According to NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration GOES, or Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, is the second new unit to be deployed into orbit over the equator. The first of the new minivan size satellites, positioned to view the eastern North America, went up in 2016, replacing an older model. NASA says the satellites send images and other data to earth five times faster than predecessor versions.
”It fires a picture every one minute, which is incredible to what we’ve seen before,” Fairbanks National Weather Service meteorologist Becca Mazur said.
Mazur says the higher transmission speed helps forecasters do their job.
”You can actually use the satellite imagery now,” Mazur said. “You can use it for forecast at the moment instead of having to wait 15-plus minutes for the picture to show up.”
The new satellites also offer four times better image resolution, finer detail Mazur says is key to observation and forecasting.
“It’s a significant improvement for observing clouds and other weather patterns,” Mazur said.
Lisa Wirth is interim director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geographic Information Network of Alaska or “GINA”, which has NASA contracts to download and process data from similarly equipped polar orbiting satellites.
Wirth points to the technology’s value in quickly tracking weather, as well as a range of other environmental conditions.
“To discern between snow, ice and cloud cover,” Wirth listed. ”Sea ice, wildfire, volcanic emissions.”
Near-real time tracking of conditions is important to public safety, capability Wirth credits to a general growth in space based earth observation.
”The number of satellites that are flying in space are increasing, and so that’s just increasing our temporal coverage,” Wirth said. “Which means we can get data faster, more often over the same spot on the Earth and, of course, the technology is also increasing, so we’re getting better data in itself.”
A rocket carrying the new GOES satellite is scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:04 p.m. Alaska Time Thursday.
A 39-year-old Ketchikan man was buried in an avalanche while snowboarding on Dude Mountain Sunday afternoon. A search began on Monday, but has been temporarily suspended because of bad weather.
Jerry Kiffer is with Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad. He said two snowboarders hiked up to the summit area of the mountain. They were snowboarding when the avalanche was triggered at about noon.
“One person was buried – or presumed to have been buried,” Kiffer said. “The other one used his avalanche beacon, was able to get a signal from the other person, dug for an hour and a half, wasn’t able to locate him. Without cell signal or anyway to get help, he came back down the mountain to get help.”
Kiffer said KVRS was notified at about 5 p.m. At that point, he said it was too dark to start a recovery effort. They had hoped to launch a helicopter on Monday, but weather prevented them from getting close.
Kiffer says crews skied and snowshoed to the site instead. At around noon, they were testing the snow to see whether it was safe to search.
In an interview later on Monday afternoon, Chris John of KVRS said the snow conditions were extremely dangerous, and crews could not search thoroughly. They looked as best they could from stable areas on the mountain, he says, and didn’t see any sign.
The wind was blowing about 50 mph on top of the mountain, and recovery crews were recalled mid-afternoon. John says they will try again when the weather improves, which could be Thursday or Friday.
According to Alaska State Troopers’ online dispatch, the man is Marvin Scott. Next of kin has been notified.
A nesting female white-fronted goose. (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center)
Here’s a drama in three acts. The year: 2013. The setting: a marshy patch of brown grass in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. And there in the middle is a nesting female greater white-fronted goose. For a while, not much happens: the goose just sits on her eggs.
But then comes the second act. A small, fuzzy, white Arctic fox approaches the nest. Mother goose springs into action.
An Arctic fox approaches. (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center)
“Upright, wings spread, mouth open, very aggressive — she actually looks quite mean,” Brandt Meixell, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, said, narrating a series of photos taken by a camera set up about 20 feet from the goose’s nest.
But not mean enough to deter Mr. Fox. The tangle intensifies: in the next photo, the fox bares its teeth as the goose flaps her wings.
A fight! (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center)
Finally, act three: the mother goose’s aggressive defense pays off, and the fox turns tail and leaves.
Soon after this photo was taken, the fox departs (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center)
“And then one minute later, she’s back on her nest, relaxed, and it looks as though nothing happened,” Meixell said.
The moral of the story? Mother geese do not like to leave their nests. Meixell explained that’s because they need to protect their eggs from foxes, gulls and other Arctic opportunists.
“To be honest, the predators know where every goose nest is,” Meixell said.
So what happens if a new character enters the scene?
Oil companies have started to see a lot of potential in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska following several recent, big discoveries. But every summer, millions of migratory birds like the greater white-fronted goose descend on the reserve to lay eggs, molt their feathers and fatten up. A lot of the oil potential lies squarely in migratory bird habitat.
So, Meixell and his colleagues wondered if industrial activity would drive geese away from their nests more often or for longer, leaving the eggs vulnerable to hungry predators.
A perfect opportunity to investigate came about in 2013 and 2014. There was a cleanup of an old Air Force radar station in the reserve, involving a lot of noisy machinery like vehicle traffic, heavy equipment, and helicopter activity — things that seem likely to spook a greater white-fronted goose.
The scientists set up cameras at nests near the cleanup and at nests a few kilometers away, for comparison. Over the course of two summers, they collected millions of photos, of which 1.6 million were interpretable.
Those photos told a surprising story. Meixell pointed out a particularly striking example:
A DC-6 landing close to a nesting goose. (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center)
“Here’s a photo where there’s a female goose, and a DC-6 is landing on the runway, just about five meters from the nest,” Meixell said.
Amazingly, the goose stays put, even as the plane’s wing is about to pass right above the nest.
“She certainly notices it and makes the decision to remain and protect her eggs,” Meixell said.
Meixell and his colleagues collected a series of photos of white-fronted geese staying on their nests as planes flew by, backhoes dug up holes and helicopters buzzed overhead.
A nesting goose sits at center, not far from an ongoing cleanup. (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center)
In the end, the scientists concluded that nearby industrial activity only had a minor effect — the geese close to the noisy cleanup did leave their nests for a few minutes longer each day on average, but it didn’t result in a lot more eggs getting munched up by predators.
In fact, the thing that had the biggest impact were the researchers. When they walked directly up to the nests to check on them, that’s when geese left the longest.
So does this mean the oil industry can go ahead and drill and the geese will be fine?
“Of course, as a scientist, I’m going to say that it’s much more complicated than that,” Meixell said.
Audrey Taylor, a migratory bird researcher and assistant professor of environmental studies at University of Alaska Anchorage, agreed.
“I think we don’t want to jump to the conclusion that industrial disturbance doesn’t affect birds in any way,” Taylor, who wasn’t involved with the study, said.
