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With tweaks, Alaska Supreme Court rules Yes for Salmon can go on ballot

Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

The Alaska Supreme Court today ruled that only certain provisions of the controversial ballot initiative are unconstitutional. Whether the rest becomes state law will be up to Alaska voters.

Interior official: ‘millions’ more acres in NPR-A to open for oil development 

Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

A top Trump administration official says the Interior Department is moving to open millions more acres in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to oil development.

Anchorage healthcare providers discuss rural tele-health systems with FCC Commissioner

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

As part of his statewide tour of broadband systems, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr stopped in Anchorage today to hear from rural health providers. Commisioner Carr has already visited Unalaska and Palmer on his Alaska tour to learn about challenges with broadband Internet access.

Division of Public Health releases numbers on opioid overdoses

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A new report from the state’s Division of Public Health offers a bleak outlook of Alaska’s continued struggle with opioid addiction.

Mountaineering ranger details how Denali rescue operation became recovery operation 

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A rescue effort for the occupants of a flightseeing plane that crashed last weekend in Denali National Park has turned to a recovery effort. A Talkeetna-based mountaineering ranger tethered to a helicopter in what’s known as a “short haul” reached the Thunder Mountain crash site Monday and confirmed four onboard had died, with the fifth presumed dead.

Two men arrested for allegedly shooting bear and two cubs on camera

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

Alaska State Troopers report that 41-year-old Andrew Renner and 18-year-old Owen Renner, both of Palmer, face felony and misdemeanor charges related to killing a black bear sow and two cubs in their den.

Likely winner emerges in rare Anchorage Assembly race

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Though several hundred ballots remain to be counted, candidate Austin Quinn-Davidson had a double-digit lead in preliminary results.

Petersburg could look at end or changes to recycling program

Joe Viechnicki, KFSK – Petersburg

Petersburg’s recycling program is no longer saving the borough money on the cost of shipping solid waste out of town. That’s because of a drop in the value of recyclable materials and an increase in the cost of processing that material.

‘Art activist’ spends week in Togiak to promote conservation

Austin Fast, KDLG – Dillingham

An artist from Los Angeles recently spent a week in Togiak to learn how people have lived off the land and thrived in the region. Her goal is to promote conservation of Alaskan wilderness.

Kodiak service kicks off annual St. Herman pilgrimage

Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak

In preparation for the pilgrimage, Kodiak’s Orthodox Church has put together a schedule of events, including a banquet, a tea with the bishop of Alaska, and multiple services. One such service kicked off Pilgrimage Week yesterday evening at the Holy Resurrection Cathedral.

The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder, but there’s still plenty of time to take a hike. Alaska Public Media’s Emily Russell made the trip to Lazy Mountain in Palmer and sent this postcard.

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Most mountains in Alaska are either so deep in the backcountry that they take serious time and resources to get to or they’re so high and technical that they require a level of expertise that recreational hikers, like myself, lack.

Lazy Mountain is neither of those. It’s at the end of a long, paved road in Palmer just an hour’s drive from Anchorage. It’s a climb, rising 3,720 ft. up, but it’s not technically challenging.

Once you’re at the trailhead, there’s a map of the mountain that gives hikers two options: go straight up, covering 3,000 ft. of elevation over two miles or take the longer, less steep trail that switches back and forth up the side of the peak.

I’m here with my friend from Fairbanks, Matt Labrenz. We choose to take the steeper route up and the longer, more gradual one on the way back down.

It’s a bright, summer day and a light breeze is keeping the bugs at bay. It’s also keeping us cool on this calf-crushing endeavor. Almost immediately the trail tilts up at an angle that feels impossibly steep. Thick willows bushes, tall green grasses and prickly devil’s club branches surround us on both sides.

Matt picks a firewood shoot and reassures me that they’re safe and good to eat. This gives me a chance to catch my breath and taste something new and surprisingly refreshing.

The trail is packed with people today — groups of friends, parents with kids, families with dogs and plenty of solo hikers determined to get a good workout in.

Eventually, we’re out of the lush forest and into the wide open alpine.

It’s a clear day so we can see the silty gray Matanuska River ribbon through the valley. The fluorescent green patches of farmlands are bordered by darker spruce trees and speckled with homes and cabins that look tiny compared to the landscape that surrounds them.

There are a fair number of false peaks on Lazy Mountain — pinnacles of rock that look like the summit until you’re on top of them and realize you still have more to hike.

The actual summit is at the end of a razor-thin ridge. I’m scared of heights, but there’s no wind today, so I can keep myself steady as I hike the final few meters to the very top. An American flag is stuck into the rock and a view of the valley that makes the climb worthwhile.

We scramble back down and decide to take the more gradual decent back to the trailhead. It’s a longer walk, but today the birds are chirping from tree tops and every switchback seems to offer a new perspective on the epic view below.

Lazy Mountain is no lazy feat, but it’s definitely worth the effort.

An Interior Department official says the Trump administration is moving to open “millions” more acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, to oil development.

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Interior Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash delivered a speech this week in New Orleans at a conference hosted by the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank known for questioning climate science.

Balash, who once served as Alaska’s Natural Resources commissioner, said allowing more fossil fuel development on federal land in Alaska is one of his top priorities.

“In Alaska, there are literally billions of barrels of oil and trillions — tens of trillions — of cubic feet of natural gas on federal lands waiting, just waiting, to be found, developed and transported to markets,” Balash said.

Balash said that effort includes allowing oil exploration in parts of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska the Obama administration put off limits.

Last year, the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order to re-evaluate the Obama-era Integrated Activity Plan for the NPR-A — currently, it doesn’t allow oil development in roughly half of the Indiana-sized area on the North Slope. Balash said that process will likely lead to much more land in the Reserve being made available for oil development.

