Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Photo by Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media)
Senator Lisa Murkowski used a mudslide prone stretch of the Denali National Park Road to point to the need for more funding to address major maintenance at parks. In July 2016, a slide blocked the Park Road at mile 67, through Polychrome Pass, stranding visitors on the other side of the dead end road. Repairs were made, but the stretch of road remains subject to unstable slopes. Murkowski brought up the issue during a meeting yesterday of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee she chairs.
”We’re gonna have to do something aggressive here and rerouting a road in this area is extraordinarily difficult, extraordinarily timely and extraordinarily expensive,” Murkowski said. “But instead of coming up with a rerouting plan, we’re basically using cyclic funds to just kind of patch it.”
Murkowski says the Polychrome pass re-route, which is currently being studied, is not even included on a list of nearly $12 billion in nationwide deferred maintenance projects at parks. Just announced modest entrance fee hikes will contribute to that backlog, and Murkowski suggested a federal tax on outdoor recreation gear to help fund park projects.
”I just want to throw a little bit of a wildcard out there,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski asked hearing witness R.E.I. government affairs director Marc Berejka whether his company, and others who benefit from parks, would be open to a gear tax. Berejka was not receptive.
”You know, most states, they don’t tax milk because milk is good for you,” Berejka said. “And we feel that the outdoors is good for you,so there’s no reason to make it harder to acquire the things that make their lives better.”
Murkowski did not press the issue, but suggested that a gear tax, like revenue from higher park entrance fees, would be a way for users to help insure park facilities are safe and enjoyable.
Huey Winston, Forest Masters and Suzanna Caldwell discuss their website design for the Volt49 renewable energy competition. (Photo by Elizabeth Harball/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
“Failing fast” sounds like a bad thing. But when it comes to fostering the state’s growing renewable energy sector, the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development thinks failure can be useful. So this spring, it designed a unique competition called Volt49. The organizers want Alaskans to come up with renewable energy business ideas as quickly as possible, knowing that many of the ideas probably won’t work — at least not at first.
In late March, Volt49’s organizers assigned a different challenge related to renewable energy in Alaska to four teams across the state, and they have had five weeks to solve it. One team, for example, has been trying to figure out how to power a server farm.
Another team was tasked with coming up with a tool to help power an off-grid cabin with renewables. That team met at a sports bar in downtown Anchorage on Monday. There, Huey Winston, Forest Masters and Suzanna Caldwell put the final touches on a renewable energy website they’re creating, hammering out details like whether a sun or a mini-lightning bolt would look better on the home page.
Winston said their concept has changed a lot over the past few weeks. His first idea was a backpack filled with equipment.
“Then it evolved into this cube which was made of solar panels that kind of fold out,” Winston explained.
But then, three weeks into the competition, the organizers arranged for the team to meet with a solar energy expert, who told them, “‘that’s never going to work, it’s way too heavy” to carry out to a remote location, Winston said.
The expert also pointed out another issue.
“Every solar panel is rectangular, so there’s no way to make a cube with solar panels,” Winston said.
Finding out their cube was a flop was a setback. But organizer Julia Casey with the Center for Economic Development said that’s exactly what the Volt49 competition is designed to do.
“Most ideas are garbage. And I say that in a loving way,” Casey said.
Casey said by forcing teams to develop a renewable energy tool in five short weeks, they “fail fast.” The concept is based on what’s called a “design sprint,” an exercise born in Silicon Valley; Google uses it to jump start new business ideas. And Casey said the tight timeframe is key.
“A lot of times people have a great idea, build it and ten years later they realize, ‘this doesn’t work,’” Casey said.
But putting “garbage” ideas out there can be helpful.
“There’s a nugget of gold in every idea, but you have to figure out what that is,” Casey said.
Casey acknowledged the ideas the Volt49 teams are coming up with during the competition probably aren’t going immediately lead to multi-million dollar businesses — and she’s okay with that. She said the goal is to unearth those “nuggets of gold” a little faster, and meanwhile, teach the teams about what makes Alaska’s renewable energy sector so valuable.
“In renewable energy we have a lot of expertise and very specific challenges that happen in remote rural places, that happen where energy is very difficult to create,” Casey said. “That is really, really cool and can be translated throughout the world in other places that have similar challenges.”
There are now over 100 Alaska businesses working in renewable energy, according to a report released this week by the Center for Economic Development and the state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. Based on interviews with dozens of renewable energy businesses in the state, the report concludes most of those firms aren’t focused on products — often, their biggest selling point is expertise.
“In this knowledge-based industry, many specialize in optimizing energy systems for remote or extreme conditions,” the report states.
Back at the Volt49 team meeting, Caldwell explained that’s roughly the idea behind the website their team developed. It’s called “Surge AK,” and it’s designed as a “one-stop-shop” for off-grid cabin owners wanting power from renewables.
“There’s a lot of renewable energy information out there, and a lot of products…but if you’re an Alaskan, where could you go to find all of that?” Caldwell said.
Caldwell and her teammates said they don’t think this website is going to make them a lot of money — none of them are quitting their day jobs after the competition ends. But Caldwell said she’s learned a lot.
“If I ever decide to become an entrepreneur, it really has shifted my perspective on how you do that,” Caldwell said.
And that’s exactly what Volt49’s organizers are after: giving Alaskans new skills, and if they’re lucky, an early “garbage” idea that could someday lead to the state’s next big renewable energy startup.
