Sen. Dan Sullivan addressed the Trump Administration’s immigration policies in Fairbanks on Sunday, emphasizing that the federal government is not currently set up to properly manage a flood of immigrants seeking asylum.
Sullivan said the federal government needs to provide new detention centers and additional judges, to more efficiently process a nationwide backlog of 700,000 immigrants.
”You got to keep families together, but you’ve got to have facilities to help do that,” Sullivan said. “If you keep families together and expedite the processing, you can essentially tell the child and the mom, ‘OK, you qualify for asylum,’ or ‘you don’t.'”
Sullivan stressed that seeking a better economic life does not qualify immigrants for asylum. Sullivan has co-sponsored two bills addressing the immigration situation, which he said has suffered from executive branch policy swings, noting that the previous approach, known as “catch and release”, was also problematic.
“You (had) people who were coming to the country illegally, and then they’re essentially saying, ‘OK come back for your hearing in four years.’ And that’s what’s been going on, too. Well, guess what? None of those people show up,” Sullivan said. “And when that word gets out, that that’s happening, it actually creates a flood of more migrants, many of whom don’t qualify for asylum.”
Sullivan said the bipartisan legislation he supports will provide a long term solution to the problem.
A Haines skiier heads out into the backcountry. (Abbey Collins)
A new weather station is being developed to collect data for the Haines Pass. The Yukon Avalanche Association recently secured funding from the Yukon Government for the project.
The association will partner with the Haines Avalanche Center to install the equipment by fall.
Erik Stevens and Jeff Moskowitz founded the Haines Avalanche Center in 2010. The goal was to establish a local avalanche forecast for the public and a platform for people to share data and weather observations.
Since then, Stevens and Moskowitz have been venturing out into the mountains around Haines to collect data on snow conditions for their website’s forecast.
Weather data for this region is sparse. Stevens said that when they first started there were hardly any resources for forecasting.
“Since then, it has grown quite a bit. We now have a SNOTEL station up on Flower Mountain. We have our own weather station that Haines Avalanche Center installed on Mt. Ripinsky. There’s a couple of other new stations that have gone online that provide mountain weather data. And that’s so crucial for us is having that real time weather data from high altitudes, not just the valley floors,” Stevens said.
In the winter, many skiers and snowboarders are eager to ride the slopes in the Haines Pass. There are numerous risks while riding in this region, from avalanches to rapidly changing conditions. Accurate forecasts are crucial, but this popular winter recreation area lacks a weather station.
Stevens said that the Haines Avalanche Center wanted to install a station there, but focused their efforts on Mt. Ripinsky because the pass is located on Canadian land.
Haines locals are not the only ones trying to scope out the conditions for that region. Kylie Campbell is the Interagency Director for the Yukon Avalanche Association. She said that many Yukoners need weather data from the pass as well.
“We want to try to make sure there is as much information for the public, and particularly in such a remote, data-sparse region like Haines Pass. For our community Haines Junction, this weather station is going to be vital whether or not you are even driving on the highway, let alone using the mountains that are accessible from the highway,” Campbell said.
Recently the Yukon Avalanche Association secured funding for a weather station in Haines Pass. The Yukon Government awarded the group $20,000 in Tier 1 Community Development funding. That will cover the cost of materials, installation and maintenance training for volunteers.
Campbell said that she has been working with the British Columbian government on land use issues because the pass is located in B.C. The Haines Avalanche Center and Haines Junction residents have also been working as partners on the project.
“It’s kind of an exciting project because it’s incorporating for us interprovincial and international relations for weather information that has never really existed from this region,” Campbell said.
The Haines Avalanche Center will help choose the location, install the equipment and maintain it over time. The station itself is a 10 to 15 foot-tall tower with instruments to collect data for temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall and snow depth. Stevens says finding a site with the right conditions can be tricky.
“In terms of siting, we’re looking for a nice balance between exposure to the wind so we get good wind data, but not too exposed because then all the snow blows away. We’re trying to find a sheltered spot that’s kind of partially sheltered but still exposed to the wind, and that’s pretty hard to find.”
Right now they are looking at a spot near Glade Peak, also known as Three Guardsman. Once installed, information from the station will be available to the public online in real time.
Sockeye swim upstream in Yakutat in 2014. A good “parent year” for sockeye in freshwater systems, ADF&G biologist Nicole Zeiser says something “out of our control” killed sockeye in the ocean. (USFS photo/Nate Catterson)
Commercial sockeye fishing in Yakutat has been closed due to historic low returns, leaving set-netters in a bind until coho and chum season later in the summer.
Unlike other salmon fisheries around the Southeast, biologists never saw this coming.The forecast for the sockeye return on the Situk river was good this year. Managers expected to see around 21,000 fish through the weir by this time, and between 30-70,000 by the end of the season.
As of Monday, July 2, only 2,300 fish — had made it back to the river.
Fish & Game biologist Nicole Zeiser says the low return is “shocking.”
“This is by far the worst on record that we’ve ever seen as far as Situk River weir count,” Zeiser said.
Zeiser shut down the commercial set net fishery by emergency order last week (6-28-18), and Yakutat will feel the effects. According to a report in the Juneau Empire, Yakutat fishermen earn about $1.5 million from sockeye — a huge boon to the town’s economy.
Subsistence fishing for sockeye on the Situk — one of the few unlimited subsistence fisheries in the state — has been curtailed to just 36 hours a week, from Friday morning to Saturday evening.
Although Fish & Game has been forecasting low returns for other species in Southeast this year — especially king salmon — no one saw this coming. Zeiser has her suspicions, but no conclusive answers.