“We’re working now with the state of Alaska and the local government, the North Slope Borough, to redevelop an Integrated Activity Plan in the region that will make millions more acres available for leasing,” Balash said.

Environmental groups oppose opening up more of NPR-A to oil development, saying the region provides critical habitat for migratory birds and caribou.

But oil companies are increasingly interested in the area’s oil potential — ConocoPhillips recently announced a major oil discovery there, and it’s planning to pursue a new processing facility to accommodate it.

This week, the federal Bureau of Land Management began the environmental review process for the development, called the Willow project.

“The proposed project includes the construction, operation, and maintenance of a central processing facility, infrastructure pad, up to five drill pads with up to fifty wells on each pad, access and infield roads, an airstrip, pipelines, and a gravel mine,” the agency wrote in a release.

In a statement, Ben Sullender of Audubon Alaska said his group is concerned about the project’s impacts.

“The Willow project raises a series of scientific concerns, including impacts to migrating caribou, anadromous fish like salmon, and nesting Yellow-billed Loons, especially when we consider these issues against a backdrop of climate change and cumulative impacts,”  Sullender said.

A new report from the state’s Division of Public Health offers a bleak outlook of Alaska’s continued struggle with opioid addiction.

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Researchers looked at data related to abuse of prescription painkillers, as well as heroin and the synthetic opioid Fentanyl. The number of fatal overdoses is up for the fifth year in a row. According to preliminary data, 107 Alaskans died from opioid overdoses last year.

Though the state overall is below the national average for fatal overdoses, the rates vary by region, with the highest concentration in Anchorage — at 20.4 per 100,000 people in 2017.

One bright spot in the findings is that the rate of opioids dispensed to Medicaid patients has decreased, which the report’s authors suggest could indicate “more judicious” prescribing practices among healthcare providers. Many people’s first exposure to powerful narcotics are through legally prescribed painkillers that have a high risk of causing dependence.

There’s also evidence that more of the overdose-reducing medication naloxone is reaching drug-users, curbing the number of fatal overdoses.

Twenty-six-year-old Whitney Carlos and her aunt Martha Fox can’t stop laughing as they untangle sticks, moss and a few salmon from Carlos’ set net in Togiak Bay.

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After fishing for days in the rain and wind the pair are basking in the sun’s rays. They can’t get over it.

“It’s a beautiful day. We hadn’t had sunshine ––” Fox said.

“–– in over two weeks,” Carlos finished. “There were more sticks and more green (algae in the net). I said, ‘Whatever net! You’re not going to ruin my day. I’m in a beautiful mood!’ ”

Martha’s brother Ernest Wassillie helped haul the net by hand over the shallow, 19-foot skiff. They made quick work picking out sockeye, pinks and prehistoric-looking chum salmon.

“Their teeth are so sharp, and once you clear the body it’ll just start spinning itself,” Carlos said. “Look at the teeth!”

“Like an alligator!” Fox added.

Whitney popped the gills to bleed out the sockeye and dropped them into a plastic tub filled with ice.

As darkness fell, the crew headed into the beach to drop off their catch with Copper River Seafoods. They all looked up at their brailer bags full of salmon trying to guess how much it weighs.

It was more than they expected – 343 pounds of sockeye dropped into icy totes to head across the road for processing. An unprecedented number of fish has been passing through the Togiak processor this summer. On its best week, Copper River clocked 430,000 pounds of sockeye through its doors, setting a new plant record.

The run came in several days late for Bristol Bay’s east side, and the same thing has happened in Togiak. But unlike other fisheries in Bristol Bay this summer, the 30 or so drift net boats that typically fish Togiak didn’t have to worry about the hundreds of fishermen in the Nushagak descending on them when the fishing got good.

Fishermen who’ve cast nets in other districts can’t transfer to Togiak until after July 27. Tim Sands, area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said this helps preserve the “artisanal” nature of Togiak’s fishery.

“There’s not as many fish to go around, so if 100 boats from Nushagak went over there and started fishing, it would really not leave much for the locals,” Sands said. “Almost everybody that fishes in Togiak is connected to Togiak. There’s not a lot of outside boats that go there and fish. It’s just more of a traditional fishery than other places where there’s ramming and jamming and stuff like that.”

Fish and Game regulations allow commercial fishing in Togiak from Monday morning to Friday morning. With sockeye well past this year’s escapement goals, though, Sands extended fishing an extra 48 hours for three weekends straight since mid-July. Copper River plant manager Michael Gilbert was ecstatic.

“It’s made a difference for everybody here. Nobody wants to see a closer on a Friday when they know the bay is boiling with fish. If they’re catching them, we’re taking them,” Gilbert said.

Even though Togiak’s run is the smallest in Bristol Bay, it still provides a good amount of income for local fishermen. More and more people are beginning to commercial set net with help from a permit loan program from the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, Carlos and Fox said. Carlos hopes other young people will take advantage of this resource to become more self-sufficient.

“Jobs here are really limited, and a lot of people depend on fishing for their yearly income,” Carlos said. “Now that I’m older and have the experience, I want my own permit and to do it on my own. I feel like everyone when you have the resources are going to go out and try to get it.”

The run is still going strong in Togiak, which is exciting. The cash from commercial fishing may be nice, but Carlos said fishing is about more than the money. She loves the subsistence elements as well.

“We make dried salmon, canned salmon, salmon jerky. Plus getting to be with my family, and it’s better than hitting the gym every day,” Carlos said.

And Carlos getting plenty of family time this summer. As midnight approached, she and Fox weren’t heading home to get some rest. They jumped out of their skiff to prepare for a baby shower they were throwing the next day. Life doesn’t stop just because the fish are finally in.