The Volt49 teams will present their ideas at a showcase this Friday at Anchorage Community Works from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.
Anchorage officials finalized the city’s vote count Tuesday night, the last step in an election where one of the biggest surprises was the success of the newly implemented vote-by-mail system.
About 79,295 ballots were cast, pushing turnout to just over 36 percent, a high figure relative to Anchorage’s normal local election returns.
Many praised the municipal Clerk’s office.
Assembly member Eric Croft said the increase in civic engagement is evidence that the new system made voting easier for residents.
“We’re all impressed on the numbers, but what it means is that our prior system didn’t work for a lot of people, and we’ve been bemoaning the lack of participation, and some of it is we didn’t make it very easy for people,” Croft said. “And we’re trying to fix that.”
The vote certification upholds preliminary results.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz won a second term.
Ballot measure one, related to bathroom regulations, was struck down by a few thousand votes.
The sale of a municipal electrical utility will continue forward.
The clerk’s office says it will continue looking at ways to improve the vote-by-mail system, such as potentially including postage for returning ballots.
The Assembly also is undergoing a bit of a shakeup in leadership.
Long-time chairman Dick Traini is ceding control of the body to a newer member. After a quick vote count, the assistant clerk announced the results.
“We have a new chair. Forrest Dunbar,” he said.
The change in leadership on the Assembly is not a total surprise.
Dunbar wrote earlier in the day on Facebook he was vying for the chairmanship with Traini’s support as a way to spread more institutional knowledge at a time when most Assembly members are newer.
Prior to being elected onto the Assembly in 2016, Dunbar had run against Congressman Don Young for his House seat.
Eric Croft, who represents west Anchorage, was elected to be the new vice chair.
The case involves 17-year-old Sebastian Davis and 17-year-old Jasmine Ohmer who allegedly hit deer with Davis’ truck in February. Ohmer recorded it on video and posted it on the social media app Snapchat. The video shows the vehicle approaching and then hitting two deer. Ohmer is heard laughing and Davis is heard saying that they got two of them. It takes place in a residential neighborhood in Petersburg.
Alaska State Wildlife Troopers investigated and the State of Alaska charged each of the teens with harassing game. Davis was additionally charged for reckless driving, all misdemeanors.
On Monday, the State of Alaska filed two additional charges against the teenagers: one count each of unlawfully taking game from a motorized vehicle and two counts each of failing to notify state troopers after colliding with the deer, all misdemeanors.
The new charges stem from the State of Alaska changing prosecutors. The case moved from the District Attorney’s Office in Sitka to the Special Prosecutions Office in Anchorage. Assistant Attorney General Aaron Peterson is the new prosecutor.
The teens each have their own lawyers representing them.
When Davis and Ohmer were initially questioned by Troopers, the teenagers said they were trying to scare the deer for fun and weren’t trying to hit the deer. They admitted to hitting a third deer the night before when Ohmer was driving. They say the deer jumped out in front of their truck. Troopers found deer hair on the truck and a broken headlight on the driver’s side.
The teens say none of the deer died from what they saw. They say the two deer they hit in the video ran off into a yard. They say the third deer lay down in the road and then got up and walked towards the beach.
The arraignment on the new charges is set for April 23 at 3:30 p.m. at the Petersburg Courthouse.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers say this photo, believed taken on or about Dec. 13, 2015, is evidence of Juneau residents poaching deer. (Photo courtesy Alaska Wildlife Troopers)
State wildlife officers have closed the case on what they call one of the most egregious cases of deer poaching in Southeast Alaska.
Trooper Jake Abbott took the lead on the investigation.
Others from Wildlife Troopers, Alaska State Troopers and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement helped out as the case mushroomed.
After tallying over a dozen illegally taken deer, Abbott said he pretty much stopped counting.
“With this case and the length of the investigation, I finally just kind of reached a point where I just went ‘OK, I need to stop poking the hornet’s nest and just get people charged,’” Abbott said. “What often happens through the course of these investigations [is that] we take investigatory steps such as getting search warrants and stuff. Usually, through the course of that we end up finding other violations that have been committed.”
The hunting violations included shooting from a boat, exceeding the bag limit and abusing the proxy hunting system for elders and the disabled, Abbott said. He said the poachers evaded answering their questions because they knew what they were doing was wrong.
Most of the violations occurred during the fall 2015 deer hunting season near Chichagof Island’s Elfin Cove and on Admiralty Island’s Glass Peninsula.
Abbott said the Glass Peninsula is a pretty popular hunting area.
“It’s an area that can be harder to get to, especially later in the season if people don’t have adequate boats because the Taku Inlet area can be a pretty nasty piece of water,” Abbott said.
All of the defendants were either co-workers or somehow acquainted with each other, Abbott said.
“With these people, these are all avid outdoorsmen,” Abbott said. “The majority of them, they were all involved either in the sport fishing industry as guides or they’re all avid hunters.”
Abbott said troopers conducted interviews, served search warrants on the defendants’ homes, and combed social media for trophy shot pictures.
Abbott said it’s hard to have your mind set on looking for just that one piece of evidence, that one thing.
“You never know what might be that little piece of evidence, that little nugget of gold that can send you over the edge as far as being able to make a case or not,” Abbott said. “That was kind of the instance here in which we just kept finding little nuggets of gold, and more little nuggets of gold, then people’s statements corroborating what we were seeing or not seeing.”
Grantley Moore, 43, of Juneau pleaded guilty in Feb. 8 to misdemeanor charges of unlawful possession, providing false information on a hunt report, and taking an over-limit of deer.