Taylor said the study spells out some important lessons for oil companies. For example, it shows that it’s a good idea to avoid walking directly up to nesting geese, so companies could potentially document where nests are to avoid them.
But Taylor also said there are still questions about how the oil industry could impact migratory birds in the National Petroleum Reserve. For example, what happens if there’s industrial activity while the geese are molting? Every year, geese take refuge in the reserve while they shed and re-grow their flight feathers.
“Activity or disturbance during that time could certainly have a bigger effect because they’re going to be running away from it rather than flying,” Taylor said.
Taylor said that as the oil industry pushes further into the habitats of mother geese, foxes and all the other species living in the reserve, studies like this one are becoming a lot more important.
Stella Tallmon, a sophomore at Juneau-Douglas High School, testifies before the Alaska House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, is on the left. Tarr sponsored a bill allowing judges to issue protective orders removing guns from people judged likely to be a threat to themselves or others. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
A proposed House bill would allow Alaska judges to issue protective orders removing guns from people who they find to likely be a threat to themselves or others.
In a House Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday, House Bill 75 received backing from the public. Twenty-nine of the first 30 people who testified on the bill said they support it as a way of preventing suicides and homicides.
Juneau-Douglas High School sophomore Stella Tallmon said she was inspired by the activism of the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, to testify in favor of the bill.
“As an American, I should not feel scared to come to school, but I am scared,” Tallmon said. “I’m scared that someone will come into my school and kill me or my two younger sisters or my friends with weapons that they should not possess. So I urge you to vote yes on House Bill 75 because we need stricter gun laws.”
Bill sponsor Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, said she tried to help her own brother before he killed himself. She said other deaths using guns were often preceded by warning signs.
“When we read about some of these stories, we know that family members have in fact been looking for something to do and wanting something – a tool – to use,” Tarr said. “And I think this can be an important prevention tool.”
Two groups of people could file petitions for the gun violence protective orders: immediate family members and police and other peace officers. The person with the guns would be given at least 10 days’ notice of the hearing to decide on the order. If the judge finds clear and convincing evidence that the person is a danger, the judge could issue a protective order prohibiting the person from possessing, owning, buying or receiving a firearm or ammunition for up to six months.
Family members or police officers could also seek emergency orders that don’t include the person with the guns in a hearing. If the judge finds that there’s a greater than 50 percent chance that the person could harm themselves or others, then the judge could issue an immediate emergency protective order that could last up to 20 days.
Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, a Republican who caucuses with the mostly Democratic House majority, questioned whether the bill would take away the gun rights of anyone with a diagnosis of clinical depression.
“I think it would be kind of an incentive not to seek psychiatric help for depression,” LeDoux said.
Tarr noted that mental health providers are not among those who could ask for the gun violence protective orders.
Bill would let Alaska judges temporarily take guns from likely threats
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
A proposed House bill would allow Alaska judges to issue protective orders removing guns from people who they find to likely be a threat to themselves or others.
Bethel High students stage walkout to raise awareness for gun violence
Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel
Students walked out of class today at Bethel Regional High School to raise awareness about school shootings and to demand stricter gun laws. Community members, parents, and former school staff joined them.
What can unflappable geese teach us about the future of Arctic development?
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
Every summer, millions of migratory birds like the greater white-fronted goose descend on the National Petroleum Reserve, to lay eggs, molt their feathers and fatten up. A lot of the oil potential lies squarely in migratory bird habitat.
Recovery effort for man buried in avalanche temporarily suspended
Leila Kheiry, KRBD – Ketchikan
A 39-year-old Ketchikan man was buried in an avalanche while snowboarding on Dude Mountain Sunday afternoon. A search began on Monday, but has been temporarily suspended because of bad weather.
Popular Alaska peak weighs new rules for climbers’ waste
Associated Press
The National Park Service is considering new rules for the disposal of human waste generated by climbers on North America’s tallest mountain, Denali.
Iditarod set to start under a cloud of scandals
Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
This year the Iditarod is mired in scandals: Fallout from a dog doping fiasco, a musher mutiny, and unprecedented pressure from protest groups. All of which, according to a leaked report, are putting the event’s future in dire jeopardy.
New GOES satellite will aid weather forecasting in Alaska, Western US
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
A satellite scheduled for launch Thursday will aid weather forecasting in the western US, including Alaska.
Scrutiny urged over Hydro One’s Alaska foray
Jacob Resneck, KTOO – Juneau
More than 100 people turned up to Centennial Hall to observe, listen and speak to state regulators reviewing the acquisition of Juneau’s electric utility by a Canadian firm.
Wade Marrs, mushing along the Iditarod 2016 Trail on the outskirts of Nome. (Photo: Laura Collins, KNOM)
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicks off this Saturday, as mushers and their teams begin cross a thousand miles of the Alaska wilderness.
But this year the event is mired in scandals: Fallout from a dog doping fiasco, a musher mutiny, and unprecedented pressure from protest groups. All of which, according to a leaked report, are putting the event’s future in dire jeopardy.
Saturday marks the “ceremonial start” of the race, when the streets of downtown Anchorage fill with at least 1,072 yapping sled dogs. Looking on from the snowy sidewalks are tourists, townies, and mushing fans outfitted in their finest furs. The festivities arrive at the tail end of the city’s annual Fur Rondy, a week of festivities hearkening back to the yearly rendezvous among fur trappers, where pelts and antlers are sold openly in the streets. By the time the Iditarod kicks off, the vibe is somewhere between a parade and a dog pageant, with notes of a folksy rural carnival.
The next day, dozens of competitors set out on the grueling journey over snowy mountains, icy rivers and frozen tundra toward the tiny town of Nome on the Bering Sea coast. As the race has grown increasingly competitive in recent years, top teams make the trek in between eight and nine days.
But this year’s race is up against extra challenges.
Multiple controversies have crashed down all at once — even driving one of mushing’s stars to post a 17-minute video on YouTube lashing out at race leadership.
Dallas Seavey, arriving second to Ruby just after the sun set Wednesday night. (Photo: Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media.)
“The Iditarod can try to run me over, they can try to throw me under the bus,” Dallas Seavey said, speaking directly into the camera in the video, posted October 23rd of last year. “They’re going to find out I don’t fit under the bus.”
Seavey is a mushing wunderkind, having won the race four times before age 30.
But since last fall, Seavey has been embroiled in the sport’s first high-profile doping scandal after it came out that some of his dogs tested positive for a banned painkiller at the end of last year’s race.