When the AC Quickstop liquor store opened two years ago, local emergency services, law enforcement and social services saw a sharp rise in alcohol-related incidents — mostly public intoxication.

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The Bethel City Council opposed the liquor store’s license renewal, and the state Alcohol Beverage Control Board chose not to renew it in May. Alcohol sales have been limited ever since, but they could be shut down entirely in October, when Bethel residents vote whether or not to allow alcohol sales.

Meanwhile, a small non-profit in Anchorage thinks that Bethel can fill in key informational gaps about how rural Alaska deals with alcohol, specifically local option. Tiffany Hall, Executive Director of Recover Alaska, says that the group found little to no numbers about local option.

Just this past year, Recover Alaska tried to help push a massive bill through the Legislature that was six years in the making: Senate Bill 76. It would have revised alcohol regulations in Alaska.

The bill died in the state House at the last minute after clearing the Senate. Its sponsor, Senator Peter Micciche, withdrew it after stakeholders couldn’t agree on a House amendment.

While that bill addressed a lot of issues with Alaska’s alcohol regulations, it didn’t address local option. Hall blames the lack of input and the group’s location in Anchorage.

Hall chose Bethel for a kind of case study about local option. Bethel’s history with the regulation dates back to 1960, when a proposal to allow liquor sales failed by 25 votes. And the town has toggled between allowing liquor sales in various capacities since then.

Hall says that she reached out to the Bethel ONC tribe and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation a year ago about gathering data from Bethel and the surrounding communities so that she could gather data about local option.

It took a while, but Hall finally visited Bethel last week at the behest of those two organizations. She says that Recover Alaska is also working with the Institute for Circumpolar Health and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

But Hall says finding the data will be a challenge.

“In some cases that will mean electronic cases, and other cases that means boxes of handwritten paper,” Hall said.

Hall also plans to talk to villages in the Y-K Delta, but doesn’t expect to find many records there because of sparse resources.

“So we’ll just be trying to have a conversation, and getting qualitative data where possible,” Hall said.

Hall says that Recover Alaska could have its initial findings as soon as this December. But, she says, it will take a lot of time to gather all the data the group needs. And once they are done, Hall says that they still have to figure out who gets the data.

“We are not exactly sure how we plan to roll that out,” Hall said.

Meanwhile, the group is reaching out to local stakeholders, like the Tundra Women’s Coalition and Search and Rescue, for any information and insight they have on the town’s local option history.

Since May, hundreds of dead and dying seabirds have been found across the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas.

The National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have labeled the event a die-off and are coordinating monitoring efforts with local communities.

“These birds have been starving,” USFWS biologist Kathy Kuletz said. “They’re very emaciated. Their muscles have atrophied.”

So far, there’s no evidence of disease or toxins in the seabirds. But coastal communities on St. Lawrence Island and in Shishmaref have found dead birds — including murres, fulmars, shearwaters, kittiwakes, auklets and puffins — washed up on shore.

Most of the carcasses were found in June, but they’ve continued to show up throughout the summer.

This die-off is unusual because of the duration and large geographic area. Since the spring, seabird die-offs have also been recorded in the Pribilof Islands and northern Gulf of Alaska.

Kuletz said it’s concerning from an ecological standpoint — and because the birds are an important food source.

“People who live in these remote communities rely on birds for eggs or meat,” Kuletz said. “They noticed the birds weren’t coming to the colony, or they were finding sick birds and birds acting odd.”

This die-off is seperate from an event that began in 2015 and killed an estimated half million common murres in Alaska.

But researchers hypothesize it could be connected to the warm-water Blob, like that die-off was. At this point, though, Kuletz said scientists haven’t proven that link.

There’s not much scientists can do besides monitoring the situation. Because there’s no baseline data in many of these areas, that poses a challenge.

“It’s going to be hard to tease apart what’s at normal level, compared to the changes in conditions,” Kuletz said. “And things are definitely changing up here.”

USFWS and NPS are working with other agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey, to determine what the ocean conditions were like before the die-off.

Unalaskans who see dead or dying birds can report their sightings at 1-866-527-3358.

Wrangell’s kicking off its Coho salmon derby this weekend. The competition is filling in for the town’s king salmon derby, which was cancelled this summer due to severe sport fishing restrictions.

For 65 years, Wrangell has held the longest king derby in Southeast Alaska, lasting a whole month.

This is the first year the town cancelled the event, when the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed sports fishing around the entirety of the island until mid-June.

Derby organizers are anxious, wondering if the silver salmon derby can garner the support of the community like a king derby would.

The best measure of that interest will be in ticket sales.

“We need to sell as many tickets as we can, obviously, and have this thing work so we can justify having another one next year,” derby chairman Shawn Curley said. He’s looking to sell 300 tickets minimum. In 2016, 858 king derby tickets were sold.

The last Coho derby was held in 1996. The golf course hosted the event and sold an abysmal 50 tickets, a bad sign for this year’s derby organizers.

But the Coho derby was held alongside the king derby in the past. This year, it’s the only fishing competition the town has. And the prize money is way more. In 1996, first place received $250. This year, first place will get $2000.

“We might have went overboard,” Curley said. “We’re hoping to sell enough tickets to just break even and offer up a community event that’s fun for your family and visiting friends and just to have a local friendly competition.”

The competition may have to take over for the king derby for years to come, if low Chinook forecasts persist.

The derby begins this Saturday, August 11^th, and lasts through September 3^rd. Only weekend catches count.

This year’s derby tickets will be reduced from $35 to $20. The chamber will award weekly $250 cash prizes, with a $500 prize for Labor Day weekend. The top awards will be based on a cumulative three-fish catch. Those prizes are $2,000 for first place, $1,500 for second and $1,000 for third.