“Most of the data suggests that the problem’s in the marine environment,” she said.
“Freshwater systems are healthy, producing plenty of smolt and fry going out. It’s just that something’s going on in the ocean that we can’t control.”
Zeiser says that no connection has been established yet between this year’s mysterious sockeye decline in the Situk, and weak runs of king salmon elsewhere in Southeast. Unlike it’s predator cousin the chinook, sockeye eat plankton almost exclusively.
Nevertheless, a bad year for plankton can ripple through the food web. This year’s adult sockeye entered the ocean in 2013-2014 — a year which was notable for a potentially harmful climate phenomenon.“When they went out to sea that was when the Blob formed, and we had the highest sea-surface temperatures on record, during those years,” Zeiser said. “So that could play a factor into what’s going on with these species, but it’s just hard to say.”
Zeiser says she’s encouraged by recent improvements in the Copper River returns, but she’d want to see 2-3,000 sockeye per day moving through the Situk weir before she’d consider reopening the commercial fishery. Otherwise, Yakutat set-netters — like other Southeast salmon fishermen — will look to chum and coho to save the season. Zeiser says that the average five-year commercial harvest for silver salmon in the Situk has been about 100,000 fish.
In a deal announced today, ConocoPhillips said it will take over BP’s 39.2 percent interest in the Greater Kuparuk Area.
The deal will “continue our strategy of coring up our legacy asset base in Alaska,” Conoco CEO Ryan Lance said in a statement.
Conoco is already the biggest oil producer in Alaska, but buying BP’s interest in Kuparuk adds to its growing presence west of Prudhoe Bay. Conoco is also pursuing several new oil projects in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, including potentially a new production facility.
Conoco already operates Kuparuk, so BP spokeswoman Dawn Patience said the deal won’t mean big changes on the ground.
“It will continue to add barrels to the trans-Alaska pipeline, the state continues to collect royalties and production continues. So there won’t be that much difference on the North Slope,” Patience said.
BP will still operate Prudhoe Bay, the state’s biggest oil field. Patience said the deal means BP can prioritize keeping up production there.
“It’s an opportunity in Alaska to increase our focus on the resource base at Prudhoe Bay,” Patience said.
Also as part of today’s deal, BP is acquiring part of Conoco’s stake in the Clair Field offshore of Scotland.
The nation’s fundamental federal fisheries law hasn’t been reauthorized since 2006. Young’s bill would allow more flexibility for regional fisheries management councils, but for villages near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River it is notable for what’s not included.
Since the 1990s, towns and villages along the western Alaska coast, from Norton Sound to the Aleutians, have had a stake in the lucrative Bering Sea fisheries, through the Community Development Quota program. The communities, divided into six CDQ groups, are allocated a portion of the fishing quota, which they can fish themselves or lease to the fishing industry.
By most measures, the program has been a success. In total, the six CDQ groups have amassed more than a billion dollars in cash and assets. The larger groups spend more than $30 million a year to help their regions, with service programs, job training, scholarships and local employment.
But the largest group, called Coastal Villages Region Fund, says it’s getting a raw deal. The group is known as CVRF and serves the Kuskokwim Delta, including villages from Scammon Bay to Platinum. More than 9,000 people live in that area, amounting to 35 percent of the total CDQ beneficiary population. However, they say they are allocated just 15 percent of the fish in the CDQ program.
Art Severance, corporate counsel for CVRF, said other groups have far fewer people and get the same or even more fish.
“Right now the allocations are set the way Congress locked them in place in 2006, which was a result of political influence in the 1990s,” Severance said.
And, Severance said, the people in the 20 villages of the CVRF area have a higher poverty rate, less infrastructure and fewer opportunities.
“The household size alone in our communities is about twice as high as in the Aleutians,” he said. “There’s no real opportunity to buy houses, and so you have multiple generations living together, not necessarily because they want to, but because they don’t have any other choice.”
CVRF has been asking Congress for years to change the Magnuson-Stevens Act to include a CDQ formula based on population.
Congressman Young isn’t persuaded.
“They just want more money,” he said.
Young said the CDQ groups themselves agreed what the rules would be, and now one of them, Coastal Villages, is lobbying Congress to change the allocation criteria.
“There’s no way I’m going to be involved in taking fish from one Native group and giving it to another Native group,” he said. “That was their agreement. And until they have a solidified position and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ it’s not going to happen.”
Larry Cotter is retiring as the CEO of one of the small CDQ groups, Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, or APICDA. He said the Coastal Villages Fund is off-base.
“This program was never based on population,” he said.
APICDA has about 400 people and gets 20 percent of the CDQ allocation.
The means — as the Coastal Villages Fund sees it — APICDA has been able to deliver benefits of $750,000 per person over the past decade, while CVRF, because of its much larger population, has been able to spend less than $40,000 per person.
Cotter said the residents in the APICDA area — from Nelson Lagoon to St. George and Atka — are closer to the fish, and he said that’s significant.
“It belongs to the people who live there,” he said. “And if you look around the world, that same concept comes into play: The folks closest to the resource are the ones that are in a position to benefit most from utilizing that resource.”
And, Cotter said, Coastal Villages is doing quite well. CVRF has more than $270 million in cash, fishing vessels and other assets. Cotter calls it an “economic juggernaut.”
Young’s fisheries bill doesn’t reallocate the CDQ fish, but it does change the rules for the umbrella association that speaks for the CDQ groups. The panel has been operating by unanimity, and Young said that essentially gives any single group veto power. His bill would allow the panel to make decisions with only five of the six groups in agreement.
Severance, of the Coastal Villages Fund, said that would allow the other CDQ groups to steamroll his.
