersburg Children's Center (PCC) recently received their child development associate credential. For Rocky Peeler and Theressa Phillips, both mothers of two, the achievement means looking toward the future with fresh training and knowledge to put into practice. "You see them bringing all that training and information into their classroom," says PCC director Brandi Heppe. The certificate included 120 hours of training, taking an exam in Juneau and being observed in a classroom... Full story
The Planning and Zoning Commission met Tuesday for their rescheduled meeting, and talked in length about an application from the Petersburg Borough to vacate a portion of a public easement at 919 Sandy Beach Road. “Now I understand we’ve received a request from an adjoining property owner to postpone this item,” said chairman Chris Fry, to start the public hearing. The property owner could not attend the meeting, because of it being rescheduled. The commission continued with the public hearing, however and the matter was ultimately postp...
When it comes to the low voter turnout of last week's primary election, House District 35, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins says it might be an all time record. "If so, it's kind of shocking," he says. He believes some of the reasoning is the lack of initiatives on the ballot, while the last cycle had multiple initiatives drawing high interest like marijuana and minimum wage. Kreiss-Tompkins visited Petersburg last week to attend the funeral services of Al Dwyer. Kreiss-Tompkins is seeking...
WRANGELL – Local shellfish gatherers are advised to steer clear of the beach near Shoemaker Bay, after specimens tested positive for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). The alert was posted to the Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research website at www.seator.org/data on Monday. A sampling of butterclams collected by the Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) staff and sent in to Sitka for testing turned out to have more than twice the state’s threshold for saxitoxin, the cause of PSP. The s...
WRANGELL – Last week the City and Borough of Wrangell announced emergency measures no longer needed to be taken to conserve its treated water supply. The announcement came on August 18, nearly a month after a state of disaster was declared by Mayor David Jack. The decision had been prompted by Public Works warning it could not treat water quickly enough to meet demand, due to problems with its 17-year-old plants filtration system. The Assembly and city officials had met with local seafood processors – which together make up around half of ove...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A brown bear mauled two wilderness guides who were leading a hiking excursion in Alaska after the group came between the female animal and her cub in the Tongass National Forest, state troopers said Friday. The guides a man and a woman were rescued by the Coast Guard after being injured Thursday on a trail on Chichagof Island about 30 miles north of Sitka in southeast Alaska. Troopers said the bears left the area after one of the victims used pepper spray. Authorities said they have no plans to hunt down the bear, and t...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Jeff King, a four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, is changing political teams when it comes to Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, pulling his endorsement of Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski and backing independent candidate Margaret Stock. King earlier this year appeared in a radio ad with two other mushers supporting Murkowski. But King told The Associated Press on Friday that he has changed his mind and is endorsing Stock. Stock sees herself as Murkowski’s main competition for the general election. King...
KENAI, Alaska (AP) – The public now has access to new reports detailing the work involved in creating Alaska’s proposed liquefied natural gas project. Project managers submitted the resource reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month. The reports are a second draft and come after three years of geotechnical and geophysical work as well as public meetings and feedback. They provide a wide range of information from a general overview of the project to where potential workers’children would attend school, The Peninsula Clari...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously to request greater community input on the spraying of pesticides to control vegetation in the borough. The issue is the result of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issuing a notice of proposed pollutant discharge. The current permit, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2011, expires at the end of October of this year. “The state has changed their process,’’ said vice mayor Cindi Lagoudakis as she began reading the permit proposal. “It’s for pesticide... Full story