Each ticket enters you into a raffle to win two round-trip Alaska Airlines tickets.

It’s not rare for the lights to go out in Togiak. But that could all change in September when a new power plant should be up and running.

Electrician Joel Elson pointed out the features of the spotless new building across the street from the old, rusting plant and fuel tank farm.

“We’re stepping into gen(erator) bay two, right now. These are the big generators that will be powering the village and keeping the lights on,” Elson explained. “They’re brand new, beautiful Cat engines, and they’re just top of the line. They’ve really done a great job putting them together here.

The Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, or AVEC, is a nonprofit electric utility providing power to 58 communities, including Togiak.

Constructing the new plant comes at a cost of $14.8 million, most of which comes from the federally funded Denali Commission. AVEC and Togiak Natives Limited each kicked in a portion of funding as well.

Project manager Joseph Earsley said the old plant and tank farm just can’t keep up with the village’s needs anymore.

“It’s like trying to go up a hill with your car in too high of gear and there’s too much load and your car can’t chug up the hill,” Earsley said.

Togiak is home to two seafood processors. These regular blackouts completely halt production, so fishermen and processors are excited for the new plant. Copper River Seafoods Manager Michael Gilbert is managing to process the catch from this summer’s record-breaking sockeye run, but it isn’t easy.

“It’s an every two or three day thing that the power goes down and we got freezers going and machines running, and it kind of puts a damper on things if you know what I mean,” Gilbert said. “It’s a task to get freezers to cycle back up again (and) ice machines. It takes a good hour to get back on track.”

Even though the loss of power is frustrating, the situation could be worse. Fisherman Martha Fox remembers years ago when power went out for days instead of hours.

“It was when it was cold, and people don’t have firewood,” Fox said. “And the water pipes freeze with some houses, and then they’re stuck without water for the rest of until it thaws out.”

Back at the plant, Earsley said the four new diesel generators and new fuel tanks will be more reliable and reduce the risk of leaking contaminants into Togiak’s soil and groundwater.

Earsley says everything should be up and running by mid-September.

The new tank farm increases fuel capacity to 630,000 gallons of diesel, meaning they can bring down costs by barging it in less often. That’s in addition to cost savings from the top-of-the-line generators workers are now putting the finishing touches on.

Earsley said the rusted, old equipment will be cleaned up and hauled off to a safe disposal site near Togiak.

Going forward, the Alaska Energy Authority plans to install a transmission line from Togiak’s new plant to provide reliable energy to neighboring Twin Hills by the end of 2019. Twin Hills currently operates its own electric utility and will turn operation over to AVEC once that project is completed.

Utility companies will soon be able to loan customers money for energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy systems by tacking on a charge to their monthly utility bill.

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It’s a form of lending called “on-bill financing” that has been used elsewhere in the country, and was made possible in Alaska by a bill signed into law by Governor Walker last month.

The utility loans could cover a range of upgrades including solar panels, higher efficiency appliances and switches in heating fuel systems.

Cory Borgeson, President and CEO of the Golden Valley Electric Association in Fairbanks, testified before the state legislature in favor of the bill.

“We think it’s a good tool to have and we certainly will look at using it,” Borgeson said

While Borgeson says Golden Valley doesn’t currently have plans to implement a loan program right away, they will consider it in the future.

“It kind of requires Golden Valley to set up a banking business,” Borgeson said. “We have to make loans, we have to charge interest rates, we have to process payments, what happens when someone doesn’t pay?”

The bill gives utility companies the power to suspend service to a customer if they fail to pay back their loan.

Representative Adam Wool, a democrat from Fairbanks, is one of the bill’s sponsors. He said in a press release that the new legislation is “vitally important for the Interior Energy Project.”

The goal of that project is to expand access to natural gas in the Interior. Wool said it could be used to help Fairbanks area homeowners convert from heating oil to natural gas, which will be a key component to the project’s success.

The Interior Gas Utility, which would provide that natural gas, says it is evaluating all options to help residents with conversion, including a possible loan program.

As Alaska’s primary elections get closer, there are a handful of contests that will likely be decided in August, far ahead of the November general election.

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Though there’s a vigorous partisan fight for control of the house majority playing out in a handful of districts, candidates in one of the state’s most liberal corners are trying to convince voters they’re the most progressive choice in a solidly Democratic part of town.

District 20 is what you might call Anchorage’s historic area, encompassing downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.  For 16 years it’s been represented by Democrat Les Gara, who decided not to seek another term. The race to replace him has gotten highly competitive, flooded with tens of thousands of dollars ahead of the primary and campaign signs on what seems like every other lawn. Gara’s chosen successor is union organizer and former Alaska Democratic Party communications director Zack Fields.

“I’ve worked both in activism and in government and I think that combination of having an insider’s view of public policy but also an activist’s ethos of always pushing for positive change is a good combination for this district,” Fields said in an interview this week.

An Alaska resident for six years, Fields has racked up the most high profile endorsements from established Democrats, and as of late July raised almost $35,000 from hundreds of individual donors and union groups. Fields’s platform is focused on environmental conservation, increased spending on education, law enforcement and infrastructure. To pay for those things, he wants to increase taxes.

“In order of preference, I support higher taxes on oil production, I also support a progressively structured income tax, and I would consider supporting a sales tax if it had protections against regressivity to make sure it doesn’t fall hard on working families,” Fields said.

While a push for more taxes would be a deal-breaker for voters in many conservative-leaning parts of Anchorage, in the District 20 primary its relatively uncontroversial. The area is so packed with registered Democrats that the primary is all but certain to determine who will represent the district. And that has candidates competing to establish their progressive bona fides to voters.