The House is supposed to vote on Young’s fisheries bill, HR 200, after the July 4 recess.
(Photo by Katrina Mueller/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
State officials toured several Yukon River communities last week, the third year in a row that the Walker administration has made the trip, hosted by the Tanana Chiefs Conference to talk to village residents about salmon.
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott said the trips have spanned from upriver at Eagle, to the Yukon’s mouth at Emmonak, to discuss the impacts and causes of weak king salmon runs. Climate change is increasingly a focus, Mallott said.
”What is happening in terms of weather patterns? What is happening in terms of water temperature changes? And those became part of the discussion this year,” Mallott said.
Mallott said the trip which also included a stop at the Kuskokwim River community of McGrath, revealed similar concerns across regions.
“The escapement goals of the Department of Fish and Game and the federal managers, but something is happening when they reach the estuaries and the ocean itself,” Mallott said.
Salmon bycatch has been reduced in the Bering Sea, indicating climate change may be the primary cause of poor returns, Mallott said. He pointed to sea-warming that is spreading north.
“Temperature changes that have been affecting the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific Ocean.. the Bering Sea and into the Arctic, so there is need for research there.”
The latest state budget increases funding for the Fish and Game Department,
including for salmon research, Mallott said.
On Saturday, the Coast Guard opened its forward operating location in Kotzebue for the 10thyear of Operation Arctic Shield. According to a press release, Arctic Shield is intended “to support Coast Guard missions in response to increased maritime activity in the Arctic.”
Two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters and crews are stationed in Kotzebue and will assist with search-and-rescue operations and other maritime emergencies. In addition, three Coast Guard icebreakers based out of Dutch Harbor will engage in missions in the Bering Strait and Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
The Coast Guard says it will also conduct what it calls Operation Arctic Guardian: meeting with community responders in the Arctic to teach and plan for basic oil-spill response.
Rear Admiral Matthew Bell says the forward operating location helps overcome some of the challenges of the Arctic, including “the environment, vast distances and limited infrastructure.”
Last summer, the Coast Guard conducted 20 search-and-rescue missions as part of Arctic Shield, saving 20 lives and assisting 27 others. The mission this year will continue through October.
“There has been some logging in the area, but it is fairly minimal,” said Ellen Kazary, Executive Director for the conservation non-profit, Great Land Trust.
“So, you are flying over these impressive lakes and streams. And I’ve seen bears just running around. When we land, it is just teaming with salmon. And the birds, you can’t even count them. It’s just jaw dropping. You feel like you are in a National Geographic special.”
Great Land Trust partnered with the native corporation Natives of Kodiak to conserve the land. Kazary says the Portage Lake property includes 750 acres of wetlands, Sitka spruce, salmon and blueberries.
“The Portage Lake project actually connects 180,000 acres of prime wildlife habitat on Afognak because it touches the Kodiak Island National Wildlife Refuge and Afognak Island State Park. So, it creates this brilliant corridor for wildlife and just increases their ability to survive and flourish,” said Kazary.
Jim Erickson, CEO of Natives of Kodiak, said in a press release, “We are excited about the sale of this property because it conserves this land for future generations of Natives of Kodiak shareholders and others to enjoy.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identifies Afognak Island among the most productive habitats in the Gulf of Alaska.
The land was purchased with funds from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trust Fund and donated to the State of Alaska with a conservation easement held by the Bureau of Land Management.
Access to the land will be open to the public.
Natives of Kodiak was paid the full value of the land, benefiting its shareholders.
For the second time in six months, there’s a change coming in how defendants awaiting trial must post bail. As of January, most Alaskans charged with misdemeanor offenses didn’t have to post cash bail in order to be released from jail. But due to a new change in state law, this measure is being reversed.
The change in January was part of a law aimed at overhauling the state’s criminal justice system. When it came to posting bail, it took discretion away from judges.
“People were being held in custody and in jail simply because they were poor,” said Alaska Public Defender Quinlan Steiner of the original bail system. He said judges were making decisions that had little to do with whether or not people were likely to show up for their court hearings.
Then a new system was created that gives each defendant a score with two components: how likely they are to violate the conditions of release and to commit new offenses. The score is based on publicly available information, like how many times they’ve failed to appear at hearings or their number of arrests during the past five years. Those with low scores were considered low risk. Until this most recent law was signed, judges were required to release people charged with most misdemeanors without cash bail.
But that lack of judicial discretion raised concerns for police, prosecutors and, ultimately, the Legislature. It passed a new law, which Governor Bill Walker signed June 14 that said judges again can decide whether to require cash bail.
John Skidmore directs criminal prosecutions for the state of Alaska and says other states have used scores to set bail. But, “what no state did other than the state of Alaska was to make it mandatory that the risk assessment tool absolutely controlled the judge’s discretion.”
Skidmore said allowing judges discretion is essential. “There are certain people who pose a greater risk and therefore should be held in jail under greater or harsher conditions until pretrial or until they can appropriately set a reasonable bail.”
Skidmore said it’s important to make adjustments over time to what information judges can use to set bail. But he said the decision-making power should remain with the judge.
“To tie somebody’s hands, and to say it will always be one way and not the other, is just short-sighted and I don’t think is really focused on reality, which is these decisions have to be made on a case by case basis,” he said. “That’s why we have human beings as judges to make those types of decisions.”
Steiner, the public defender, said the courts must ensure that the latest change is applied in an evenhanded way, so that it doesn’t just repeat the mistakes the state made in the past.
“The key is that it be applied across the board in a similar manner,” he said.
There’s evidence that even small differences in the amount of time defendants spend in jail can increase their chances of committing new offenses, he explained.