Seavey vigorously denies that he drugged his team, something other top mushers have backed him up on. He faults the Iditarod’s board of directors for mishandling the investigation, hurting his reputation in the process.
“This is part of this race that is a cancer right now,” Seavey said in the video, alluding to the Iditarod Trail Committee’s board. “There is a corruption in this race.”
Seavey snubbed this year’s Iditarod, and is competing in a Norwegian race that runs at the same time. He’s also pushed back on the damning doping narrative by hiring a public relations firm, casting doubt on science behind the drug tests, and aggressively defending his record in the press.
So how did high levels of Tramadol, a widely prescribed opioid, get into four of Seavey’s dogs within hours of his arrival in Nome last year? Theories abound.
“I believe this was given to my dogs maliciously,” Seavey said. “I think that’s the most likely option.”
The idea that a saboteur drugged Seavey’s dogs is accepted by many in Alaska’s mushing community. Some believe it could have been an unintentional accident. Some think it might have a been a rival competitor. And others point to animal rights activists, who have done more in recent years to take down the Iditarod’s public image.
Leading that charge is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. The group says it did not have any personnel in Alaska last year, and condemns dogs being given banned substances. But the group is escalating its tactics by leaning harder than ever on corporate sponsors to drop their support for the event.
“One of the biggest lies that the Iditarod community has tried to sell the public is that these dogs aren’t like the dogs we share our homes with, and it’s not true,” Colleen O’Brien, a spokesperson for PETA, said.
The group wants for the Iditarod to become a race without dogs, saying too many animals have died as a result of competition, and that mushing is fundamentally abusive. It claims that sponsor flight is taking a toll on the Iditarod’s financial health. And this year, for the first time ever, they are sending protesters to Alaska, with demonstrations planned in Anchorage and at the finish in Nome.
On top of all that, earlier in February a prominent group of race veterans called for the president of the board of directors to resign immediately. A letter was sent by members of the Iditarod Official Finisher’s Club, alleging his mismanagement and conflicts of interest they say are jeopardizing the whole sport.
The demand came on the heels of a confidential report by the Foraker group commissioned by the race’s main sponsors leaked to the press. It pointed to many of the same problems, saying the board needs major reforms for companies to remain comfortable financing it. Following a closed door meeting, ITC board members voted unanimously to leave president Andy Baker (who’s brother, John Baker, is a champion Iditarod musher) at the helm for the time being.
“Everybody wants the race to do better,” Baker said to reporters after the meeting. “Our whole focus is we want to have a safe race. We want dogs to be safe, we want mushers to be safe, and we want a successful race that’s good for Alaska.”
Baker says the board is planning to revise its governing rules in the spring, once this year’s race is over. That opens the door for reforming leadership practices criticized by the IOFC and Foraker report.
Many are pining for the old days, when the Iditarod was more like a weeks-long wilderness adventure than a race.
“There’s a big part of me that feels that way,” Stan Hooley, Iditarod’s CEO, said. “Unfortunately I’m in the business, and in the role of working to grow this race.”
Some people say that means the Iditarod isn’t as fun—that the race doesn’t resemble the state-wide celebration it used to be. But others say the global audience and increase in corporate money that it has drawn could be what carries dog mushing on into the future.
If you want more news on all things mushing, you can subscribe to the Iditapod, a podcast about the Iditarod from Alaska Public Media and KNOM Radio.
BRHS students Sydney Grey, Tierney McCormick, Alison Achee, Rylee Johnson, Avery Hoffman, Cyrston Lepore, and Farrah Lieb (right to left) protest for stricter gun laws and stand in support of victims of gun violence on February 28, 2018. (Photo by Amara Freeman/ KYUK)
On Wednesday afternoon, students walked out of class at Bethel Regional High School to raise awareness about school shootings and to demand stricter gun laws. Community members, parents, and former school staff joined them. The demonstration lasted 17 minutes, one minute for each person killed in the Parkland, Florida school shooting two weeks ago.
To leave the building you have to pass two pictures: one of a smiling young boy, and the other of a white-haired man. Sophomore Josh Palacios and Principal Ron Edwards were killed in the Bethel school shooting 21 years ago in 1997.
Holding handmade signs and wearing orange ribbons, the Bethel students walked past the pictures as they left the building and made their way out into the snow. Bethel Regional High School isn’t a place where a shooting could happen; it’s a place where people hope it doesn’t happen again.
“Kids do not need to go to school in fear of their lives,” walkout organizer Kelly O’Brien said. O’Brien is a senior at the school. “Teachers don’t need to be holding weapons, and everyone deserves to be safe and educated.”
BRHS class president Tierney McCormick stood by O’Brien’s side and addressed the approximately 100 students who walked out with them.
“This is also our first step,” McCormick said. “Unless we continue to push for change, nothing is going to happen. So it’s really up to you to make sure that we keep pushing.”
During the walkout, Garrett Lieb stood next to his daughter, Farrah Lieb, a senior at BRHS.
“When I seen on the news what happened in Florida, it brought up what happened here in Bethel to me. It all came back,” Lieb said.
Garrett Lieb was working at the Bethel school during the 1997 Bethel shooting, and he hid kids who were running for their lives in a warehouse beside the building. The Bethel shooter used a .12-gauge shotgun; recent school gunmen have used semi-automatic rifles. Lieb wants those rifles banned.
“Those are killing machines,” Lieb said. “We got guns to get our moose and caribou and stuff like that, but nobody needs guns like that out anywhere.”
Reyne Athanas was also working at the Bethel school in 1997. The day of the deaths, she told the shooter, student Evan Ramsey, to put down his gun. At the walkout, Athanas urged students to write letters demanding gun reform, and handed out the addresses and phone numbers of Alaska’s congressional delegation.
“They might not think you can vote now, but you will vote one day,” Athanas told the students.
With two minutes left of the demonstration, organizer Kelly O’Brien quieted the crowd.
“Let’s all have a moment of silence,” O’Brien said, “for not only the Parkland shooting victims, but the shooting victims from our school and all the other shooting victims across the U.S.”
The kuspuk, made from recycled cotton sheets, is seven feet tall. The portraits are drawn in permanent marker. (Photo courtesy of Amber Webb)
Alaska Native artist, Amber Webb, hand-stitched an oversized kuspuk from white, cotton sheets she bought at a thrift store. In permanent marker, she drew the faces of more than a dozen Alaska Native women who have been murdered or are missing. Six of those women are from Bristol Bay—four from Dillingham, one from Aleknagik and one from Manokotak.