Former prosecutor and avowed policy wonk Cliff Groh is making that case through his decades of experience working on state economic policy.

“I am by far the most knowledgeable candidate about our fiscal situation in this race,” Groh said.

Groh was born in the district, and is a product of Anchorage public schools. As a legislative staffer in the 80s he helped write the bill establishing the Permanent Fund Dividend. And for the last four years, Groh has traveled the state trying to get residents engaged with the dire budget situation caused by the oil price decline. He too wants a Legislature that boosts funding for criminal prosecutors, state troopers and education, paid for by restoring the income tax the state had in place until 1980.

“The days of big easy oil money are over for Alaska,” Groh said. “Alaska needs to have the maturity to understand that our state needs to have more traditional and conventional ways of financing public services.”

Groh has the most detailed policy proposals of all three candidates, ranging from healthcare price transparency to suggestions for tax credits to boost economic development.

Though Groh’s campaign has technically raised the most money, the majority of it, more than $47,000, was self-financed.

Candidate Elias Rojas has also put several thousand dollars of his own money into his campaign. The business owner and community organizer has a significant number of individual donations from out of state as well, something he attributes to his professional background working in California and New York prior to moving to Alaska almost 12 years ago.

“Top of mind to most folks is really trying to figure out how to implement a comprehensive fiscal plan,” Rojas said of what he’s hearing from people in the district as he campaigns. “At the same time trying to make sure that our priorities are addressed in that fiscal plan. Things like reducing crime, making sure our schools are good schools and a strong university system.”

Rojas hesitates to give details about specific components of a fiscal plan, saying it will require compromise from everyone involved, but that in his mind everything should be on the table as far as new revenue options.

Rojas has endorsements from a lot of local Anchorage politicians and community activists, including several sitting Assembly members. He built a strong network in the city through his past efforts pushing forward equal rights measures in Anchorage, something he says he would continue pursuing through a state-wide anti-discrimination policy.

“I have the ability to coalition-build when I get to Juneau, and I’ve had that experience working on LGBT issues. I’ve needed it to work across the aisle, and feel that that’s a strength I have that Juneau needs right now,” Rojas added.

The winner of the August 21st Democratic primary will appear on the November ballot against Republican Ceezar Martinson.

Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @AKPublicNews

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Anchorage candidates vie for progressive bona fides ahead of primary

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

As Alaska’s primary elections get closer, there are a handful of contests that will likely be decided in August, far ahead of the November general election.

Alaskans may soon be able to finance energy improvements through their utility bills

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

The utility loans could cover a range of upgrades including solar panels, higher efficiency appliances, and switches in heating fuel systems.

Senator Sullivan holds discussions along Y-K Delta

Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan visited several communities last week in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, to listen to the top concerns from residents. Those topics included jobs, the proposed Donlin Mine and erosion.

Anchorage School District may have new school start times for students

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

After about a year of discussion and a consultant’s study, Anchorage School District Superintendent Dr. Deena Bishop has proposed later start times for high school and junior high students. Bishop’s proposal would also have elementary school students starting slightly earlier.

New power plant will keep lights on in Togiak

Austin Fast, KDLG – Dillingham

Processing salmon comes to a standstill in Togiak as regular blackouts hit the small village, but there is a solution on the horizon.

Hundreds of dying seabirds found in Bering and Chukchi seas

Zoe Sobel, Alaksa’s Energy Desk – Unalaska

Since May, hundreds of dead and dying seabirds have been found across the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas.

With king restrictions, Wrangell tries out new Coho derby

June Leffler, KTSK – Wrangell

The competition is filling in for the town’s king salmon derby, which was cancelled this summer due to severe sport fishing restrictions.

Drag show brings gender play to Sitka

Emily Kwong, KCAW – Sitka

Drag shows are an important part of queer culture all over the world. On August 4, 2018, Sitka had its very first show.

Marijuana and hemp are technically the same plant: cannabis sativa. The main difference is that hemp contains only trace amounts of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive drug in marijuana that gets you high.

So it’s surprising that as Alaska’s recreational marijuana industry has bloomed, growing hemp remains illegal. But that could change by 2019, when Rob Carter, the head of a new industrial hemp pilot program, hopes to have hemp plants in the ground in Alaska.

More than 300 people from across the state have expressed interest, but with its cold soils and long summer days, is Alaska really a good fit for a hemp industry?

Carter thinks so. He’s the managing agronomist for the Alaska Plant Materials Center outside of Palmer. The 400-acre experiment farm and seed cleaning facility is the epicenter of a soon-to-be industrial hemp pilot program that’ll enlist hemp growers from all over the state. Carter said he gets one to two calls a day from people interested in participating.

“It’s kinda the gold rush thing. Like a lot of people wanna come in, and it’s new, and they wanna be a participant,” Carter said.

Hemp is used in a bunch of different ways– to feed livestock, for medicinal purposes, it’s even used by the oil industry to fill cracks and fissures in the earth caused by drilling. Carter said he sees a lot of possibility from hemp-based oils like CBD, which people use to treat everything from epilepsy to inflammation. Right now, the federal government doesn’t regulate them, and a tiny bottle of CBD oil can cost over $100 online.

“And so you go to the natural health food store or the gas station, and you buy this CBD product, and you consume it. You tell me what’s in it,” he said. “You don’t know.”

Carter wants to design a pilot program that would increase transparency and more tightly regulate the growth of hemp and extraction of CBD oil. He thinks that because of its pristine environment, Alaska could offer something other places can’t.

“We have relatively clean soils and very clean water and an unbelievably clean growing environment in comparison to other states that have very large-scale industrial or mono-cropping agriculture around it,” Carter said. “I think that we have the opportunity to build a program that can be some of the cleanest industrial hemp anywhere in the world.”

