Sorted by date Results 551 - 575 of 691
And the contract goes to . . . Viking Lumber. Hoooooray! It’s wonderful to witness in this day and age a Prince of Wales Island sawmill win the Big Thorne stewardship contract. The mill has survived the industry’s ups and downs, and with a continuing supply of timber, will continue to process logs in southern Southeast Alaska. The sale is designed to provide timber as soon as possible to the mill. The initial small volume of timber will be followed by two smaller volumes to be announced later. This contract should help to secure the mil...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The U.S. Forest Service has awarded a contract for a timber sale in southeast Alaska to the region's last mid-size mill, Viking Lumber Co. Lawsuits were filed over the Big Thorne sale before the contract was awarded, and Tongass National Forest spokesman Kent Cummins said no ground work would be done by Viking until the courts decide the case _ likely next spring. Cummins told the Juneau Empire in a story Thursday that he couldn't comment on the size of the contract or on how many companies had bid until the contract w...
Petersburg’s Alaska Native Sisterhood and Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 16 will play host to the 102nd annual Grand Camp Oct. 8-11, returning after 43 years of convening elsewhere around Alaska. “Each year the camp itself in each community works to address the needs in the community,’’ said Brenda Louise, ANS 2nd Grand Vice President and member of Petersburg’s Camp 16. “Each community, depending on how big or active the camp is and what issues they see as needing addressing in their environment, would write resolutions and bring them to Gra... Full story
Cindi Lagoudakis Position sought: Assembly member, 3-year term Age: 60 Education: Undergraduate coursework, University of California, Berkeley; B.S. in Forest Management, Oregon State University; Graduate coursework in fisheries, University of Alaska Fairbanks Family: "Bill Tremblay, husband; children: Stephanie, Chelsea, Jarrett and Lindsay'' Political experience: "Petersburg Borough Assembly member and vice-mayor Lincoln County, Oregon, Planning Commissioner Alaska State Appointee to the...
WRANGELL — Though the comment period officially ended Sept. 15, the Wrangell Ranger District of the United States Forestry Service is still seeking public input for an upcoming dock project in Anan Bay. “To me it’s kind of an open process,” said Ranger Bob Dalrymple. “We’re open to input pretty much any time.” The district uses this input as it prepares an environmental assessment, which should be available for public comment later this fall. The wildlife observatory is located about 23 miles southeast of Wrangell on the mainland, par...
The Tongass Advisory Committee (TAC) heard presentations from Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials and discussed the challenges and opportunities associated with an impending transition to young-growth forest management at their meeting this month in Juneau. The presentations given by the Forest Service and DNR officials helped give committee members a better sense of how difficult the transition process can be, Lynn Jungwirth, committee co-chair, said via e-mail. “You can’t ‘speed up’ young growth sustainable mana...
Just behind Rae C. Stedman Elementary School a large garden teeming with life offers students and community members a new classroom for learning. The School + Community Garden is comprised of a greenhouse, rows of raised beds that convert into hoop houses, a tool shed and planters fashioned from tires, crab pots and gutters now used to grow perennials, pole beans and strawberries. The children's touches abound in the garden from hand-painted signs to the dinosaur figurines poured into round...
A Kake-Petersburg Intertie (KPI) project update was given during this week's Southeast Conference held in Wrangell. The KPI includes a proposed electrical transmission line that would connect Kake to a SEAPA (Southeast Alaska Power Agency) substation in Petersburg. Kake, a community of just over 550 people, is situated on the northwest coast of Kupreanof Island and is working to find cheaper alternatives to costly diesel, which provides the bulk of their power currently. “The Kake-Petersburg Intertie would transmit power at either 69 or 130 kil... Full story
September 12, 1914 – The Petersburg school began the term last Tuesday with a full attendance. Forty-eight pupils were enrolled, approximately ten more than attended last year. The addition of Miss. Edna Miller on the staff of teachers, is a great help and both Miss Mitchell and Miss Blyth express much satisfaction at the new order of things. September 8, 1939 – At the first meeting of the month Tuesday the City Council passed the new ordinance fixing a license fee on automatic amusements games. A fee of $50 a year was established by the cou...
Trimming trees would improve outdoor experience To the Editor: I like trees but I think its time to start thinning out some of the jungle that is now covering Mitkof Island. We used to have a beautiful cemetery that was such a scenic spot to view from boats going by. Because of high trees blocking sunlight the once beautiful lawn is now never dry and moss has taken over. One now cannot use the benches for taking in the spectacular views because of the advancing jungle. Wrangell Narrows is one of the most scenic waterways on earth but unless you...
September 12, 1914 – The Petersburg school began the term last Tuesday with a full attendance. Forty-eight pupils were enrolled, approximately ten more than attended last year. The addition of Miss. Edna Miller on the staff of teachers, is a great help and both Miss Mitchell and Miss Blyth express much satisfaction at the new order of things. September 8, 1939 – At the first meeting of the month Tuesday the City Council passed the new ordinance fixing a license fee on automatic amusements games. A fee of $50 a year was established by the cou...
PHS Cross Country is off and running with a new head coach. Vikings Head Coach Tom Thompson has led practices for a full month and took the girls and boys teams to Juneau for the first meet of the season last weekend. This year's girls team has some very big running shoes to fill after last year's "Fab Five" seniors took the Region V title and finished third in State. Despite being a young team of six girls with a total of three years of cross country experience between them all, Coach Thompson...