“I’ve been pretty much been fishing my entire life,” Grantley Moore said in a promotional video for Moore Charters. “I grew up out in the middle of nowhere in Tenakee Springs.”
Investigators determined that many of the deer hunting trips occurred on Moore’s charter vessel Eclipse.
Moore did not return messages placed at his business seeking comment.
As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, charges of taking big game from a boat and unlawful possession or transportation of game were dropped.
Moore was fined a total of $3,500 and ordered to pay the state $1,600 in restitution for illegally harvesting four deer.
Moore was also put on probation for a year and lost his hunting privileges for two years.
Tyler Matthews, 24, of Juneau pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to unlawful possession, taking big game from a boat and as a non-resident harvesting deer as a proxy when prohibited.
As part of a plea agreement, the misdemeanor charges were reduced to violations, and two additional misdemeanor charges of unlawful proxy hunting and unlawful game possession or transportation were dropped.
Matthews was fined a total of $900 and ordered to pay the state $800 in restitution for illegally harvesting two deer.
Matthews could not be reached for comment.
Others charged in the case include Benjamin Olson, 30; Mckenzie Wilson, 24; and Wyatt Weimer, 25, all of Juneau.
They earlier pleaded no contest at arraignment to violations of taking big game from a boat, unlawful possession, and unlawful proxy hunting.
They were each ordered to pay fines up to $1,650 and restitution of as much as $800.
There are two other defendants with unresolved cases.
Daniel Collins, 22, of Oklahoma did not appear in court and a $500 arrest warrant has been issued. Anies Sadeghi, 25, of Juneau awaits trial, which begins May 22.
Clare Baldwin and two of her colleagues with the Reuters news agency won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for their series on a brutal, ongoing drug war in the Philippines.
Before spending a year and a half reporting on death squads, Baldwin said she had seen maybe one dead body, and that was in a casket at a funeral. But a big part of Baldwin’s mission, along with her Reuters colleagues Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel Mogato, was to show the pattern behind why more and more Filipinos were showing up dead on city streets.
Baldwin, 34 and a graduate of Colony High School in Palmer, says it was difficult at times but important.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of death and blood and guts, and you have to kind of keep in mind why you’re there. And you’re there to tell a story about what’s happening,” Baldwin said.
What was happening — and what Baldwin said is still happening — is a drug war under Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte that has been marked by thousands of extrajudicial killings. Duterte has said the killings by his government’s anti-drug squads are justified, but they have been condemned by international human rights groups.
The hard-nosed reporting by Baldwin, her colleagues and others added a greater depth to news of the ongoing violence. It has also given their international audience a better sense of the actual number of deaths and the impacts to the families left behind.
“And I also hope this brings a lot more attention back to the Philippines, because the drug war is still happening, people are still being killed, these families are still asking for justice, and there are a lot of really wonderful local reporters that are still covering this,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin was once a local reporter, too. That was before college at Stanford, before she became a special correspondent in Southeast Asia for Reuters and before moving to Hong Kong, where she lives on a boat.
Baldwin was still in high school when she reported for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. She also worked for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and the Peninsula Clarion. And, among other outdoor activities, Baldwin did some mountaineering with her dad.
Baldwin said growing up in Alaska shaped her as a person and helped her in many ways, including the ability to improvise.
“Or the desire to improvise,” Baldwin said with a laugh. “Being comfortable in kind of uncomfortable places. Because the more you can just deal with yourself and be comfortable in rough conditions, the better. Like you’ll do a better job.”
Baldwin’s parents, Ralph Baldwin and Susan Gunther, still live in Wasilla. They were proud and pleasantly surprised to get what they described as an typically “understated” announcement from their daughter this week about the Pulitzer.
Considering the subject matter of the reporting, they both say they are concerned sometimes about her safety on reporting trips abroad, poking around in such violent circumstances. But both parents said Baldwin has proven she’s capable of taking care of herself with good judgement and a good sense of risk management.
Susan said they strived to teach their children to be independent critical thinkers.
“Sometimes when you raise your kids to be independent, the (downside) is they do take off and end up in different parts of the world,” Susan said. “But we’re really proud of them, and when we can see them, we’re thrilled.”
Baldwin does make it back to Alaska to visit from time to time. But she is currently working on another reporting project, this time in Bangladesh, telling the stories of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing persecution and, again, reports of government sanctioned killing.
HAARP antenna array in Gakona, AK (Photo courtesy of the US Airforce)
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program or “HAARP” facility is gearing up for its busiest season since the University of Alaska Fairbanks acquired the Gakona-area atmospheric experimentation station from the Air Force.
HAARP Director Jessica Matthews says she and her staff and UAF officials are all pretty excited about the third and biggest research campaign the HAARP has hosted since the Air Force handed the facility over to the university in 2015.
“This one is by far the largest and longest campaign that we’ve had,” Matthews said. “It’s scheduled for the 6th to the 14th. And we have about 43 hours of funded research that’s going to be going on this spring.”
During the campaign, top-level research agencies will be paying to use the upper-atmosphere research observatory, which is operated by the UAF Geophysical Institute.
The organizations will use HAARP’s array of dozens of antennas, powerful radio-frequency transmitters and advanced monitoring instrumentation to conduct their experiments – which are similar to the kinds of applied research that’s been conducted there for more than a decade.