Valerie Sifsof has been missing since 2012. (Photo courtesy of Amber Webb)
Homicide is a leading cause of death of American women under 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is especially true for Native American and Alaska Native women, who experience the second highest rate of homicide of any race or ethnicity.
Webb lives in Anchorage, but is originally from Dillingham. She said that the plight of several missing women in particular inspired her to create her work of art.
“Valerie Sifsof, she’s still missing. I know her family is still looking for answers about her disappearance. And then LoriDee Wilson as well. Val and LoriDee, they were a big part of doing the project for me. When I was young, my family spent a lot of time with Val’s aunts. As a kid, I can remember seeing her at family functions and thinking she was so cool. Seeing her family try to come to terms with having lost her that way has had a pretty profound impact on my life,” Webb said.
LoriDee Wilson has been missing since 2016. (Photo courtesy of Amber Webb)
Valerie Sifsof has been missing since 2012. LoriDee Wilson has been missing since 2016. Both Sifsof and Wilson are from Dillingham.
Webb hopes her art piece will serve both as a way of honoring women who have been lost and of encouraging people to join a broader conversation about preventing violence against Native women.
“It’s opening a conversation that has be had by families, by law enforcement, by the academic community and legislators. I think all of Alaska has to think about it,” Webb said.
Webb is making arrangements for a traveling exhibit, which she hopes to display in Dillingham and Anchorage.
Chinook salmon on display in 1910 at Union Fisherman’s Dock in Astoria, Oregon (Wikimedia image)
While the orcas of Puget Sound are sliding toward extinction, orcas farther north have been expanding their numbers. Their burgeoning hunger for big fish may be causing the killer whales’ main prey, chinook salmon, to shrink up and down the West Coast.
Chinook salmon are also known as kings: the biggest of all salmon. They used to grow so enormous that it’s hard to believe the old photos now. Fishermen stand next to chinooks almost as tall as they are, sometimes weighing 100 pounds or more.
“This has been a season of unusually large fish, and many weighing from 60 to 70 pounds have been taken,” the Oregonian reported in 1895.
“It’s not impossible that we see individuals of that size today, but it’s much, much rarer,” University of Washington research scientist Jan Ohlberger said on Monday, more than a century later.
Ohlberger has been tracking the downsizing of salmon in recent decades, but salmon have been shrinking in numbers and in size for a long time. A century’s worth of dam building, overfishing, habitat loss and replacement by hatchery fish cut the average chinook in half, size-wise, studies in the 1980s and 1990s found.
Few fish are making it to old age, which for a chinook salmon means spending five or six years in the ocean after a year or two in freshwater.
“The older fish, which normally come back after five years in the ocean, they come back earlier and earlier,” Ohlberger said.
The trend is clear, the reasons less so.
Two species eat more chinook salmon than any others: orcas and humans.
Fisherman Tony Canessa with an 85-pound chinook he caught near Astoria, Oregon, in 1925. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)
The 2,300 or more resident killer whales in the Northeast Pacific Ocean eat about 20 million pounds of chinook salmon a year – roughly equal to the annual commercial catch of chinook in recent years, according to the new study.
“There is a large number of resident killer whales out there that really target chinook, and they target the large chinook,” Ohlberger said.
A study from federal researchers in November found that orcas’ consumption of chinook salmon in the Northeast Pacific Ocean has doubled since 1975, surpassing humans’ catches, which have fallen by a third over that time.
“As far as we can see, the killer whales are taking the older and bigger fish,” Craig Matkin said. Matkin is a whale researcher with the North Gulf Oceanic Society in Homer, Alaska. Matkin, who was not involved in Ohlberger’s paper, studies Alaskan orcas’ diets.
“We go along with the animals and scoop up fish scales and bits of flesh from where they kill something,” Matkin said. “They’re sloppy eaters.”
“They’re going to go for the biggest, oiliest fish there are,” Matkin said. “That’s chinooks.”
Salmon born in Oregon and Washington spend most of their lives out at sea, often in Alaskan waters, where orcas aplenty await.
“Our [orca] populations have increased faster than anywhere else, and they’re eating chinook from all over the place,” Matkin said.
In short, it seems Puget Sound orcas are having their lunch stolen by their better-off Alaskan relatives.
“It is an interesting twist to blame the marine mammals,” Ken Balcomb with the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island said in an email. “I would first ask how the chinook evolved to be so big during the preceding 12,000 years in the presence of hordes of such size-selective natural predators throughout their range. Large size was selected by Mother Nature for chinook salmon in spite of natural predation.”
Balcomb points to overfishing, habitat loss and salmon hatcheries that have diluted the gene pool of wild chinooks.
Today’s smaller chinook salmon lay fewer eggs than bigger ones can. They also have a harder time digging out gravel nests deep enough to protect their eggs from scouring streamflows.
Chinooks’ downsizing could spell trouble for all the mammals who want to catch them, whether they have fingers or fins.
“Predators are also going to adapt to this change in size and numbers,” Matkin said. “You can’t look at it as a static situation.”
“Ultimately, the whales must eat to survive, and humans have not sufficiently allowed for that in their fisheries management calculations,” Balcomb said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski speaks before a panel discussion about the Tongass National Forest Friday at the Ketchikan library. Seated is U.S. Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke. (KRBD photo by Leila Kheiry)
If one had to choose a theme for Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s roundtable discussions on the Tongass National Forest, it would be “Access.”
Over and over, the senator and U.S. Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke heard panelists say they need more access to the forest. Through roads, through less-cumbersome permitting, through whatever means. They want access.
It was a nearly three-hour discussion Friday at the Ketchikan public library. Below is a summary.
“The communities on the island have said this over and over again: Access to the forest, access to the forest. It’s so important,” Jon Bolling, administrator for the City of Craig, told Murkowski and Tooke. “Those roads are a wonderful public asset that are best left kept open. Because when they’re kept open, they’re used. I could go on way longer than you want me to talking about the merits of keeping the roads open and the benefits to the people of Prince of Wales. It’s just so key.”
Bolling was one of many panelists chosen for a couple of public roundtable discussions about the Tongass National Forest.
There were two panels, because there were so many panelists. They represented a wide variety of interests. A few environmental groups were invited, along with Sealaska Native Corp’s Jaeleen Kookesh. But, the panels leaned toward industry, commerce and state and local governments.
Ketchikan Gateway Borough Mayor David Landis, for example, told Forest Service Chief Tooke that the borough is more than 96 percent Forest Service land, with just a tiny amount available for development and taxation.