Carter is clearly optimistic about the hemp industry in Alaska, but that’s not based off of hard evidence. It was illegal to grow in the US, even for research purposes, for more than 75 years. Then Congress authorized state-sponsored industrial hemp pilot programs in the 2014 Farm Bill. Alaska joined more than 30 other states when it legalized a program earlier this year.

The program provides a way to gather data about growing hemp in the state and figure out what works and what doesn’t. But until it’s up and running, it’s still illegal to grow or import hemp in Alaska.

Despite Alaska’s harsh climate, Carter thinks a permanent industrial hemp industry is viable here. He said whether illegal or legal, producers have been growing cannabis indoors and outdoors in Alaska for a long time and similar climates like Northern Europe have made it work.

“I think agriculturalists in Alaska in general, when you tell ’em you can’t do something, we find ways to make it happen,” Carter said.

Still, determination can only get you so far. Most strains of hemp need warm soils for their deep root systems and a period of darkness each day to flower and produce seeds. Alaskan summers offer neither. That’s why University of Alaska Fairbanks agronomist Bob Van Veldhuizen has his doubts about the industry. He thinks hemp would need to be grown indoors or in high tunnels, which is expensive. He’s not against legalization, but he thinks developing an industry might not be worth it.

“I’m sure that somebody somewhere would be able to do it, but the likelihood of this becoming a major, viable crop for Alaska at this point, seems to be pretty small,” Van Veldhuizen said.

Ember Haynes is a Talkeetna-based farmer and hemp product producer. She thinks that there are some varieties of the plant that will grow well here.

“There are varieties that will flower on their own so that’s totally an option,” Haynes said.

Haynes hopes to participate in the pilot program and grow hemp on a small scale to feed to her animals and use for companies Silverbear Sundries and Denali Hemp Company.

“I look at hemp especially in Alaska as being a grassroots movement, that it does not have to start with big agriculture, you know, that it can start on the small scale,” Haynes said.

And Haynes isn’t alone. Rob Carter said he’s seen such an overwhelming interest in the pilot program that it’s taking longer than expected to draft program regulations. After the regulations go up for public comment, they’ll open applications.

Carter said the more people, the better.

“The more plants we have in the ground and the more people that we have that participate,” Carter said, “the stronger the industry will be.”

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan visited 11 Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages in four days last week.

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“I was joking with my staff that I must have gained five to 10 pounds from all that great salmon that I ate,” Sullivan joked.

Sullivan listened as villagers asked him about jobs, erosion and discussed their concerns about the proposed Donlin mine. How to prepare for and respond to erosion is one of the biggest problems facing many communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for villages like Newtok, Napakiak and Chefornak. Chefornak is one of the villages that Sullivan visited; it sits near the coast.

“It was a concern because some of those houses are really close to the shore,” Bernadette Lewis, the Executive Director for Chefornak Traditional Council, said.

Lewis claimed that some of the houses sit about 10 feet from some bodies of water and that it’s expensive to move houses.

“We don’t have funding if we’re going to move homes away from the shore,” Lewis said.

Sullivan says that the main problem is getting funding that is already available delivered to those communities who need it. He says that funding was increased for the Denali Commission, a federal agency that is helping some communities move. But, he says that the best solutions will come from community members.

“One of the solutions is to build our own housing with our own materials,” Sullivan said.

The Y-K Delta is one of Alaska’s most impoverished regions, and that makes job growth a top concern among residents. Again, Sullivan points to community innovation as the best solution.

One industry that could spur job growth is mining. The proposed Donlin gold mine promises more than 3,200 jobs at the height of its construction, and 1,000 annually.

Sullivan wouldn’t say outright whether he supports the mine, but he does say that the permitting process could be streamlined.

“They have to meet a very high standard. The standard is they can’t impact the natural resource that we already have out there, and that is the fish,” Sullivan said. “But the way I see, it’s incumbent on the federal government to move that along.”

And Sullivan says there were concerns about the route of the proposed gas line that would provide the fuel to power the mine’s operations. Donlin Gold, the company developing the mine, plans to build a 300-mile pipeline from Cook Inlet, across the Alaska Range, to the site.

Every summer, the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository hosts a community project in Kodiak. Students and community members join in.

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This season, they are excavating a site on a little island off Near Island, which appears to be a subsistence camp from thousands of years ago.

Down a trail through stands of towering Sitka spruce, across a rocky beach and along an outcropping, is a freshly dug four-by-five-meter patch of dirt where researchers believe that thousands of years ago Alutiiq people once caught and smoked cod.

“So, we are at the archaeological site called Qik’rtangcuk,(which means little island in Alutiiq,)” Molly Odell, a project manager and archaeologist at the museum, said.

It is day three of community archaeology and, through the filtered light of an alder canopy, the all-volunteer team of 10 is uncovering a large fire pit – about three meters across. Initial discoveries point to the site being a seasonal camp.

“We have not found any evidence of houses or people living here,” Odell said. “So, it probably was more like a camp… and Patrick, my colleague, was out here hiking one time and he saw some people catching cod right from the beach, and this was just a few years ago. So, we know that you can catch cod here today, so you probably could a few thousand years ago as well.”

They’ve already dug up a fist-sized rock fishing line weight, called a plummet, which indicates the site could be around 3,000 years old.

Patrick Saltonstall is Curator of Archaeology at the Alutiiq Museum.

“Archeology is all about using evidence to come up with what happened in the past. The story is what really matters,” Saltonstall said.

As Saltonstall explained, a big part of figuring out the story comes from mapping the site. He calls out measurements: 106, 113, 110.

“It is elevation in relation to data. So, we’ll be able to make a three-dimensional map of the site,” Saltonstall said.