“The goal of the research is the same, which is basically conducting fundamental research or study of the physical processes that are taking place at the very highest portions of our atmosphere, which is called the ionosphere,” Matthews said.
Matthews says she’s hopeful HAARP’s will attract more world-class research for its fall research campaign. She’s hopeful the university will by year’s end gain title to the 1,000 acres on which the Air Force opened the facility in 2003 for some $300 million. A facility which the university now operates on a shoestring.
“This is a large program,” Matthews said. “The Air Force ran the program for about $7 million a year. The university is really doing an extraordinary job and we’re running to just at about $2 million a year.”
Matthews says she and her staff are planning this year’s open house, scheduled for August 25th.
Some small boat fishermen who previously relied on targeting cod are turning to other means to make a profit. One way to do that is to join a community supported fishery, or CSF.
That’s what some Kodiak jig fishermen are doing to bolster their incomes.
Jig fisherman Darius Kasprzak holds up a scrap piece of iron from WWII. He says he picked it up off a beach and uses it as a weight for his line.
“When people were making money cod fishing, you’d just buy lead weights, but those days are over,” Kasprzak said.
Kasprzak is the president of the Alaska Jig Association, and says – like him – a lot of jig fishermen made the bulk of their income off cod.
And with the decline of cod, he says he’s also seen the association drop from around 40 members to 15 or 16.
Kasprzak says where he once harvested rockfish in the summer to diversify his catch, it’s now his target species. However, he says his rockfish catches have been less plentiful recently.
“We can no longer continue to do business on a volume oriented business model, because the volume just isn’t there anymore,” Kasprzak said. “You have to get paid more for less fish. It’s the only way we can remain in business.”
Kasprzak describes a careful process of ensuring the rockfish remains fresh from sea to dock. The goal is to emphasize quality over quantity.
“When you hold the finished sample in your hands, it’s just a like a piece of Ivory soap. It’s just white and clear, there’s no bruising, there’s no gapping.”
That’s the kind of quality people in the Lower 48 are willing to pay for. At least that’s what some jig fishermen are banking on.
Kazprzak along with a handful of other fishermen are selling rockfish to Sitka Salmon Shares, a direct-to-consumer group that markets fresh, sustainably-caught product to customers in the Midwest.
The organization is also working with a couple of processors around Kodiak, like Global Seafoods.
Plant manager Nik Morozov says Global Seafoods had the space available to accommodate the group.
“And then we just in general didn’t want to turn down the small guys in town, so we decided to take on a project,” Morozov said.
And Morozov says with the 80 percent cut to cod quota this year, it also provides his employees with extra work.
“So, anything that we could plug up into those empty spaces there would help,” Morozov said. “It gives them at least an extra couple of hours here and there.”
Right now, Sitka Salmon Shares’ business is not a money maker.
Morozov says they’ll be breaking even, and they’d like more fishermen and a bigger harvest to make a profit.
Ryan Horwath is the Kodiak fleet manager for Sitka Salmon Shares and calls their 4 to 6 fishermen a “happy” number of participants for the group at this point.
But Horwath hopes there could be room to grow in the future.
“If we can fill these orders, these early orders, then they are talking about expanding their business to include more species from Kodiak,” Horwath said.
Horwath says Sitka Salmon Shares is buying more rockfish out of Kodiak this year after a preliminary purchase in 2017.
That’s good news for fishermen targeting rockfish. Horwath says Sitka Salmon Shares offers vessels around a dollar a pound for the fish, which is at least twice the profit Kodiak jig fishermen would usually make on rockfish, if not more.
And while Horwath is optimistic about getting other processors involved, he says companies may give priority to more profitable operations. Breaking even might not be enough in the long run.
State House and Senate agree on a school funding plan
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
The Alaska House took a major step today toward preventing layoff notices from going out to teachers and other school workers this spring.
Murkowski suggests taxing outdoor rec gear to help fund park projects
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Senator Lisa Murkowski used a mudslide prone stretch of the Denali National Park Road to point to the need for more funding to address major maintenance at parks.
State announces businesses joining the China Trade Mission
Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau
An Alaska delegation will explore new trade opportunities in China at the end of May. The group includes a baby food maker, several seafood processors and officials from the Mat-Su Borough.
Anchorage officials certify vote-by-mail results
Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
About 79,295 ballots were cast, pushing turnout to just over 36 percent, a high figure relative to Anchorage’s normal local election returns. The vote certification upholds preliminary results.
Kodiak jig fishermen explore other markets during poor cod season
Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak
Kodiak processors and fishermen are seeing the effects of the 80 percent cut to cod quota in the Gulf of Alaska.
Biologists predict early start for Togiak sac roe herring fishery
Isabelle Ross, KDLG – Dillingham
No herring biomass was spotted during the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s aerial survey of the Togiak district on Monday. But biologists are still predicting an early start for the Togiak sac roe herring fishery.
New charges are filed in case of Petersburg teens hitting deer
Angela Denning, KFSK – Petersburg
New charges have been filed against two Petersburg teenagers accused of hitting deer with their vehicle this winter.
Five Juneau residents ordered to pay fines, restitution for deer poaching
Matt Miller, KTOO – Juneau
Most of the defendants — including the operator of Moore Charters in Auke Bay — have pleaded guilty or no contest to the charges and must pay fines and restitution.
An Alaskan abroad wins international reporting Pulitzer
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Clare Baldwin and two of her colleagues with the Reuters news agency won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for their series on a brutal, ongoing drug war in the Philippines.