“With delay and increased incarceration, you sever people from the sort of positive aspects of their life. They may lose their job, they may lose their apartment, they may lose an ability to care for their children,” he said. “That can all occur with very short periods of incarceration and what the data showed was even 24 hours, a 24-hour delay increases the likelihood your rate of recidivism will go up.”
Both Steiner and prosecutor Skidmore agree that the state should continue to assess the outcomes from the changes.
Junior racers climb just below the turnaround point at Seward’s grueling Mount Marathon race on Wednesday. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)
David Norris and Jessica Yeaton won the men’s and the women’s races today at Seward’s 91st Mount Marathon Race. The course is touted as one of the most difficult races in the world. Runners brave heat, slippery slopes, falling rocks and a 3,022-foot elevation gain. And it’s not just adults in their prime. This year’s oldest runner was 78 years old. The youngest was just seven.
Those under 18, like twelve-year-old Tali Novakovich, run in the junior race
The night before the race, families fill the cafeteria of Seward High School for a pasta dinner. The fundraiser is a good chance for runners to fill up on carbs before they burn them all off going up the mountain. Novakovich steps away from the table where her family sat and into the evening heat.
Tali Novakovich, 12, climbs to the turnaround point at Mount Marathon’s junior race on Wednesday. This year was her sixth race. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)
She pulls out the number 26 from her Mount Marathon race bag. Race day is her birthday, and it’ll be her sixth time competing The first time she was just seven, the cut-off age.
“It was cool because when I was racing, on the podium someone said that I was the youngest person to ever do it,” she said.
Novakovich is mostly worried about the heat.
“So there’s like trees at the beginning of it and like halfway through,” she said. “And then after that, it’s like all out of the trees and so it’s gonna be really hot.”
Novakovich’s mom, Tiffanie Bird, nods.
“The bottom half it feels sort of like a steam room or a jungle ’cause you’re covered in trees,” she said.
Bird and her husband both run Mount Marathon and three of their four kids do the junior race every year. Even though those younger than 18 turn around at the halfway point, a lot of the dangerous stuff is at the beginning, when the kids scramble up cliffs of either rocks or roots.
“Other kids can kick rocks loose. And so, one year, she said that a big rock flew right past her shoulder and things like that are always on my mind,” Bird said. “So they race first in the morning, and I’m always really glad when they’re done.”
Novakovich said that one time, a rock actually hit her.
“I was eight and so I cried and then like took a break for a second and then I just kept going, but yeah,” she said. “It was not that bad.”
Bird said she and her husband always take the kids up the mountain several times ahead of the race each year. But it’s still nerve-wracking. The course can be different from year to year depending on the weather.
At eight in the morning, it’s already around 64 degrees when I start trekking up the mountain on race day. I’m taking an old jeep road to avoid the cliffs, and I’m still exhausted. It’s hard to believe a 7-year-old can make it up at all.
Above treeline, a metal post with an orange flag and a sign marks the turnaround point for juniors. At 9 am, the young runners lined up at the finish line look like ants down below. And then, an announcer counts down from five, the runners start and the crowd cheers.
It takes the first runners less than half the time it took me to get to the turnaround point. They round a bend out of the woods and run around the post. A woman calls the numbers as they come up to mark their times.
Kids gasp for air and gulp water. Novakovich shows up in the middle of the pack. She stops for a short breath then joins the others, who are stumbling back down a long slope of scree. Clouds of dust and rocks kick up behind them.
Novakovich runs down Mount Marathon following the other racers. She beat her best time by five minutes. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)
She said she always looks forward to finishing.
“You feel really good inside,” she said. “Well, you kind of feel like you’re gonna throw up, but you feel good inside because you did the whole entire race.”
The winner for the boy’s race, Michael Connelly, finished in just under 27 minutes this year. Kendall Kramer won the girl’s race with a time of 34:05. Novakovich cut five minutes off her best time. She looks forward to running the senior race someday.
Three whales washing up in such a short span of time in the same area is concerning, Migura said. Preliminary results from necropsies should be back soon while more detailed reports will take more time.
Gray whales are on their annual migration with their young from Mexico, where they winter. They are listed under the Marine Mammals Protection Act.
Residents first reported June 25 a young gray whale lying on Pasagshak Beach, Migura said.
“It sounded like some of the local residents had been seeing it for a few weeks prior to us receiving a report. And so we were able to work with a local group who is part of our stranding network, and they were able to go out and collect some samples. There is some discussion that the tongue was missing on this young animal. And so, if that is the case, we speculate its cause of death might have been due to a killer whale attack.”
The second stranding came just two days later in the same area.
“We received a second report on June 28 of an adult gray whale that was actually fairly fresh dead, that was also in Pasagshak Bay, in Kodiak, and we were able to get a veterinarian out to conduct a necropsy on this past Saturday,” Migura said.
A third whale washed up just a few days later on a different part of the island.
“On Sunday night, our local network partner sent an email saying that they had received a report of another fresh, dead gray whale near Port Lions,” Migura said. “On Monday they were going to go out for us and collect some samples.”
Migura warns that the areas where the whales washed up should be avoided as the carcasses can attract bears.
If you see a stranded whale, NOAA officials ask that you to take photos and call NOAA’s stranding hotline as soon as possible at: 1-877-925-7773.
Bethel resident Beverly Hoffman is one of a handful of community members educating the community about Stand For Salmon. (Photo/Krysti Shallenberger/KYUK)
In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the stakes are especially high for the controversial Stand for Salmon ballot initiative because it could kill one of the biggest proposed gold mines in the world — the Donlin Mine.