Peter Ellis is a Ph.D student in archaeology at the University of Pittsburgh who traveled all the way to Kodiak to volunteer on the project.

“I’ve never dug anything this old before. This is very cool to me. Again, back on the east coast, everything was 17-1800s for me,” Ellis said. “The oldest thing was probably 1400 AD. So, this is a kind of a really cool, unique opportunity. I have never seen a feature, like a smoke processing pit, that size either, before.”

Ellis worked on another community archaeology dig in Dutch Harbor last summer. He’s an experienced digger who says the way you dig matters.

“So, basically, with archaeology, we’re looking at time as it goes down through the soil. So, you want to dig mostly horizontally, thin layers at a time,” Ellis said. “So, if you look for any changes you might find them by digging horizontally, slowly, instead of kind of digging, you know, one deep pit straight down. So, that is where we use the trowels and the dustpans to slowly scoop dirt into our dustpans and put them in the bucket, and then we give them to our screener, who is going to run all that sediment through a screen to catch any artifacts bigger than a quarter inch or a half inch.”

The very first day of the dig, volunteer Keith Bruce, a sophomore at Kodiak High school, found the artifact mentioned earlier — the fishing weight.

“The first day I found a stone plummet, which was used to hold down fishing line. It was a weird feeling. You know you’re touching something someone touched 3,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago,” Bruce said. “It feels special because you can see where someone has hit it, spent time knocking it around making the groove.”

But in between, it is a lot of digging until that magical moment when your eye spots something.

“I’m starting to find soil that has little tiny white flecks in it, which I think are degraded shells, like clam shells, things like that,” Odell said. “And then I found some little tiny pieces of fish bones here, which is what we were hoping to find because we were thinking this was a smoking pit for fish.”

And then the crew finds something else: another plummet, which Patrick Saltonstall described.

“A line weight or a net weight. It’s notched, a rock here that looks kind of ugly, but it is notched on either end, and this probably would have a line around it in order to — held a rig for fishing on the bottom,” Saltonstall said. “This is how they caught the cod that they fished within here.”

Another clue that, hopefully, when added together with all the others, will create a small window into the world of Alutiiq people in Kodiak thousands of years ago.

KMXT intern Zane Navarro contributed to this story.

After about a year of discussion and a consultant’s study, Anchorage School District Superintendent Dr. Deena Bishop has proposed later start times for high school and junior high students. Bishop’s proposal would also have elementary school students starting slightly earlier.

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The biggest change would be for junior high students, who, under the proposal, would start school at 9:30 a.m., more than an hour later than currently. Bishop has proposed an 8 a.m. start time for high school — that’s a half-hour later — and 8:45 a.m. for elementary students, which would be 15 minutes earlier.

There are three public comment sessions scheduled for September, with the Anchorage School Board expected to vote on the proposal in October.

Dr. Bishop spoke about the proposal with Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove.

GROVE: So, why? That’s my main question. Why do we want to change start times at all? Why do we need this?

BISHOP: Sure. So, our biggest “why” in the district is that we want kids to do well and we want them to be successful, we want to do what’s best for kids and their learning.

So the specifics really over the last 10 years, the different stakeholders have been approaching the board and providing information about brain research, all the like, about secondary students. They’re pretty nocturnal, their brains, they do stay up, whether parents want them to go to bed or not. And they’re they’re not fully functioning their brains in the morning, but most recently, about 18 months ago, West High students started a petition and over 5,000 people, within the school, internally to the district, as well as externally, asked the board to look into this, knowing that school start times really aren’t just a school thing, if you will. Our parents’ work schedules, babysitting schedules, sports schedules, doctors appointments, everything operates around if you have children. And a fifth of our community does have someone in a school. We would have to consider that, so we spent a year getting information, having community meetings and the like to finally have that recommendation that the board asked for.

GROVE: It seems like more sleep would be better. But when people argue against this, what is their argument?

BISHOP: The biggest argument is really the interruption to family. If I have a family schedule and it’s working for me, then it disrupts, when I have younger children or students in two different schools, with my work. So that that’s the primary. A lot of the comments are, “You know what, I have to get up early, the world doesn’t wait for kids, just make them get up, make them go to sleep earlier.”

But what we know about, you know, the frontal cortex of the brain and lots of other things, that kids don’t just go to sleep. And so knowing that they’re awake past 10 o’clock, the majority of them, and to get up, to be in school by 7:30, they wouldn’t be getting that 8 hours. But really the change is the biggest issue, not necessarily that it’s at one time or another, it’s not that, “I don’t want high school at this time or elementary.” It literally was the impact on daily schedules.

GROVE: What happens next? I guess there are some some community meetings for public comment and then it sounds like the board would vote in October, maybe at the earliest.

So what’s the earliest that this could actually be implemented?

BISHOP: We are looking for the fall of (2019). So we have a whole year out, and that was important for our board as well, to ensure that arrangements and discussions, work schedules, daycares. The market will follow where people are, so we know that that has changed and we’ve studied that in other communities.

So we’re confident but we want time for people to talk, to plan, to understand, and ultimately there hasn’t really been anyone that says, “You know what,  I don’t understand the research,” or, ” I don’t believe the research.” It’s really been about how, “This impacts me personally. My life is already busy as can be and stressors and this is going to add one more,” and therefore the time we thought was quite important.”

GROVE: Forgive me for asking this, but what time do you get up?

BISHOP: I’m early riser. I’m up at 4:45 just to walk the dog. So, I start work at 7 myself and, you know, work till six. I’m probably- I’m a workaholic I guess.

GROVE: But you’re advocating for later start times here.