HAARP readies for busiest research season in three years
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program or “HAARP” facility is gearing up for its busiest season since the University of Alaska Fairbanks acquired the Gakona-area atmospheric experimentation station from the Air Force.
The Department of Interior released a notice saying it will hold “no fewer than two” oil lease sales in a 1.6-million-acre portion of the refuge, known as the 1002 area or the Coastal Plain. It adds those lease sales must be held by December 2024.
The announcement, while expected, was immediately celebrated by Alaska’s political leaders and condemned by environmental groups.
“We welcome this scoping announcement and the Department’s continued work to implement our legislation opening the Coastal Plain to responsible energy development,” Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young said in a joint statement.
“In its rush to drill America’s Last Frontier, the Trump Administration is trying to sell leases in the iconic Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as fast as they can, with no regard for why the refuge was created in the first place,” Geoffrey Haskett, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, said in a statement. “This race to drill flies in the face of the Arctic refuge’s true purposes such as conserving natural diversity and shows the disdain this administration has for the natural world.”
The notice kicks off the first public comment period on drilling in the refuge.
“This scoping process begins the first step in developing a responsible path forward,” Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash said in a statement. “I look forward to personally visiting the communities most affected by this process and hearing their concerns.”
Interior said it will hold public meetings in Anchorage, Arctic Village, Fairbanks, Kaktovik and Utqiaġvik. It did not announce any meeting locations outside Alaska, although it said meetings could be held in other places “if there is strong community interest.”
Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, said she thinks limiting the public meetings to Alaska is a good idea.
“I’m encouraged that the Department of Interior is not having a scoping meeting in D.C., and they’re not having a scoping meeting in California or Washington or other areas of the country that they’re sole mission in life is to keep our resources locked in the ground,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty said that’s because much of the opposition to drilling in ANWR comes from the Lower 48, while many Alaskans support it.
But Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, said she thinks the number of Alaskans who don’t want oil development in the refuge is growing.
The Coastal Plain “has been protected so long that people just thought it would never open,” Demientieff said. “But now that it is, I have faith that many Alaska Natives are going to stand up against it.”
The public now has until June 19 to submit comments to the Bureau of Land Management. Interior will announce the times and locations of the public meetings in late May.
More than 80 people filtered through the middle school gym over the course of the evening to weigh in on potential resources that could be affected by the proposed mine and to suggest alternatives to components of the plan.
The main events were two stations in the back of the room. At a bank of computers, people could submit their comments online. At another table, sat a court reporter. People took turns speaking to her, and she recorded their comments. Some wrote their comments and gave them to those running the meeting.
At the other six public scoping meetings in Bristol Bay, the Army Corps provided a live microphone for people to deliver their comments publicly to the gathered audience. It did not provide that opportunity in Dillingham, Homer or Anchorage.
Many in Dillingham were frustrated not to have the opportunity to speak publicly. Curyung Tribal Council was among those who criticized the Army Corps for not providing a live microphone.
Gayla Hoseth, Curyung Second Chief, said the meeting’s format was inconsistent with Alaska Native people’s tradition of oral communication.
“The hearing format proposed by the USACE will result in fewer people speaking, which in turn means the scoping process will not be as well informed,” Hoseth said.
Curyung member chief, Kimberly Williams, traveled to several of the earlier scoping meetings in Bristol Bay. She said that she was disappointed to see a different format in her hometown than in the smaller villages.
“I’m really upset with the Army Corps of Engineers for what is happening in Dillingham. They are treating us very differently than the other communities. I’ve worked on this project for 14 years, and disseminating information is really important. I’m not telling people how to think. I’m asking people what their opinions are related to this project, and we want people in Dillingham and our tribal members to come out and testify and let them know what our concerns are,” Williams said.
The Army Corps said that it anticipated a high turnout for the meeting and that public testimony could have taken too long. It also cited a concern that testimony in a hub community could be front-loaded with perspectives overwhelmingly for or against the proposed mine.
Sheila Newman, regulatory division deputy chief with the Army Corps’ Alaska District, said that Dillingham and other larger venues could have the chance to offer public testimony after the Army Corps releases a draft of the Environmental Impact Statement.
“Public scoping meetings are something that we do to supplement scoping to make it easy for the public to provide input. Public hearings are a different endeavor that come later in the process. And that is truly a listening session where we as the federal agency would be walking into the room and just listening to public viewpoints on a project. There is an appropriate time for that in the Department of the Army permit review process and to correlate it with this review process it would be at the draft EIS stage,” Newman said.
The Corps of Engineers anticipates releasing a draft of the EIS in January 2019.
Scheduled scoping meetings on the project wrap up this week with the final meeting in Anchorage on Thursday.
The resolution sponsored by Fairbanks Representative David Guttenberg, also asks the federal government to reconsider its listing of marijuana as a schedule one drug, a move Senator Berta Gardner told fellow Senators would fix several issues in Alaska.
”It solves the banking problem, solves the federal enforcement issues and all of the concerns of people that are involved either in the industry or recreational use of marijuana in our state,” Gardner said.
The resolution passed both the House and Senate with unanimous support.
Gorden Julien and Betsy Shiner in front of the Glacier Bay Farm. (Photo by Daysha Eaton, KHNS – Haines) site.
Alaska voters approved recreational use of marijuana by those 21 and older in 2014, but it has taken time for businesses in some rural communities to come online.
Glacier Bay Farms is set to be among the first legal marijuana businesses in Haines.