Backers of Stand For Salmon visited Bethel a month ago. This is when Bethel resident Danielle Craven first heard of it.
“After learning about it, I realized that this was a coalition of people who are really interested that we as Alaskans and rural Alaskans have a voice in the decisions that are impacting salmon and our waters,” Craven said.
Craven is a member of the Orutsaramiut Native Council. The tribe held their first public demonstration against the proposed Donlin gold mine last week and is the first one to do so in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Craven sees Stand For Salmon as a way to protect the region’s subsistence way of life.
Craven is also one of the leaders of a new local working group called the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Alliance; its goals align with the ballot initiative.
“We’re focused on educating and informing people about mining and Donlin Mine, protecting and preserving our subsistence way of life as well as educating those outside who don’t understand the reliance on subsistence living,” Craven said.
If voted in, Stand For Salmon would do a lot of things. First, it assumes that all bodies of water in Alaska support salmon habitat until evidence proves the opposite. And it would require the Department of Fish and Game to hold big projects in salmon habitat to much tougher standards. It also gives Fish and Game more power to stop projects.
Emily Anderson at the Wild Salmon Center helped draft Stand For Salmon. She claimed this is not an anti-mining or anti-development effort.
“This is a proactive way to get ahead of the curve to put strong fisheries protections standards in place that really encourage those responsible development projects that are not trading one resource for another,” Anderson said.
But if Stand For Salmon passes, it means Donlin Gold could not continue development, spokesman Kurt Parkan said.
“If the initiative passed, we wouldn’t be able to get the permits necessary to construct or operate the mine,” Parkan said.
According to legal documents filed by the state, the Donlin mine would permanently eliminate two streams that have had salmon in them. Stand for Salmon would require Donlin to restore those streams and other ones it damages, instead of shifting that to another place away from the mine. Parkan said because Donlin will be constructed in a remote and rural part of Alaska, it makes it “almost impossible to to satisfy mitigation requirements onsite.”
“So we, as well as other big projects in the state, look for offsite areas to mitigate and this initiative wouldn’t allow it to happen,” Parkan said.
And opponents claim Stand For Salmon could also have impacts on small-scale development, like a new road or bridge.
The Kuskokwim Corporation owns the surface rights to the Donlin mine. But the initiative’s effect on the mine isn’t concerning compared to the immediate consequences on rural development, TKC’s vice president Andrea Gusty said. Gusty added that while the corporation doesn’t have a stance on Stand For Salmon, they do have concerns.
“What we worry is about the unintended consequences tomorrow if something like this did pass or could pass, on a projects like a road in Chuathbaluk so they could build new houses in communities or relocating a graveyard in Kalskag because of the problem of erosion,” Gusty said.
Donlin, along with several big mining companies, is backing Stand For Alaska, a group formed to oppose Stand For Salmon. The company has contributed $1.2 million in cash and donated time to Stand For Alaska so far. Parkan wouldn’t say if Donlin plans to contribute more. Conversely, Stand For Salmon has collected less than $500,000 from a wide range of contributors, including outside venture funds and individual Alaskan residents, according to state filings.
Meanwhile, Stand for Salmon is tied up in a legal fight over concerns that the initiative goes against Alaska’s constitution, so it’s unclear whether or not it makes it to the ballot this fall.
“Shock is pretty much the guaranteed feeling of most people as kinda everybody walking around dazed,” said Ben Allen, a local fisherman.
Like many communities around the Gulf of Alaska, villages near the Chignik River are struggling with weak sockeye runs. This summer’s Chignik return is its lowest recorded in 50 years.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently set a commercial salmon opener for later this week, but it will target pink and chum salmon. ADF&G officials say the amount of sockeye returning to the region is still far under its escapement goal for the Chignik River, so it is still uncertain whether the region will see a commercial sockeye harvest this summer.
Many residents are even forgoing subsistence fishing voluntarily to try and get every salmon they can up the Chignik River.
Luckily there are two sockeye runs annually, so people hope the later run will be a strong one, but Allen said it’s hard to stay optimistic.
“The ebb and flow of fishing does happen and you know you just kinda hope the next run or the next year is going to be something worth going after. But there’s not a lot of hope involved,” said Allen.
Chignik Bay is small, with fewer than 100 year-round residents. Commercial fishing for sockeye is the main source of income for individuals and revenue for the city through the raw fish tax.
The commercial fishery in the Chignik region has been declining for years and the failure of this run is making people wonder what the future holds. Allen is unsure if being a fisherman in Chignik is sustainable.
He said, “honestly, we don’t know if we’re going to be doing this in 5 years, 10 years.”
Allen is not alone. Billy Anderson bought into the fishery with the idea that he would pass on the family business when he retired.
“When I bought the boat and permit I didn’t think it was going to be this much of a struggle to get things going and try to hand it down to my son,” Anderson said. “He’s young, and I don’t want to hand him a big bill, that’s for sure. I wanted him to have heydays too like I had heydays when I was fishing.”
Anderson is from Chignik Bay and has been a commercial fisherman for most of his life. He said he has never experienced a worse salmon season, a sentiment echoed throughout the community.
Fishermen are not the only ones concerned about this year’s run. State biologists are, as well.
“We’re worried we may not even meet the minimum escapement goals for the year,” said Dawn Wilson of ADF&G.
Only 172,000 sockeye have reached the Chignik River. ADF&G’s minimum escapement goal for the month of June was about 300,000. It is too early to know what caused the region’s early sockeye run to fail, but there is a hypothesis.
Wilson explained, “It’s very likely that it’s related to the warming waters in the Gulf of Alaska.”
A body of unusually warm water settled in the gulf a few years ago, and is often called “the blob.” It has since moved out of the gulf, but it may have caused some of the area’s sockeye stocks to crash.