Landis said that historically, that was OK because of all the jobs available on national land, most notably timber. But, he said those jobs went away as the Forest Service started limiting the timber supply. In response, Congress provided a Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools payments, but now those amounts are seeing cuts, too.
“That distresses us, and we’re finding way to fill those holes,” Landis said. “But, to be honest, we would rather have the jobs back.”
So for Landis and Bolling, access would be improved by an exemption for the Tongass from the national Roadless Rule — which doesn’t allow new roads to be built in certain areas of the forest — as well as access for timber harvest.
The State of Alaska has filed a petition asking that the region be exempt from the Roadless Rule.
Access for other panelists means permits. Ben Anderson owns a heli-ski business in Haines. He said he’s trying to get a permit to expand onto Tongass land. They submitted their permit application in March of last year.
“We were told that it would take three years before the application would be reviewed,” Anderson said. “Once it was reviewed, an environmental impact survey would most likely need to take place, and would take an unknown amount of time.”
Another recurring theme for many panelists was the plan for transitioning to a young-growth timber industry. The Forest Service went through a long process to come up with a transition plan that calls for a complete switch in 15 years.
Timber industry representatives have said, and continue to say that’s not feasible.
Bryce Dahlstrom from Viking Lumber on Prince of Wales Island said instead of switching from one to another, a solution would be to allow both, because his mill just can’t process young growth, and never will.
Dahlstrom gave an analogy: “I put it towards a fishing boat. You have a crew that you fish salmon. Your crew knows how to fish salmon. Your gear, your boat is set up to catch salmon. All of a sudden, someone comes and said, well you can’t catch salmon anymore, you’ve gotta catch halibut. Because, politically, we don’t want you to catch salmon anymore.”
Some of the conservationists on the panel, though, say the transition plan was the result of a great collaborative effort that shouldn’t be discounted.
Andrew Thoms is with the Sitka Conservation Society, and was a member of the Tongass Advisory Committee. The TAC came up with the blueprint for transitioning to second growth.
“I would say that the recommendations that we made are one of the best blueprints for a viable approach to Tongass management,” Thoms said. “The recommendations are the assemblage of a huge wealth of experience and knowledge from people on the Tongass who work with the agency and with other stakeholders and landowner groups.”
Other panelists talked about the need to protect fish streams and fisheries in general; still others talked about the need to build electric utility infrastructure, and how challenging the federal permit process is for that work.
After the discussion, Tooke said he’ll take what he heard back to Washington, D.C., for discussions with the Secretary of Agriculture. He said he was listening for common themes – such as access — and proposed solutions – such as a slower transition to young growth.
Tooke said he heard about the quantity of young growth that would be needed to keep a mill running, and “I heard about timing around permitting. I heard a lot about using science and using data. That seemed to be really important to people, no matter who they were, that they have really informed decisions.”
Murkowski said hearing directly from people who live and work on the forest was valuable for Chief Tooke, and that’s why she invited him to visit Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island. She said it appears that with President Trump’s administration, access to public lands will become easier.
“You have a new administration that has been relatively aggressive in talking about accessing America’s resources,” Murkowski said. “There hasn’t been the same spotlight on timber and management of our forests, you’re talking access generally. I think you have, at least at the top, I think you have a different perspective that we had.”
At least while this administration remains. Because, as she notes, administrations — and their policies — change.
This map shows contrasts in travel between tagged seal pups in 2005 and 2015. These are portions of the pup tracks in November-December, after they left their birth islands. The tracks are overlaid on an 1895 chart displaying the understanding at that time of where northern fur seals traveled during their migration. (Courtesy Noel Pelland/Proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris, Volume 7.)
In the late 1800s, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury sent Captain C. L. Hooper to the Pribilof Islands to learn as much as he could about the northern fur seal from the Alaska Native people who lived there. At the time, the fur trade was big business.
One of the lessons he recorded was that the seals are known to travel with the wind when possible. Now scientists have the data to back up that traditional knowledge. Noel Pelland is a physical oceanographer and postdoctoral researcher at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
“We have this amazing technology that really allows us this very cool look at the lives of an individual animal and where it goes and what it does,” Pelland said. “That’s helping us to quantify some of those things that have been discussed by the Aleut hunters.”
Pelland is studying how climate affects the survival of northern fur seals in the Bering Sea, and wind may be an important factor.
After pups leave the Pribilof Islands in late fall, they can migrate thousands of miles. Varying wind conditions mean pups can end up in a range of locations from the Aleutian Islands to the Gulf of Alaska.
Pelland wants to know if the way the pups migrate, and where they end up, is affecting their survival.
“In the best years about 50 percent of the pups that leave on their migration will make it to age two,” Pelland said. “In the worst years only about 20 percent of the pups will make it through their migration.”
So far, Pelland and his colleagues have compared data from satellite tagged pups with weather models. Now, they want to compare year-to-year changes in the survival of the pups with where the pups end up.
And Pelland says the research helps make the case for all scientists to take traditional knowledge into account.
“There’s this idea of a separation between ‘scientific knowledge’ and traditional knowledge. I think a much better way to look at it is as an continuum,” Pelland said. “There isn’t this formal separation. It’s all knowledge.”
Wind might not be a factor in the fur seal decline, Pelland says but a better understanding of its role is important.
The Alaska State Troopers are at “critically low” staffing levels, according to a recruitment and retention plan report from the Department of Public Safety.
Alaska State Trooper Lee Phillips talks to a man walking near Big Lake on a chilly Saturday night. (Casey Grove/Alaska Public Media photo)
Budget cuts have trimmed the number of trooper positions across the state, but the department is also struggling to keep troopers in the existing positions.
The retention plan report says troopers are leaving for better pay and retirement elsewhere, and low staffing is hurting the agency’s ability to respond to calls for help.
To get a closer look at what the troopers are dealing with, I took a ride with Trooper Lee Phillips on a recent Saturday night in Wasilla.
“I really enjoy what I do,” Phillips said. “Believe it or not, this might sound corny, but I really enjoy helping people.”
Phillips got a call that dozens of teenagers were drinking and fighting at a party. A neighbor had fired a gun into the air trying to break it up. Phillips flipped on his flashing lights and siren.
“Sometimes they start ganging up on one kid, kicking him in the head, weapons start getting pulled out, so the sooner we get there the better,” Phillips said.
Soon, we were doing 90 miles an hour, and I have to admit, it was kind of a thrill. But not every call that night was as exciting. Phillips pulled over some cars, stopped to direct traffic past a wreck and counseled a woman after a domestic disturbance.