The commercial, recreational marijuana grow operation has brought together an unlikely team of entrepreneurs— a 78-year-old grandmother and a handful of millennials who are hoping to have their first harvest by the end of the year.
“We’ve done anything to make a living, that was legal, I guess you could say,” Carol Waldo said.
Waldo’s family has dabbled in logging, trucking, construction, concrete, equipment rental, and snow plowing, among other things for over 50 years.
“If you live in Alaska, especially in a community like this, where we are kind of isolated,” Waldo said. “You have to be able to do a lot of different things to survive.”
And now, Waldo is becoming a pioneer in a new kind of business: the newly legal commercial recreational marijuana industry.
It is under construction now and if all goes as planned, Glacier Bay Farms will be up and running by the end of the year.
It is one of several marijuana cultivation and retail businesses in Haines going through the lengthy state licensing process.
With silver hair cropped just above her shoulders and sparkling blue eyes, the five-foot-one grandmother says she never imagined she’d be growing and selling marijuana.
“I’ve never smoked marijuana and I’ve never [e]aten marijuana. I mean it’s not anything that I’ve tried yet,” Waldo said. “That doesn’t mean I won’t try it at some point, I might. I’m 78 years old, I guess I can kind of do what I want.”
Waldo explains she does use oil derived from cannabis, CBD oil, orally for her type two diabetes and topically to treat arthritis. CBD is not psychoactive.
Waldo talks business around her kitchen table over a batch of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies.
“I just baked them a couple of hours ago,” Waldo explained from a chair in her home dining room, near downtown Haines.
Waldo arrived in Alaska from the Midwest via the Alaska Highway as a young child in 1948, the second year the highway was opened to traffic. Her family settled in Haines. Her parents are buried nearby and five generations of her family have lived in the town of about 2,500.
Waldo still manages the family business, Waldo Enterprises, which was established in 1964.
Waldo says she believes legal marijuana businesses can bring economic development to the town which mostly relies on fishing and tourism.
“Haines needs some economy, they need some tax money, they need jobs and one of the things that is important to me is to see young people move here with their families, send their kids to school, buy their groceries at the stores here in town,” Waldo said.
Waldo says she has purchased 90 percent of building materials in Haines. She already employs about five young people who live here and hopes to employ many more as her business develops. One of them is 28-year-old Gordon Julian.
“We have two buildings. They are going to be identical. Each building is going to have 48 lights.” Julian said.
Julian stands in a clearing on nearly 13 acres of land next to the Waldo family salvage yard at the foot of Mount Ripinsky where two long, rectangular windowless buildings are under construction.
Julian, who says he worked in the legal medical marijuana industry in Michigan, is putting the grow operation together. He steps inside one building and describes what it will be like it will be like once electricity is hooked up.
“At any given time we could have, between the two buildings, close to 800 plants going at one time,” Julian said.
Betsy Shiner, also 28 and from Michigan, is part of the team too. She actually trained to be a preschool teacher.
“I trained at Michigan State University, but the teaching in our country does not pay very well right now.” Shiner said. “So, I have a lot of studnt loans. I’m hoping to get some money to pay back those college loans.”
Shiner says she is excited to be involved in a growing industry that pays well.
“This is like an industry where there is promise for a future,” Shiner said.
Waldo says she is very interested in eventually expanding her business to focus on medical marijuana products. She also has an interest in developing marijuana tourism and possibly a dispensary in Haines.
In a small town, Waldo says there are always skeptics, critics, and detractors, but she wants people here to know that she’s going into the pot business because she cares about the future of Haines.
“We’re not fly-by-night. We are not here to make money and leave.” Waldo said. “We’re here to make a living, hire people and better our community.”
To better the community and create a business that she plans to pass on to her son and grandchildren here.
But for now, the septuagenarian hopes that she and her team of millennials will be wholesaling bud to dispensaries in Juneau by the end of 2018.
A worker portions halibut at a processing line at Odyssey, one of Sealaska’s recent Seattle-area seafood investments. The corporation says those investments boost earnings and dividends. (Photo courtesy Sealaska Corp.)
Sealaska Corp. will distribute more than $23 million to its shareholders Friday. It’s twice last spring’s amount, in part because the Southeast regional Native corporation’s own businesses are making more money.
Some ended up with large stands of trees, rare mineral deposits or other valuable natural resources. Others did not.
So the act – and a later legal agreement – required those with more to share their wealth with those with less. It’s known as section 7(i/j).
Juneau-headquartered Sealaska used to be one of those with more. It made a lot of money off its timber lands and shared 70 percent with other regional corporations. But in more recent years, it’s been getting considerable revenue from two of its northern cousins.
“That’s been down from historic levels and is still down from historic levels,” Anthony Mallott, Sealaska’s president and CEO, said.
The other owns the rights to a profitable mine in northwest Alaska.
“This last year, zinc prices have been headed upward. And there’s more income from the Red Dog Mine that NANA (Regional Corp.) is the landowner of,” Mallott said.
Dividend totals differ. This year, they range from $13.50 to $2.36 per share. That’s because the corporation’s more than 22,000 shareholders are divided into classes.
For those getting the largest dividends, more than 80 percent comes from the shared revenue pool. A little more than 10 percent comes from the corporation’s own businesses. The remainder is from the corporation’s permanent fund earnings.
Mallott said they’re doing well.
“The land-management (and) natural resource business is one of the leaders. We’re actively investing in the seafood side, meaning expectations that seafood will quickly be the greatest source of income for Sealaska,” Mallott said.