The 7th annual Rainforest Festival kicks off next week. There are many highlights this year including a portable planetarium for viewing a projection of the night sky indoors and the first ever Rain Forest Run half marathon. The Rain Forest Run half marathon, a 13.1 mile run or walk, will be the first event of the festival. The run will be held on Labor Day, Sept.1, on a course beginning at central Mitkof Island and ending at Sandy Beach Park. "The event was organized by local runners eager for... Full story
The assembly voted unanimously in favor of a motion to change the wording in their letter to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in support of the North End Ferry Authority's Rainforest Islands Ferry using a Petersburg launch point. The assembly had previously voted to support the North End Ferry Authority in using the Banana Point launch ramp as an interim ferry terminal for the Rainforest Island Ferry. At Monday's meeting the assembly voted to change the wording to say they support the use of Olsen's log dump or the South Mitkof Ferry...
PETERSBURG (AP) — A federal contractor is removing soil contaminated by fuel and debris at a Cold War mountaintop radio site near Petersburg. The Kupreanof Island site was a manned U.S. Air Force communications station, one of 18 built in Alaska in the 1950s that were part of an early warning system to relay radio communications to Colorado Springs during the Cold War. It was deactivated in 1976, and the Air Force removed more than 100 old fuel barrels from the area in 2000. But fuel drums, rubble, trash and chemical contaminants still r...
To the Editor: True Tongass ‘transition’ would increase local jobs per log cut. In its latest statement on the direction of the much-awaited Tongass transition, the Forest Service says the future is now for the Tongass National Forest. We couldn’t agree more, and we’re happy to see the agency working with local people to chart a course toward a more prosperous and sustainable future for Southeast Alaskan communities. But if local stakeholder consensus is the goal, the Forest Service’s decision to include industrial-scale old-growth timber sa...
For the next two years, the newly formed Tongass National Forest Advisory Committee (TAC), under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture, will advise the U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) timber sale management program in the transition from old-growth to new-growth timber management. A transition that will take 10 to 15 years. With nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass is one of the world’s largest intact rain forests. USFS announced its intention to form the federal advisory committee back in January. “The Committee will be expected to provid...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — In the secluded island village of Angoon in Southeast Alaska, a long-talked-about airport is still in the works. Planning for the Angoon airport -- which in rural Alaska means a single runway and access road — began a decade ago, and despite community support, transportation planners say it will be many more years before small airplanes can land on the island. ``Will I still be alive by the time it actually goes in?'' Sue Bates, co-owner of the Angoon Trading Company, asked jokingly in a recent interview. ``Honestly, I thi...
August 1, 1914 – An unaccountable late season has somewhat worried the cannery men up till now; and great apprehension was felt all along that possibly this year would also prove another failure. However, the last few days have shown better. Out of 8,000 salmon brought in Thursday evening at the company's cannery, 4,000 were sockeyes. The sockeye this season has helped considerably. Capt. Sanderson of the company's cannery tender, the Marian, said that nearly 4,000 cases of sockeye were already put up by the company with a bright prospect of a...
WRANGELL — This year's Bearfest attracted a number of bear-knowledgable brainboxes, from biologists and behaviorists to wilderness managers, guides and artists. Over the course of the five-day event, experts shared their knowledge in a series of workshops, demonstrations, and lectures with the public. "It's a great opportunity for Wrangell residents and visitors alike to hear from some of the best bear experts in the world," explained Lance Craighead, conservation director at the Craighead Institute in Montana. A lot of what was discussed w...
Patricia "Pat" Lee Walden (Ray) of Sedro-Woolley, Wash., died suddenly on Thursday, July 24, 2014, in Mount Vernon, Wash. Pat was the first of three children born to Lee Ray and Shirley Menne. She was born on August 28, 1955 in Redding, Calif. Pat grew up in the Concrete and Newhalem area of Washington State and graduated from Concrete High School in 1973. In 1978, Pat married Douglas Lawrenson of Burlington, Wash. During their marriage they had three children. At the time of their marriage,... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Southeast Alaska's watersheds are changing quickly, and researchers are working to figure out how, why, and what those changes mean. Sanjay Pyare, Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Systems and Landscape Ecology, Sonia Nagorski, Research Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences, Brian Buma, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecosystem Ecology, and other researchers affiliated with the University of Alaska and the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center _ including graduate and undergraduate students _ on a recent F...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Water crept up on homes and closed roads and popular hiking trails Friday, as residents braced for possible record flooding after the release of water from a glacially dammed lake. The old record of 11.18 feet on Mendenhall Lake, set in 1995, was broken by Friday afternoon, as the lake water level reached 11.8 feet, then began to drop slightly, the National Weather Service said. Authorities have been monitoring the lake and Mendenhall River to see when they would crest f...
Herring Toss (12 years and younger) Female: Jaden Perry Male: Alex Worthatch Herring Toss (13 years and older) Female: Lisa Haas Male: Chase Lockhart Tote Races John Kolomaznik Team Blindfold Rowboat Races Desi Burrell & Dan Babcock Log Rolling Women’s & Co-ed winner: Alesha Jabusch Men’s Winner: Max Peeler Scrapfish Derby (7 years and under) Biggest Fish for Boys: Caleb Lutomski Biggest Fish for Girls: Stella Walton Scrapfish Derby (8-12 years old) Biggest Fish for Boys: Keisuke Sasada Biggest fish for Girls: Anya Pawuk Parade Best of Par...