It wasn’t all flashing lights and sirens, but it all took patience and time. And on some nights, the troopers don’t have as much time to deal with anything except the highest priority calls.
“You’re just call to call to call to call,” Phillips said. “And it’s like, dispatch is like, ‘Hey can you break soon? We got an assault pending.’ That’s frustrating when you can’t do your job to the best of your ability because there’s so much other calls pending because of lack of manpower.”
Phillips worries things could get worse. He’s not the only one.
“We are in a crisis. We’re struggling to make this work,” Doug Massie said. Massie is a 20-year wildlife trooper and president of the Department of Public Safety chapter of the Public Safety Employees Association.
“I think we’re doing the best we can, but we don’t have adequate funding or staffing that we need to provide public safety to the citizens of Alaska,” Massie said.
Massie pointed to the numbers in the retention plan report. Roughly 10 percent of trooper positions statewide are unfilled. The rate of troopers leaving for other jobs has nearly doubled. Most go to other law enforcement agencies.
“They are definitely bargain hunting. They’re looking for the best pay, the best benefits and what the department has to offer them, so they’re more willing to separate and go a different direction,” Massie said.
It’s not easy training new troopers. A tiny fraction of applicants make it through the process. It takes up to a year and a half and nearly $200,000 to train one trooper.
To keep the ones they already have, the Department of Public Safety retention plan suggests returning Alaska law enforcement officers to a defined-benefit retirement plan. That’s what they used to offer and it guaranteed a certain level of retirement benefits after 20 years of employment. The defined-contribution plan state employees currently get is an investment account that can be cashed out in full after just five years.
Lt. Derek DeGraaf heads the troopers’ recruitment office, which is now increasingly focused on retention as well.
“So we moved the finish line, essentially, to five years,” DeGraaf said. “I heard it said many years ago when we switched over to this, ‘Give us five years, and that’s adequate,’ and it’s just not. It’s just really costly, it becomes more of a revolving door.”
DeGraaf said police departments at the same job fairs he attends in the Lower 48 — hoping to stop attrition and become more attractive to recruits — have returned to defined-benefit plans.
“The cost, after losing that, with the revolving door and the training and the lack of police services to the public, became such an issue that they brought them back,” DeGraaf said.
The Department of Public Safety has several other retention initiatives, but a defined-benefit retirement package is at the top of its list. It’s also at the top of a list of suggestions for retaining troopers recommended by the troopers themselves in a recent survey. About half said better pay and better retirement are the best ways to keep troopers.
That argument may have gained traction in the Alaska Legislature. A recent bill by Senate President Pete Kelly, a Republican from Fairbanks, would allow police officers, troopers and firefighters to return to a defined-benefit plan.
Kelly said a cost analysis still needs to be done.
“And the numbers need to be compelling, or this Legislature probably won’t do it,” Kelly said. “But I think we actually can find that those numbers do produce a benefit to the state of Alaska. That remains to be seen, we haven’t had that work done yet, but the bill is filed.”
That bill would only affect public safety employees. Sen. Dennis Egan, a Juneau Democrat, and others say all public employees — including teachers and state workers — should be in the same, larger pool, which he says would keep down costs. Egan also has a bill filed that would give public employees the option of going with defined benefits.
But Massey, the troopers union president, said that if its comes down to a higher price tag, the state should prioritize public safety and the dangerous daily conditions of law enforcement work.
“When anyone asks, ‘What makes you think you’re different?’ my answer is, ‘We are. Period,'” Massie said.
Back on patrol, Trooper Lee Phillips had wrapped up at the party. A couple other troopers responded, they investigated some possible underage drinking, but if there was a fight, nobody got hurt.
Phillips said the trooper numbers were adequate that night, but that’s not always the case. If he’d been alone, he would’ve been outnumbered 100 to one.
“That, right there, is a prime reason that when we’re shorthanded it’s just not good,” Phillips said. “Say someone has a prisoner, someone else is out on another call, and someone’s on a death investigation, and then it’s one trooper dealing with this whole thing. It’s not a safe situation for anybody.”
While Phillips and his fellow troopers continue to work to meet the daily demand, the Legislature will examine the costs associated with the bills by Senators Kelly and Egan, as well as the cost to public safety if troopers continue to leave.
Pete Kaiser wins his fourth consecutive Kuskokwim 300 on January 21, 2018. (Katie Basile / KYUK)
We talk about this year’s Kuskokwim 300, touch on the importance of mid-distance mushing races leading up to the Iditarod and talk to KUAC-FM reporter Zoe Rom about covering the Yukon Quest, Alaska’s other 1,000-mile sled dog race. Also: We talk about the Anchorage ceremonial start, who we expect to see running at the front of the pack and answer our first listener question!
Coast Guard makes plans for ramping up Arctic operations with new icebreaker
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.
Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft broke some Arctic news in his annual State of the Coast Guard address today. The admiral says the coasties have a huge mission in the Arctic and need the right tools to get the job done.
Senate votes to let car insurers base renewal rates on credit histories
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
In 2003, the state allowed insurers to start using these records for new applicants. But they still couldn’t use them for people who are renewing policies.
Lacking competitive benefits, exodus of troopers causes ‘critically low’ staffing
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
The Alaska State Troopers are at “critically low” staffing levels, according to a recruitment and retention plan report from the Department of Public Safety.
Forest Service chief, Murkowski hear from Tongass stakeholders
Leila Kheiry, KRBD – Ketchikan
The main theme of Friday’s discussion at the Ketchikan Public Library was “Access.”
Forest Service official says fighting Lower 48 wildfires is cutting into Alaska forest services
Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau
“We’ve seen 8,000 positions across the agency that we have essentially shifted from either providing services, forest management (or) recreation management to fire suppression,” said U.S. Forest Service Associate Deputy Chief Chris French.
KEA chooses contractor for Terror Lake hydroelectric project expansion
Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak
Last year, the Kodiak Electric Association received a permit to extend its Terror Lake hydroelectric project, and it’s now selected a contractor.
Scientists confirm traditional knowledge regarding seal pup migration
Zoe Sobel, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Unalaska
Scientists have confirmed what indigenous people have known for centuries — the wind influences the travel of northern fur seal pups.
Ketchikan High School wins state Academic Decathlon competition
Leila Kheiry, KRBD – Ketchikan
Ketchikan High School’s Academic Decathlon team won the state championship Saturday in Anchorage. They will be headed to the national competition in April.