Even if the run failure is due to environmental factors, many local fishermen are still frustrated with regional management of fisheries. Axel Kopun is among them.
He said, “yeah, bad runs happen, but when you have a bunch of fish being intercepted just a few miles below you and you are sitting on the beach and you don’t even get to do subsistence, it’s hard to take.”
Kopun’s the president of the Chignik Seiners Association. He said fisheries along the Alaska Peninsula catch salmon from mixed stocks that include Chignik sockeye and some sections have continued to fish even though Chignik’s first run failed. Local fishermen want that to change.
“We’re not here just to get our escapement. Yeah, we want our escapement, but we need to catch fish and make money. We’re people here too and we actually need enough fish to make a living,” Kopun said.
Fishermen in Chignik do not think these restrictions are enough. They are petitioning the Alaska Board of Fisheries to change the way some sections along the peninsula are managed to protect Chignik’s sockeye resource.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries will consider Chignik’s request at a July 17 emergency meeting.The five Alaska Native tribes from the Chignik region are also reaching out to Governor Bill Walker to see if there’s any aid the state can offer.
Even with these efforts, fishermen like Dale Carson are losing hope that they can salvage this season.
“As a fisherman, you’re always thinking ‘okay, well next week, next week, or…next tide.’ But we’re starting to run out of the next tides or the next weeks here pretty quick,” Carson said.
All people can do now is wait and see how Chignik’s late sockeye run turns out.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline runs alongside the Dalton Highway near the Toolik Field Station on June 9, 2017, in the North Slope Borough. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
Add to that the legislature’s decision to tap into the Permanent Fund’s earnings to pay the bills and the state is suddenly a lot closer to a balanced budget.
“I saw one day where the Alaska oil price got slightly over $80 a barrel, but we’ve been in the high 70s for the last couple of weeks,” said Ken Alper, director of the tax division at Alaska’s Department of Revenue.
Each time the price per barrel of oil climbs up, Alper has basically the same message.
“It’s good for Alaska’s economy to have higher oil prices, there’s no question about that,” he said.
But, prices have to get higher — and stay higher — to have a lasting impact on the state’s budget.
“Should the current prices hold, we will have our first balanced budget in several years for fiscal year [2019],” Alper said.
Alper said that number is the break-even point for the state’s budget. That’s the point when the state starts bringing in enough revenue from oil to pay all the bills. Until 2018, that break-even price was a lot higher, at more than $90 per barrel.
A review of five years of Army Corps of Engineers permits for development in Alaska wetlands showed the corps had been requiring mitigation for fewer and fewer projects. The analysis by E&E News, a Washington D.C.-based news organization that covers energy and environment issues, showed that the corps allowed the destruction of thousands of acres of wetlands without requiring offsets for that development as it had in the past.
E&E News reporter Ariel Wittenberg dug into the details of the apparent policy shift in permitting at the Corps’ Alaska Region — for projects ranging from mines and dams, to roads and schools.
Mique’l Dangeli teaches students how to bake salmon fins. Dangeli moved to British Columbia to teach Tsimshian culture in her ancestors’ traditional territory, but faces an immigration fight to live and work in Canada. (Photo courtesy Mique’l Dangeli)
When the homelands of indigenous groups straddle the border between U.S. and Canada, traveling back and forth becomes an immigration issue. You might think the countries would have similar policies, but it isn’t that easy.
One U.S.-born Tsimshian teacher is caught in the mess, fighting to legally stay and work in her ancestral homeland in British Columbia.
Mique’l Dangeli teaches the Tsimshian language — Sm’algya̱x — to children and adults, including at a school in Kitsumkalumm, British Columbia.
Now, she’s fighting to stay. Her post-graduate work visa expired July 1 – along with her ability to legally work in Canada.
She applied for Canadian citizenship – but was denied – twice. The first time, she hadn’t taken a required English exam. Her frustration boiled over while talking to an immigration representative:
“The Canadian government as well as the American government have forced, over a 200-year timespan, our people to speak English through physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse,'” she said. “‘I have to take an English exam to continue to teach Sm’algyax here?'”
“And she said, ‘I’m sorry. … I don’t make the rules, I’m sorry. This is what you have to do.'”
Still, Dangeli took the $500 exam. Then she says Canadian immigration denied her the second time. It’s complicated, but she says it has to do with her husband’s immigration status.
Canada views her husband as a landed immigrant. His nation, the Nisga’a, gave up their First Nations status cards in favor of Nisga’a status cards, which were to offer the same rights as First Nations members. But they don’t. And because of his status, he can’t sponsor Mique’l into the country.
“Now we’re both, both our rights, to be here be in B.C. and our peoples’ traditional territory is being called into question,” Dangeli said.
Canadian immigration officials did not return a request for comment by this story’s deadline.
Her situation isn’t unique. She says indigenous people such as Gwich’in, Haida, Tlingit and Coast Salish also face issues crossing the border.
“It’s just that it doesn’t get all the media attention that all the other border issues do. I’ve always felt that the northern border between U.S. and B.C. in particular, the U.S. and also the Yukon are completely ignored because of all the focus on Mexico-U.S. border.”
Mique’l Dangeli teaches seventh- through ninth-grade students at the Northwest Community College longhouse in Terrace, British Columbia. (Photo courtesy Mique’l Dangeli)
Dangeli grew up on the Annette Island Indian Reserve in Metlakatla, Alaska. The Ph.D. in Northwest Coast Native art history moved to British Columbia to focus on teaching Sm’algya̱x in the traditional Tsimshian territory.