BISHOP: Correct. And I’m not 14 and pretty much can determine my outcomes. So I could change my job, I can create a lifestyle that I wanted something different. This is the job that I love, helping kids, and for me, getting my exercise in with my dog an hour before I start helps me in my day. So those are decisions I can make as an adult. But I hope as adults in this community that, if we believe in our community, we really should do good by our kids.

This week we’re hearing from Ralph Watkins in Hoonah. Watkins is the superintendent of Hoonah city schools and was involved in the annual ḵu.éex’ festival, which celebrates the cities Tlingit culture and heritage.

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WATKINS: This was my third ḵu.éex’ and each time it’s equally as moving for me. And I think for me, as an African American, it’s even more so. Here’s a group of people who were displaced from their home, but they brought their culture with them. And then, some people came and tried to rip that away from them and surpress it. And they were a subjugated group of people, maligned, disenfranchised, cut off from the greater society and their own culture.

I know absolutely nothing about my African history. I don’t know where I come from. Well… I’m from Compton, but I don’t know where I come from. I don’t know who my people are. I don’t know any of that.

I’m almost jealous. So, the fact that I can be a part of preserving something that I couldn’t do so for my own culture is important to me. It almost makes me cry every time.

I made a concerted, deliberate effort to be a part of the community. And that to me was the big piece. That effort. And it’s paid dividends. Because now, people see me as a part of the community. We greet each other when we go to the store, when we see each other at the dock, whatever we’re doing. I feel like I am a part of Hoonah.

In 2014, Alaska tribes won a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior (DOI) for the right to put land into trusts, expelling the “Alaska exception”.

Land into trust is a process in which tribal organizations can request specific land be exempted from taxation and local zoning laws, and protected from proceedings such as imminent domain or foreclosure. It essentially keeps the land in tribal ownership permanently.

DOI officials are talking with tribes across the state in a series of consultations this summer to reconsider land-trust rules in Alaska. Matthew Newman, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund representing the Village of Saxman, was one of many people who attended the latest consultation Friday afternoon at the Ketchikan Public Library.

Newman said DOI has not been clear with the purpose of these consultations.

“They’ve given us no real indication of what they’re doing. And what I mean by that is that there was no prompting or impetus or comment period,” Newman said. “We just received letters on July 2nd that just showed up that said we’re reconsidering the program,” Newman said. “The overwhelming message delivered to the Department of the Interior by tribal leaders was one of frustration.”

Newman said many tribal leaders at the consultation perceive these meetings as an attack on their rights that they won just recently.

Only the Craig Tribal Association has been able to put land into trust since the 2014 decision. The association put about one acre containing the city’s town hall and offices into trust in early 2017.

Craig Tribal Association President Clinton Cook Sr. said one of the reasons land-trust rules should remain in place is their association has proven it can work in Alaska.

“We knew there was going to be hurdles to come across. We overcame that hurdle, we’re very, very proud of that accomplishment and we look forward to see other tribes in Alaska to put lands into trusts,” Cook said.

Jacqueline Pata from Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska also attended the Ketchikan consultation. She says like many tribes in the Lower 48 who have been able to put land into trust for decades, tribes in Alaska and Southeast simply want to protect their land for the future.

“These are our lands, we don’t want to lose them from alienation in any form. We want them to be identified as tribal lands. And as we move forward in the future, they’ll be protected for future generations,” Pata said.

Pata said she hopes DOI will take this feedback and maintain the land-trust program throughout Alaska. Until that decision, she says it is a waiting game to see what DOI does with this feedback.

The next DOI consultation on the land-trust program in Alaska will be held in Anchorage in late October.

Over the past few centuries in the United States, laws and policies have favored some racial and ethnic groups over others. It’s led to racial inequity in Alaska and beyond. Now different groups are working together to educate people about these problems and develop solutions.

HOST: Anne Hillman

GUESTS:

• Lisa Wade – Chickaloon Village Traditional Council
• Andrea Sanders – First Alaskans Institute

• Call 550-8422 (Anchorage) or 1-800-478-8255 (statewide) during the live broadcast
• Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
• Send email to talk@alaskapublic.org (comments may be read on air)

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

SUBSCRIBE: Get Talk of Alaska updates automatically by email, RSS or podcast.

Three visitors to Katmai National Park could face charges after approaching brown bears feeding on salmon Thursday evening.

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Two Alaska residents and an out-of-state visitor entered a closed area below Brooks Falls and approached multiple bears. Viewers watching the park’s live bear cam saw a man wade into the water below the falls and take a selfie in front of a group of grizzlies lunging for salmon.

Multiple bear cam viewers and visitors expressed concern to park rangers about the violation. Park rangers then contacted the three visitors, and charges are currently pending.

It’s illegal in Katmai National Park and Preserve to come within 50 yards of a bear while it’s using a “concentrated food source,” like migrating or spawning salmon. The park service closes the area around Brooks Falls from June 15 to Aug. 15 to reduce negative bear-human interactions and to allow bears stocking up on salmon ahead of winter hibernation to eat in peace.

Park spokesperson Anela Ramos wrote in an email that the incident at the falls is an isolated one. All visitors to Brooks Camp are required to attend a bear orientation where they learn distance regulations, what to do in a close encounter and how to manage food.

“Most people are good stewards of the park and the bears, trying their best to follow the rules,” Ramos wrote.

However, bear encounters do happen. She wrote that sometimes photographers and anglers do get too close to bears on other, less managed parts of the river.

“It’s challenging not to get close, when there is limited exit and mobility when wading a rushing river,” Ramos wrote. “Rangers patrol the river to prevent these encounters, but the rangers can’t be everywhere.”

Visitors can view bears at a safe distance from elevated platforms at Brooks Camp.

Once charges are finalized, the park service will release details about the visitors’ identities. No visitors or bears were injured.