Dillingham-raised artist’s work draws attention to missing and murdered Alaska Native women
Avery Lill, KDLG – Dillingham
Amber Webb, originally from Dillingham, drew portraits of missing and murdered Alaska Native women on a handmade kuspuk to call attention to the high rate of death by homicide among Alaska Native and Native American women.
Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, speaks during the Senate floor debate on House Bill 195 on March 1, 2018. The bill would allow car insurers to use credit histories to determine premium rates for renewals. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
A bill passed by the Alaska Senate on Thursday would allow car insurers to use credit histories to determine premium rates when customers renew their policies.
Until 2003, insurers in Alaska were barred from using credit histories to determine how much customers would pay. That year, the state allowed them to start using these records for new applicants. But they still couldn’t use them for people who are renewing policies.
House Bill 195 would allow the companies to begin to use these histories.
Anchorage Republican Sen. Mia Costello said during the floor debate that the bill would allow those with good credit to pay lower, “preferred” rates.
“Like it or not, credit scores are actually an indicator of risk, and so this is what that insurance is entirely based on,” Costello said.
Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski opposed the bill. He pointed to a 2003 state report that found that areas with low-income and minority Alaskans would pay more.
“Everyone will have people in their district who will suffer if this bill passes,” Wielechoswki said. “The working poor will suffer. Minorities will suffer. Those in rural Alaska will suffer. Seniors will suffer.”
Wielechoswki said auto insurance premiums should be based on people’s driving records. He quoted research by Consumer Reports magazine.
“In the vast amount of states that allow the use of credit scores, a poor credit history will have a greater impact on your auto insurance premium than a drunk driving conviction,” Wielechoswki said.
Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche voted for the bill. He noted that new insurance consumers have been affected by similar rules for 15 years.
“I represent all Alaskans in my district, not just the underprivileged,” Micciche said, later adding, “We’re talking about this in a way, almost as though it hasn’t been the law of the land for many years that credit history is used.”
The Legislature passed a similar bill two years ago. Gov. Bill Walker vetoed it. But Walker introduced the new version, which includes more consumer protections than the earlier bill.
For example, the bill would require insurers to notify consumers that there are a series of exemptions allowing some consumers to not have their credit histories used. Those exemptions include people who have had serious injuries, divorces or unemployment that lasts at least three months from involuntary terminations.
In addition, when people appeal the use of their credit histories, the state Division of Insurance would be able to decide on the appeal. In the bill Walker vetoed, the insurer would have ruled on the appeal.
The Senate voted 13 to 4 to pass the bill, with Wielechowski and three fellow Democrats – Tom Begich and Berta Gardner of Anchorage and Dennis Egan of Juneau – the only no votes. Sens. Lyman Hoffman of Bethel, Shelley Hughes of Palmer and Gary Stevens of Kodiak were absent.
The House passed the bill 39 to 0 last year. Nikiski Republican Mike Chenault was absent. The bill now heads to Walker’s desk.
Port officials in Alaska say the problem is statewide.
“Abandoned and derelict vessels is a huge issue,” Juneau Harbormaster Dave Borg said. “I think if you look at it holistically, the fishing fleet’s aging. We’ve got tons of old wood-hulled boats and people tend to have a tendency of just walking away from them.”
Currently federally documented vessels of at least five tons aren’t required to be registered with the state.
But Senate Bill 92 would change that. Smaller vessels would be required to have a title issued by the DMV and kept in the state’s database.
Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche sponsored the bill.
“The intent of this bill is so that you understand the ownership of the vessel and you can start dealing with it years before what we’ve been doing now,” Micciche told fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. “Long before it ends up on the bottom.”
Tracking ownership isn’t easy, because current law only requires a bill of sale, even one written on a cocktail napkin.
“As you can imagine, people pass down hand-me-downs and vessels are traded in bars for a buck,” Juneau Port Director Carl Uchytil told the committee. “It kind of ends up that people with the least resources have to have the biggest bill to pay at the end of the useful life of these vessels.”
An earlier version of SB 92 would require vessels longer than 30 feet to carry insurance for the cost of cleanup and recovery.
That version was quietly removed last month by the Senate Resources Committee.
SB 92 would streamline impound procedures.
Current law is complex and makes a distinction between abandoned and derelict vessels, which would change. The bill also adds civil penalties that supporters say would be easier to enforce than criminal charges in current law.
Senators said they recognized that requiring titles for boats will help the state at least track vessel ownership to determine liability.
“This is a step, it’s not the answer,” Sen. Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said. “We need to find a way to help folks that own these older vessels before they become a more serious problem than they are right now.”
In Juneau, more than 30 vessels in poor condition have been impounded and ordered destroyed by harbor officials since 2014.
That figure doesn’t include those seized, salvaged and auctioned.
Borg said the status quo isn’t working and wrecks keep piling up.
“We’ve got to get rid of these things,” Borg said in a recent interview. “They can’t just continue to litter our waterways and beaches and everything else. This will help to address that.”
Lawmakers haven’t heard any formal opposition so far.
A companion bill in the House introduced by Homer Republican Rep. Paul Seaton is awaiting hearings in his chamber’s finance and fisheries committees.
The body of Marvin Scott, 39, has been recovered, Alaska State Trooper James Kimura confirmed Thursday evening.
Team members took advantage of a break in the weather to get back on the mountain, Jerry Kiffer, rescue squad principal officer, said.
They were helicoptered to a spot above the avalanche debris field, and started digging test holes to determine the snowpack’s stability.
“The results from those pits were OK enough for us to proceed downhill toward the avalanche site,” Kiffer said.
On Thursday evening, Kiffer said the teams finished their work, hiked down the trail and were headed down Brown Mountain Road via snowmachine.
Kiffer added that the rescue squad appreciates the community’s support in this, and other search efforts.
“The situation obviously is a tragedy,” Kiffer said. “A lot of our (team members) were friends and acquaintances with the victim. It hits everybody really hard. As our people are out working in the field to get the job done, we really appreciate the community’s support with the operation.”
Scott was snowboarding about noon Sunday on Dude Mountain with a friend when the avalanche was triggered.
Scott was buried in the snow. The friend tried to dig Scott out, using Scott’s avalanche beacon as a guide, but wasn’t able to find him.
Without cell phone coverage, the friend had to hike out before he could call for help.
It was too late Sunday to launch a recovery effort.
Teams tried Monday, but bad weather forced them back down the mountain and kept them off until Thursday.