“With my education and my work history regardless of who I am in terms of being a Tsimshian woman, it’s not good enough within the Canadian system,” she said.
She even gave up a tenure track position at the University of Alaska Southeast to do so.
She’s talking about the Jay Treaty, which was signed in 1795 and allowed Natives to trade and travel across the border of U.S. and Canada, then a British territory. But Canada does not recognize the treaty.
Dangeli says First Nations status holders from Canada can live and work in the U.S., but Canada doesn’t reciprocate with U.S.-born Natives.
“Canada is exporting indigenous people to the U.S., not importing us.”
Mique’l Dangeli teaches primary students to read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See” in Sm’algyax. (Photo courtesy Mique’l Dangeli)
In the meantime, Dangeli’s school in British Columbia is on summer break. She’ll travel back to Metlakatla to visit friends and family. And Canada issued her a visitor’s extension through part of July.
Canada’s asymmetrical polices don’t surprise Damien Lee. He’s an associate fellow at Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations public policy center in Toronto.
“The irony is that if Canada exists because of First Nations permission, yet First Nations are being denied permission by Canada to exercise their current political jurisdiction. To me that’s mind blowing.”
With Permanent Fund draw, higher oil prices bring Alaska closer to balanced budget
Higher oil prices coupled with the legislature’s decision to tap into the Permanent Fund’s earnings to pay the bills mean the state is suddenly a lot closer to a balanced budget.
Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau
Three dead gray whales wash up in Kodiak
Three whales washing up in such a short span of time in the same area is concerning, said Mandy Migura, Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator with NOAA.
Daysha Eaton, KMXT – Kodiak
Chignik fishermen stuck ashore as sockeye run fails
There is really only one thing to talk about in Chignik Bay these days: Where are the sockeye?
Mitch Borden, KMXT – Chignik Bay
Review shows dramatic shift in Army Corps of Engineers permitting
The analysis by E&E News, a Washington D.C.-based news organization that covers energy and environment issues, showed that the corps allowed the destruction of thousands of acres of wetlands without requiring offsets for that development as it had in the past.
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Alaska cannabis taxes reach new high
The state Department of Revenue reported collecting nearly $1.2 million in May. It is the fourth time this year that state tax collections topped $1 million.
The Associated Press
Spruce beetles reach ‘outbreak’ levels
Over the last two years, an outbreak concentrated in southcentral Alaska’s Susitna River drainage and northwest Kenai Peninsula has affected more than 500,000 acres of forest.
Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Caught in immigration mess, U.S.-born Tsimshian teacher fights to stay in ancestral territory
When the homelands of indigenous groups straddle the border between the U.S. and Canada, traveling back-and-forth becomes an immigration issue. You would think the countries have similar policies, but it isn’t that easy.
Alaska isn’t exactly known for tropical orchids. But that hasn’t stopped Anchorage’s Botanical Garden from raising them. It’s one of many unique projects that the non-profit has undertaken since opening its doors a quarter of a century ago.
Alaska Botanical Garden volunteer Kim Sherry works in their Heritage Garden deadheading flowers. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)
The 49th state isn’t exactly known for tropical orchids. But that hasn’t stopped the Alaska Botanical Garden from raising them. It’s one of many unique projects that the non-profit has undertaken since opening its doors a quarter of a century ago.
Fans whir inside the greenhouse that houses the orchids. They’re helping distribute a blanket of warm air. To the right, a diagonal wall of windows lets in light. Shelves brimming with the green foliage of tropical orchids line the cement walls. Alaska Botanical Garden executive director Mike Monterusso carefully clasps the stem of a yellow flower between two fingers.
“I had a vision for having orchids, but then we got this donation, so it’s all happening very quickly,” Monterusso said. They came from an individual in Anchorage.
Alaska Botanical Garden executive director Mike Monterusso holds a yellow flower between his fingers. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)
Monterusso says what’s more important to their mission than the tropical orchids are displaying the hearty ones that grow naturally in Alaska. Outside we find a patch of spotted lady slippers at the end of their bloom. The flowers are tinier and more delicate than their tropical cousins. Right now, around 15 to 20 percent of the garden’s plants are native to Alaska. But Monterusso hopes to increase that number.
“What botanical gardens did, you know, decades or even hundreds of years ago is collect local plants and put them on display for education,” Monterusso said. “And that’s something that I want to make sure we don’t overlook.”
Monterusso says the Garden aims to do two main things: to operate as a museum that preserves, labels and catalogs plants and to teach the public about plants and their connection to them. Right now, they’re operating a summer camp that teaches kids about nutrition and ecology.
A group of elementary-age children stand around a table peeling and cutting multi-colored carrots for a snack. On the other side of their tent, pink tubs filled with different soil types sit atop a table. Monterusso says the heart of their curriculum is teaching them to value diversity.
“Diversity is, you can imagine, is good in the sense of nutrition, not only be aware of what’s around you and what you can use for food as a food source, but why one thing might be good at one time and another thing is good at another time,” Monterusso said. “And what the benefits are associated with those.”
Kids chop vegetables as part of the Alaska Botanical Garden’s summer camp program. The program aims to teach kids the importance of ecology, nutrition and diversity. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)
In the heritage garden, created in 2015 to celebrate Anchorage’s centennial, giant cabbages grow in the back of a pick-up truck. Rows of broccoli are labeled with a skeleton to show that they help build strong bones. The Garden donates some vegetables to a food bank and a kids school lunch program. Others are given to one of the many volunteers like Kim Sherry, who works in the garden today deadheading flowers.
“I’ve got a home garden. I’ve been doing vegetables and perennials and putting in annuals pretty much every year,” Sherry said. “But there’s just always more you can learn to improve your own gardening skills, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to not only get some good information but give back.”
