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Heath Whitacre was at home chopping wood when he noticed he had a bunch of missed calls. Whitacre is a trained volunteer for the Petersburg Marine Mammal Center, a local volunteer-run nonprofit that helps rescue and respond to distressed wildlife. His teammates were trying to get a hold of him because there was a two-year-old whale entangled in a gillnet in Frederick Sound near Petersburg. It was about 11:00 a.m. on July 28. "A lot of the members of the team work during the daytime," he said,... Full story
Pink salmon - the backbone of Petersburg's seine fleet - have finally started to show up last over the past week, after what state biologists were comparing to the poorest early returns on the books. "Pink salmon's been, up until this last week - in particular Sunday - pretty poor so far," Troy Thynes, the Southeast Alaska management coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told the Pilot. He described strong escapement and harvest in District 13 near Sitka, and a dramatic jump in...
A long-delayed project to replace Petersburg's downtown streetlights is finally underway, with the first new poles installed last week and the rest expected to go up over the coming weeks, Utility Director Stephan Harbour told the assembly Monday. The borough is installing 13 new LED poles downtown and purchased two more as spares for accident replacements - 15 in all - at a cost of about $138,000. Two were already standing as of Monday, one in front of the federal building and one across the st...
June 25, 1926 – Although it was declared impossible to dredge inside the docks, we are going to have deep water in front of the two big docks. This means that the large boats may stop here in any tide, as well as come through the Narrows when the dredging is finished. It will mean a boost for Petersburg as it makes the town easy to access for any sized boat. Petersburg has always had the reputation of having the best harbor for small craft in Alaska. Sheltered from the winds, it is an ideal stopping place for fishing boats. The only trouble has...
To the Editor: After 2.5 months of writing for the Petersburg Pilot, I would like to take a second to say thank you. Thank you to all the kind people who took me on adventures, were welcoming, and showed a college student from Colorado what island life in Southeast Alaska is like. I learned so much from the great people I had the opportunity to work with and meet, and I feel lucky to have spent time in this amazing location. Petersburg showed me what a small, tight-knit community should look like. Community support, togetherness, and kindness...
To the Editor: I’ve often wondered how the legalized runaway engines of unregulated capitalism and legalized bribery — consuming everything and everyone at all costs — might stir concern among the locally elected representatives of Petersburg. On the one hand, the corporate titans win, by investing millions of dollars into legislative races. That fuels the turning and churning wheels of “progress” and social policy. All this occurring, on our national super highway to living hell. And on the other hand, might their roadkill and maimed “l...
To the Editor: The League of Women Voters of Alaska is a nonpartisan organization. We don’t support or oppose candidates or parties, but we do take positions on issues after reaching consensus based on careful and extensive study. We are supportive of Ballot Measure 1, which will be on Alaska’s primary election ballot, and restores campaign finance limits in Alaska. The initiative will allow individuals to compete more equitably for public office. It also closes the door on unlimited contributions from individuals and reduces the risk – and t...
To the Editor: What you don’t know can kill you. Thanks to this newspaper, I recently learned of a new, disturbing danger. Is it safe to pick the flowers, or eat the blueberries on Mitkof Island? Not anymore – if some reed canary grass happens to be uphill of your blueberry bush, then Forest service employees may have recently toxified those berries. In the name of “invasive” species they’ve decided to begin spraying highly carcinogenic herbicides on Mitkof Island! Using glyphosate based herbicides, and “milestone” (Aminopyralid...
Celebrating our country’s 250th birthday on July 3rd and 4th here in Petersburg was fun and exhausting. This town knows how to put on great community celebrations! I appreciated the folks, festivities, and fun, especially hanging out at the voting rights group’s booth, enjoying the volunteers there and the people passing by. I also appreciated the fact that some people were passing out pocket U.S. Constitutions. So I decided to take a deep dive into my pocket U.S. Constitution. What an amazing, enduring, evolving, 239 year old document! I not...
July 29 – An officer assisted Emergency Medical Services (EMS) with a fall on 12th St. There was a post event report of a vehicle speeding on Haugen Dr. There was a report of a runaway dog on S 3rd St. There was a report of harm. A caller requested to speak with an officer about a dog on 4.5 St. howling on a porch all day until their owner gets home. A complainant called about loud noise on S 4th St. July 30 – When an officer responding to a report of an individual lying on the sidewalk in front of a downtown bar arrived the subject got up and...
Mitkof Island, like much of Alaska, is home to black and brown bears. Living in bear country, securing trash is a vital management procedure in the fall. This was seen last year, when, due to bears entering town and going through trash cans, several were killed by local law enforcement. Petersburg has time now to prepare for the fall season. Wildlife Biologist at Fish and Game Frank Robbins stresses that keeping trash secured is the most important thing for residents to manage the bears coming to town this year. “The solution is not p...
Jake and Bailey Quigley are an adventurous couple. Seasoned mountain bikers and former van lifers, they have a strong history with the outdoors. One of their travels brought them to Whistler, Canada, where the coastal views wowed them. They wondered if people traveled these waters. "[The trip] just kind of sparked a little bit of research online. We were in Whistler Village when I had found [Susan Marie Conrad's] book, and picked it up and read it right away, and that just clicked a switch that...
Nearly seven decades ago a major Hollywood film crew rolled into Petersburg to shoot the sprawling Alaska statehood epic "Ice Palace." For their new exhibit, the Clausen Memorial Museum brings that movie back for two screenings. The museum will celebrate the opening of its new exhibit Saturday, Aug. 8, with a 3 p.m. matinee screening of the film. A second showing is set for Aug. 14 at 6 p.m. Standard museum admission covers a tour of the exhibit, the screening, and concessions - popcorn and...
Coho: Coho salmon fishing is just beginning, with coho catches being recorded in the area. Each week we expect to see more. The dry weather has left the streams low. A good shot of rain would help to bring the coho into freshwater. Now is a good time to troll for coho in saltwater. Sumner Strait has seen more coho than Frederick Sound so far, but this could change quickly. Communities on the outside waters have started seeing coho in numbers, which means we should see them here on the inside waters soon. If you are a land-based angler, there...
Hunters, recreational users and people who just want to enjoy the quiet and lake view should be able to reserve the new U.S. Forest Service cabin at Little Lakes, near the Long Lake trailhead in the middle of Wrangell Island, by this fall. Construction started in May - a little later than planned, due to heavy snow at the site - and the Forest Service is looking forward to completion by the end of September, Tory Houser, Wrangell District ranger, said last week. The Áax'w Sáani Cabin - Tlingit f...
WRANGELL — The Wrangel borough spent just over $1 million responding to the deadly November 2023 landslide that killed six people and is still owed about $346,000 after last month’s federal approval of reimbursement for debris removal costs. Last month’s approval of almost $638,000 in federal and state disaster funds is in addition to about $72,000 already paid to the borough to reimburse for utility repair costs and temporary shelter expenses. “Although the reimbursement wait is long, the borough has sufficient reserves and the delay is not...
