Public Tells Commissioners HB77 Concerns
A coalition of fisheries related business is holding a public forum in Anchorage tonight on House Bill 77. The controversial legislation would streamline permitting for the Department of Natural Resources. Earlier this week, people packed into the borough assembly chambers in Soldotna for a meeting on the issue. Not one member of the public testified in favor of the bill.
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Recent Warm Up Affects Subsistence Gathering
Normally in December, the Bethel area is covered in snow and ice but it’s been unseasonable warm so far. In fact, Bethel broke a record Dec. 6 reaching 48 degrees. The Y-K Delta is known for winter warm ups but the amount of them lately has some folks scratching their heads.
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Maritime Refuge Eyeing Invasive Cattle On Two Islands
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is looking for input from the public on how best to deal with about 1,000 head of cattle on two islands in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
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Governor Continues 100-Year-Old Holiday Tradition
Russian tea cookies, white chocolate coconut clusters, and star-shaped butter cookies are just a small sampling of what was available Tuesday afternoon at the Governor’s Annual Christmas and Holiday Open House.
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XtraTuf Says Its Boots Are Better
Popular footwear brand XtraTuf is on a mission to prove to their disappointed loyal customers that the iconic boots are not just “Sort-of-Tough.” Two years ago, parent-company Honeywell transferred production of XtraTuf from Illinois, to a factory in China, and the product that rolled off the line was nowhere near what Alaskans had come to expect. XtraTuf says the quality is back and they want to replace any pairs purchased that didn’t hold up, no questions asked.
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Crews Testing New Road Ice Breaker
The Alaska Department of Transportation has a new tool in the war on icy roads.
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Fairbanks Green Energy Advocate Pushes For Alternative Funding Model
A Fairbanks green technology advocate is trying to muster interest in an alternative model for financing energy and other projects. Fairbanks resident Robert Shields runs the local non-profit Alliance for Reason and Knowledge.
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Putting The ‘State’ In Alaska State Museum
The Alaska State Museum in Juneau is getting a lot of help from other Alaska museums ahead of its move to a new facility in 2016. As the staff works to pack up the more than 32,000 artifacts in its collection, museum professionals from around the state are lending a hand, and learning what it takes to safely store and transport priceless historical objects.
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Hovercraft To Be Replaced With Helicopter At Akutan Airport
For more than a year, getting in and out of Akutan has meant taking a hovercraft. The vessel ferries passengers to and from the island’s airport. But high costs and inconsistent service have sent the Aleutians East Borough looking for a better solution. Now, they think they’ve found one.
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State Weighs Options For Highway To Bypass Wasilla
The state Department of Transportation is considering a highway project that would route the Parks Highway around Wasilla, instead of through it. The small Matanuska – Susitna Borough community has long been at the center of Parks Highway congestion, since vehicles have to pass through traffic signals at local intersections while traveling through the city.
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Juneau Highway Gunfight Followed Friday’s Drug-Related Shooting
Officials and court records have revealed new arrests and information in Friday’s shooting and bogus kidnapping in Juneau, now tying it to drugs and an early morning highway gunfight that no one had reported to police. The case involves heroin, which has become extremely profitable in the capitol city in the last few years.
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Preliminary Report Reveals Few Details In St. Mary’s Crash
An Alaska commuter plane in which four people died last month had changed course from one small Alaska village to another because of deteriorating weather.
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Savoonga Harvests Second Whale
Amid an economic disaster and food shortage, Savoonga, a community on Saint Lawrence Island, harvested a 57-foot bowhead whale on Friday, the second whale for the community last week.
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Funerary Polar Bear Skulls May Be Returned To St. Lawrence Island
For over 80 years, hundreds of polar bear skulls from St. Lawrence Island have been sitting in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Now, under NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the artifacts may be returning to the tribe that buried them.
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Canada’s Arctic Claim Includes North Pole
Canada's Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said today that Canada will make a claim to the North Pole, but has not finished the science around its Arctic seabed.
Shipping Challenges In Canada’s Northwest
Canada’s western Arctic is rich in resources and communities keen to participate in responsible development.
The Christmas Star
On their first Christmas together, my parents purchased a simple red aluminum foil star for the top of their small tabletop Christmas tree.
In the snapshot they stand on either side of the tree. The star has a large hole in the center, obviously meant for a tree light to be inserted from the back.
Read more. Adak Eyes Potential Pollock Fishery
Recently, Alaska’s Board of Fisheries set up an experimental harvest in the Aleutian Islands that they thought might benefit small communities like Adak. But, Adak had their eyes on a much bigger prize.
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Geological Forensics At The Mendenhall Glacier
A slide that sent rocks crashing onto frozen Mendenhall Lake in late November actually caused a small tsunami. It also posed a scientific question as well as concern that rock slides are another unpredictable hazard for people exploring the frozen lake this winter.
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Dog Attack Victim, Hero Recount Their Ordeal
Juneau Animal Control is investigating two recent dog attacks in the Capital City.
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