Monterusso said volunteers are essential to help maintain the gardens. Outside the vegetable garden in the surrounding spruce forest, native plants like forget-me-nots and wild roses fill the forest floor. In the gardens, red fern-leaf peonies and vibrant blue poppies bloom. A bumble bee buzzes near an ornamental raspberry plant that’s about to flower.
“Each flower will have a bee in it and this whole bank here just is abuzz,” Monterusso said.
Blue poppies bloom at the Anchorage Botanical Garden.
Over the last 25 years, the garden has added buildings and a research plot and expanded their programming.
“Gardens around the country have been in place for decades, or if you go into overseas you’ll go to gardens that have been around for hundreds of years literally,” Monterusso said. “So we’re still pretty young, still pretty new. But a lot has happened here in those 25 years.”
They’re not done growing. Monterusso hopes to connect with the other two botanical gardens in Alaska to bring traveling exhibits to the state. And he hopes to start a holiday light event that would turn the spruce forest into a winter wonderland during the darkest time of year.
The site of the proposed Donlin gold mine, which would be one of the biggest in the world (KYUK photo)
Gov. Bill Walker made headlines this past weekend after he requested that the Army Corps of Engineers suspend the Environmental Impact Statement for the controversial Pebble mine in Bristol Bay.
But Walker, who is running for re-election as an independent, and three other top gubernatorial candidates have pledged support for the Donlin mine, which would be the one of the biggest gold mines in the world. Walker says Donlin so far appears to be following the rules of regulatory process.
“I have to have a pretty strong reason to not support something and so I’m still looking at that, but what I know of it I’m comfortable with,” Walker said.
Walker’s competitors tout other benefits of the Donlin mine. Former Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell is running as a Republican. Treadwell praises Donlin’s promise to bring more jobs to the Y-K Delta.
“There are mines around the state that employ a lot of people and it’s one of the most important things we can do for regional development,” Treadwell said.
The project also proposes a 315-mile-long gas pipeline from Cook Inlet to fuel the mine’s operations and power demands. Former state Senator Mike Dunleavy, who is running as a Republican and will face Treadwell in the GOP primary in August, says that pipeline is a huge energy opportunity for the Y-K Delta and the state.
“A lot of spin-off industries will benefit from it in the Y-K Delta and Southcentral Alaska so I think it’s a huge opportunity for Alaska,” Dunleavy said.
Former United States Senator Mark Begich, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the primary, has voiced support for Donlin for years and believes the project on Native Corporation land can co-exist with the subsistence lifestyle in Western Alaska.
“They’ve understood the value of fishing and they understand the importance of it to subsistence lifestyle,” Begich said.
The Donlin mine would increase barge traffic on the Kuskokwim River, the food source for many residents in the Y-K Delta.
It will require large treatment facilities for mercury and cyanide coming from the mine’s operations. Donlin has already received a water permit from the state to discharge wastewater into Crooked Creek, which drains into the Kuskokwim River.
People living the Y-K Delta are also worried about what will happen after the mine stops producing. The site would have to be monitored forever, once it ceases operations.
Gov. Walker says he doesn’t see the state relaxing monitoring enforcement, even with the budget crunch the last couple of years. He’s confident the state can adequately regulate the mine.
“We certainly we have laws in place,” Walker said. “I believe if we need to strengthen those laws, then let’s strengthen those laws.”
Treadwell and Dunleavy will battle each other in the August primary for the Republican nomination. On the Democratic side, Begich is unopposed, and the winners will face Governor Walker in November.
Spruce beetle outbreak in the Mat-Su Valley seen during the 2017 aerial detection survey. (U.S. Forest Service photo)
Spruce beetles may be native to Alaska, but they can still devastate a spruce forest. Over the last two years, an outbreak concentrated in Southcentral Alaska’s Susitna River drainage and northwest Kenai Peninsula has affected more than 500,000 acres of forest. It’s the worst infestation since the 1990s.
Jason Moan of Alaska’s Division of Forestry says a combination of factors causes a population to grow to the level of an outbreak.
“Spruce beetle favors large-diameter, slow-growing trees,” Moan said. “If we have wind events or things like that where a large number of trees might be blown over, you know, beetles tend to favor that material. They’re able to build up populations.”
Moan said warm summers can also play a role because beetles tend to reproduce faster in warmer weather. It takes one to two years for the beetles to complete their life cycles, and then when the weather warms above 60 degrees, female beetles begin to take flight in search of new host trees, sending out pheromones to attract others when they’ve found a tree. Larger, unhealthy trees are more susceptible to infestations.
“Folks can start keeping an eye on the spruce that they do that are not attacked. Keeping those watered if they need it. Avoiding damage to those trees,” Moan said.
Signs of an infestation include clumps of sap and sawdust where the beetles have bored holes in the bark as well as pieces of bark scattered at the base of the tree. Discolored needles can also be an indicator but not always. Moan said once a tree is infested, there’s not much that can be done other than to remove it. Pesticides can be effective in preventing beetles before they take flight but not after.
“In the current part of the beetle flight period, which usually runs from late May to somewhere into July, you know, we would just suggest avoiding cutting green trees,” Moan said. “Unless you’re going to be processing that soon.”
Beetle-killed spruce can be used for firewood and for lumber. Beetles tend to live on the underside of a tree’s bark. Moan said that over time, they’ve served as a natural part of forest ecosystems, making room for healthier younger trees, but many landowners want to manage outbreaks to limit the amount of destruction to their properties. The Division of Forestry and their partners are currently working to develop new tools to help.