Allen Moore strokes his dogs ears at Braeburn Checkpoint. (Photo by Zoe Rom)
It’s 40 below and snowing.
I’m huddled next to a wood-burning stove inside an old schoolhouse in Eagle, Alaska, a small village in the bush with a population of about 200 to 300 – depending on the season.
It’s a strange place to find myself, a reporter from Arkansas chasing sled dogs as they race across Alaska and Canada. Which is why I’m even more surprised to run into a fellow Arkansan — and his 14 Alaska huskies.
Allen Moore, sometimes known as the Southern Gentleman of Mushing is an elite sled dog runner, who’s path from small-town Arkansas to mushing fame surprises even him.
“It does not make sense, a redneck from Arkansas coming here and runnin’ dogs.” Moore said.
Moore grew up in Arkansas’ northeast corner in a small town called Manila. He was always active and loved being outside. Most of all, he loved animals. Moore studied Wildlife management at Arkansas State University and eventually went on to work for the U S Fish and Wildlife Service, tagging ducks and counting deer.
One thing More didn’t like was the Arkansas heat.
“When I left Arkansas, it was 100-plus degrees with the heat index and all that,” Moore said. “I wanted to go where it was cool.”
So, Moore sold almost everything he owned and loaded the rest into his truck along with his two young daughters, Bridgett and Jennifer, and he drove to the coldest place he knew – Alaska.
Moore was drawn north by childhood memories of cool blue ice and glacial streams from a visit to Anchorage, memories that drew him north to Fairbanks, where he settled with his daughters and started working in wildlife management
Almost immediately, Moore felt the allure of a sled and a dog team.
“First thing we saw in Fairbanks were these little dog races. Kids with one dog, one little sled, going around this one little oval track,” Moore said. “So what do you think she wanted to do? I got a dog, and I had to help her train this one dog. She did it for the first winter and enjoyed it so much then her older sister wanted to do it, so I had to get another dog.”
Moore was hooked.
“It is addictive. I wish everyone could experience it,” Moore said.
Moore started competing in sprints, working his way up to 100, 300 and finally – 1,000 mile distances.
Allen Moore’s dogs just after crossing the finish line in Whitehorse, CA. (Photo by Zoe Rom)
“It’s cool knowing how people traveled 100-plus years ago. That’s the only means of transportation they had,” Moore said. “And when we go to these isolated places, even today, it looks no different.”
Moore met his wife, Ally Zirkle, and they started work building houses and then selling them, using the meager profits to run dogs all winter long. Zirkle, an experienced musher herself with multiple 2nd place Iditarod finishes, won a smaller race – the Yukon Quest. Zirkle built a house herself with the winnings.
They started a kennel – SP Kennel – to grow their passion for mushing. After a few more racing successes, sponsorships started rolling in, allowing Moore to pursue mushing full time.
“Here we are, running dogs for a living. You can’t beat that. It’s a passion, number one,” Moore said. “But when you can turn your passion into a vocation, it seems like that would be everyone’s dream.”
For Moore, mushing combines many of his favorite things – a passion for the outdoors, curiosity about fitness, and a love of animals.
There’s no relationship quite like that between a musher and their team – even Moore, who’s been running dogs for 20 plus years, struggles to describe it.
“Sled dogs, I don’t know how to pinpoint it, but it’s just different,” Moore said. “It’s like you and a sled dog are the same. I mean, you sleep together, you do everything together.”
It’s this relationship, this passion for canine companionship that’s fueled much of Moore’s success.
It’s not just surprising to find an Arkansan on the back of a dog sled… Moore is really good at it.
Aside from several successful Iditarod runs, he has won the rugged Yukon Quest three times. He and his wife now have a kennel of almost 40 dogs.
“We just love to be around dogs. That’s what it was all about,” Moore said. “And now it’s become so much more than dogs.”
For Moore’s part – he just glad to be enjoying the cooler weather.
“Up here if it’s 40 below, 50 below, I can always put more clothes on,” Moore said. “Because you can only take so much off.”
This week we’re hearing from KSKA’s long-time program director Bede Trantina. Bede is retiring today after 39 years of public radio service. Now that is a very long time to work somewhere, and Bede has enjoyed just about all of it. Unfortunately, she did have one small but disturbing surprise just before she left.
TRANTINA: Well, knowing that my last day was coming up, I realized “Jeez, I’ve got to clean out my desk, clean out my office. So I came in on a Saturday, and I got the vacuum cleaner, and I’m moving some stuff around. And I found some coffee beans under the heater area, some old candy behind my file cabinet.
And then I’ve got these cloth bags, underneath my desk with like a change of clothes, and a towel, and some soap. In case, you know, we get stuck here with an ongoing story, and I hadn’t looked in those things for a long time. And there on the bottom of this cloth bag, I thought, “Oh look, there’s a little fuzzy key chain. I don’t remember getting that.” Then I looked at it a little bit closer, and I thought, “That’s not a key chain. That’s a dead mouse.”
It was all wrapped up, all curled up. And I looked at it and I thought, “Oh (expletive), what is that?” And I dropped it, and I took all of the stuff that I’d taken out of that bag just like it was contaminated. And I put it back in that bag and put it upstairs and dropped it in the garbage can. I don’t remember anything else that I found. Certainly nothing that was that gross. But, I like to think of myself as a pretty good housekeeper. But, maybe not such a good officekeeper.
Miss Alaska 2017, Angelina Klapperich, poses next to the trophy (bearing a likeness of the late Joe Redington, Sr.) that will be given to the 2018 Iditarod champion. (Photo by Davis Hovey, KNOM)
Cody Strathe of Fairbanks will be the first musher out on the trail for the start of the 2018 Iditarod sled dog race.
After bib #1 was dedicated to this year’s honorary musher, the late Joe Redington, Jr. — who passed away in August 2017 — Strathe and all the other 66 registered mushers drew numbers from a traditional mukluk boot during last night’s mushers banquet in Anchorage.
Besides featuring notable mushers competing in this year’s race, like Aliy Zirkle, Mitch Seavey and Martin Buser, the Iditarod opening festivities at the Dena’ina Center also included speeches from Governor Bill Walker, former musher Mike Williams, Sr. and Nome’s Mayor Richard Beneville.
The ceremonial start of the 2018 Iditarod is scheduled for Saturday morning at 10am in Anchorage, followed by the race restart in Willow the next day. Strathe is set to leave the starting line at 2pm in Willow with Mats Petterson leaving two minutes behind him.