The corporation also continues to earn money through investments and government contracting.
“They were all profitable in 2017 just like they were all profitable in 2016. And they’re all growing,” Mallott said.
“If this a trend line for Sealaska, that’s great news,” Nicole Hallingstad, a former vice president and corporate secretary for Sealaska, said.
Hallingstad has also run for its board of directors as an independent – and sometimes critical – candidate.
“Shareholders want to support the corporation and they’re excited that the corporation seems to be on a trend of profitability,” Hallingstad said.
It’s hard to tell how well Sealaska’s different subsidiaries are doing. That’s because the corporation reports financial results by sector, not for each separate company.
Hallingstad said that’s understandable because corporations don’t want competitors to know too many details. But she thinks Sealaska could be more transparent in its dividends breakdown for shareholders.
“It would be great if there was a number that showed the earnings from our subsidiary holdings as opposed to the investment holdings. And that way, shareholders really can begin to track what our subsidiary operations are doing,” Hallingstad said.
About five years ago, Sealaska’s revenues dropped significantly due to more than $30 million in losses from its construction subsidiary and some other operations.
The losses were spread out over several years. But Mallott said they’re no longer part of the dividend equation.
The Air Force Reserve deploys Blackhawk helicopters to transport personnel to communities for Operation Arctic Care (Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force, Percy G. Jones)
People in 12 Northwest communities can get free health care services this week, thanks to the U.S. Armed Forces’ Operation Arctic Care, which happens every three years.
Paul Hansen is the administrator of the Maniilaq Association, the health-care system for the Northwest Arctic Borough. He says it’s a win-win scenario.
“The benefit for the Armed Forces is readiness training,” Hansen said. “The benefit for the region is really a blitz of services.”
The services include a full range of regular medical care, plus dental, eye and veterinary care. They’re all available at Maniilaq’s 11 clinics throughout the region and at the Maniilaq Health Center in Kotzebue.
Hansen says Arctic Care fills gaps, providing procedures like colonoscopies that aren’t normally available. But it also helps with more routine things.
“Every year, we have to do sports physicals for all the kids in school, and we have a constant need. In early August, we’re trying to catch all the cross-country kids,” Hansen said. “Then comes wrestling season, basketball season and Native Youth Olympics. So they help us take care of that.”
Hansen says village operations for the U.S. Armed Forces are usually a smooth process.
“I know that the military gets a lot of respect around here, and people really appreciate the work they do. So the Arctic Care is really well-received,” Hansen said.
The around 100 reservists being deployed are from all four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as from the Canadian Air Force and Army. That’s according to Sergeant Joseph Simms, public affairs officer for the Air Force Reserve.
Simms says Arctic Care helps reservists who have regular day jobs get ready for crisis-response scenarios like hurricanes.
“They’re able to take their experience both militarily and in the civilian roles and help the people of Northwest Alaska,” Simms said.
And Simms says working with other branches of the Armed Forces is great training for deployment.
“It’s a joint environment. Because it’s not just Air Force and Army going out by themselves. We’re learning from each other, working together,” Simms said. “And that’s only going to benefit us in a deployed environment.”
Arctic Care continues through this Saturday, April 21. Borough residents can contact their local clinic to sign up for an appointment.
The Pogo mine and mill complex includes facilities for administrative offices, housing, meal service and emergency services. (Photo courtesy of the Pogo Mine)
Recent exploration around the Pogo Mine near Delta Junction has shown promising evidence of more rich deposits of gold nearby. A Pogo geologist told a group of miners and industry officials early this month that more exploration will be needed before company officials can decide whether to expand the operation and develop the resources. But the officials are excited about the potential.
Pogo Exploration Superintendent Gabe Graf’s Powerpoint was a largely technical talk, like most given during the Alaska Miners AssociationBiennial Conference. But in the course of the presentation, he offered a comment or two about some drilling done last year in the Goodpaster prospect that even a layman could easily understand.
“… So we just turned the rig, drilling a shallower hole coming across,” Graf said. “And this hole, we hit 17-and-a-half feet of 1-point-seven-three-nine ounces per ton. Very good, very excited about that.”
That means the sample taken from that drill hole suggests more than 1.7 ounces of gold could be refined from a ton of ore extracted from that area. That’s a very rich concentration that if proven with subsequent exploration would be well above the amount needed to make a very good profit for mine owner Sumitomo Metal Mining-Pogo.
“We’re really excited about the Goodpaster right now,” Graf said.
In an interview after his talk, Graf was cautiously optimistic about the results of last year’s drilling around the Goodpaster prospect. But he reiterated the need for more drilling around the area before company officials would even consider developing the resource.
“We don’t have a lot of information yet,” Graf said. “We only have a few drill holes in these areas. But based on the few drill holes we do have – very encouraging results.”
Pogo General Manager Chris Kennedy also is upbeat, cautiously so, about the both the Goodpaster prospect and another called the Fun Zone that’s located nearer to the mine.
“The early information that we’re getting back from exploration between last year and of course some information this year shows that there’s a lot of potential north of the property,” Kennedy said. “The Fun Zone shows a lot of potential. The West Goodpaster shows a huge amount of potential.”
The Goodpaster prospect is located west of the river of the same name, about two miles west of the property around the mill, all which is located about 35 miles northeast of Delta. Kennedy says Sumitomo-Pogo plans to spend $21 million on exploration this year for learn more about those and other prospects closer the mine. He says developing more of the area’s gold potential could mean the mine will continue operating and provide jobs.
“It’s exciting for us, because it potentially means we continue to extend our mine life out there, and we continue to keep 320 employees,” Kennedy said. “We continue to keep 100-plus contractors employed. And we continue to be able to contribute to the community like we have been doing for the past 10 or 12 years.”
Kennedy was referring to the annual donation Pogo-Sumitomo give to the City of Delta and other area causes. The company gave Delta $150,000 last year, and another $150,000 to an organization that provides services to the greater Deltana area.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker peeks out for a photo after a group signs an agreement to study a partnership between China and Alaska to build a gas pipeline megaproject on Nov. 9, 2017, in Beijing, China. (Photo courtesy Alaska Governor’s Office)
An Alaska delegation will explore new trade opportunities in China at the end of May. The group includes a baby food maker, several seafood processors and the Mat-Su Borough.
The trip is part of a trade mission that Gov. Bill Walker’s office announced earlier this year. China is the top consumer of Alaska’s goods and Walker says he wants to deepen those ties.
On Tuesday, Walker’s office announced 26 groups that would travel with the state during the 11-day trip. They’ll have opportunities to meet with potential customers and government officials on the trip.
They’ll also be traveling with Alaska’s Gasline Development Corporation. The state corporation is working to develop a $45 billion natural gas export project; it wants China to finance the bulk of it.
Trump administration kicks off process for oil development in ANWR
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
The Department of Interior released a notice saying it will hold “no fewer than two” oil lease sales in a 1.6-million acre portion of the refuge, known as the 1002 area or the Coastal Plain.
USACE takes public comment in Dillingham on Pebble Project, format generates frustration
Avery Lill, KDLG – Dillingham
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took public comment on the Pebble Mine plan in Dillingham on Tuesday.
U.S. military brings free “Arctic Care” to Northwest Arctic communities
Gabe Colombo, KNOM – Nome
People in 12 Northwest communities can get free health care services this week, thanks to the U.S. Armed Forces’ Operation Arctic Care, which happens every three years.
Alaska Senate joins House, calling for feds to respect state marijuana laws
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
The State Senate has joined the House in passing a resolution calling on the federal government to respect Alaska’s legalization of marijuana.
Haines marijuana business inches closer to operating, brings together grandmother, millenials
Daysha Eaton, KHNS – Haines
Glacier Bay Farms is set to be among the first legal marijuana businesses in Haines.
Wrangell gets first pot dispensary
June Leffler, KSTK – Wrangell
Wrangell’s first marijuana dispensary opened this week.
Pogo Mine officials “very excited” about two promising gold prospects under exploration
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
Recent exploration around the Pogo Mine near Delta Junction has shown promising evidence of more rich deposits of gold nearby.
Renewable energy competition wants Alaskans to ‘fail fast’ to eventually find ‘gold’
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
In late March, Volt49’s organizers assigned a unique challenge related to renewable energy in Alaska to four teams across the state, and they have had five weeks to solve it.
Sealaska dividends boosted by other corporations’ oil and zinc earnings
Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau
Sealaska says its businesses are making more money and helping boost shareholder dividends. But much of the payout comes from other corporations’ resource earnings.
A passenger is already required to have a letter from a mental health professional and a health certificate for the animal. But starting May 1, they’ll also need a signed affidavit that the animal is trained to behave in public and that the owner accepts liability for its actions.
And they’ll now have to provide all of this to the airline at least 48 hours before the flight.
Alaska Airlines spokesman Tim Thompson said the changes are in response to increasing problems with emotional support animals on planes.
“We’ve had incidents of barking or animals running up and down the aisles,” Thompson said. “In some cases, they’ve bitten customers, they’ve bitten employees.”
The new policy does not affect certified service animals, which are typically dogs helping owners with physical disabilities. The new restrictions only apply to animals assisting emotional, psychiatric, cognitive or psychological disabilities.
The policy change also limits the kinds of animals allowed.
“So now we’re not allowing amphibians, goats, animals with tusks, horns, hooves. There is an exception for trained miniature horses,” Thompson said.
That’s on top of the animals already prohibited by the airline, including hedgehogs, ferrets, insects, rodents, snakes or spiders.
The necessary documents can be emailed and faxed to Alaska Airlines, and the airline’s full policy for emotional support animals can be found at its website.
Today, students organized across the country in solidarity with national high school walkouts expressing alarm over gun violence, including in Fairbanks. However, participating students didn’t have permission from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.
“We have heard some of our students are organizing protests, (and) that they would be walking out of class at 1:30. That means they’ll be missing 45 minutes of classtime,” District spokeswoman Sharice Walker said.
Walker says student athletes would not only get dinged for 45 minutes of absence – they could also miss out on practice and games.
“They do need to be in attendance the full day on Friday to be eligible for practice and to participate in those activities over the weekend,” Walker said.
Walker says the district doesn’t have a policy on such events as the Walkout. And she says the district supports the students’ efforts to bring attention to issues they feel strongly about. She says students who want to participate in today’s walkout should get their parents to call in.
“Of course parents are welcomed to call and excuse those absences, if they so choose,” Walker said.
The Walkout was scheduled for today because April 20th is the 19th anniversary of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, when two students killed 13 others before shooting themselves to death.
Local student organizers say the Walkout also is also being held in solidarity with ongoing efforts by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida to compel state and national leaders to enact legislation and policies to reduce gun violence.
