Sorted by date Results 601 - 625 of 691
The lights are off and a closed sign is scotch taped to the door of the Federal Building in downtown Petersburg. Jason Anderson, U.S. District Ranger, is the lone occupant. On Tuesday, he looked as if he had come into the office during time off, garbed in hiking pants and a black t-shirt rather than a forest service uniform. But his desk was stacked with piles of papers looking very much as if there is still work to be done. “We were told not to spend a lot of time finalizing other project work... Full story
Thirty-seven moose have been checked in to Alaska Department of Fish and Game this season. Rich Lowell, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said nineteen moose were checked in during the first week, which is close to average for the last 10 years “Most of the harvest occurs within the first two weeks of the season,” Lowell said. As of yesterday afternoon, 12 moose have been harvested from the Stikine, 12 from Kupreanof and six from Mitkof. Although 12 moose were taken from Kupreanof only six were taken from the Kak...
The Petersburg Borough is seeking legal advice as it considers drafting an ordinance requiring agencies, including the state of Alaska, using broad based spraying methods to deliver herbicides and pesticides to require the approval of the borough assembly. The state adopted regulations this past spring that would allow agencies to apply herbicides and pesticides on state property without obtaining a permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation and without public review. Petersburg, Skagway and Haines have all written letters to the...
Twenty-six moose have been checked in to Alaska Department of Fish and game this season. Rich Lowell, Area Wildlife Biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said nineteen moose were checked in during the first week, which is close to average for the last 10 years “Most of the harvest occurs within the first two weeks of the season,” Lowell said. As of yesterday afternoon, nine moose have been harvested from the Stikine, seven from Kupreanof and five from Mitkof. Although seven wer... Full story
A crew filmed Axe Men promotional videos at the Tonka Logging site on Kupreanof Island last week. Sean Moody, Assistant Production Supervisor for The Arsenal Film & Creative, said they lucked out during last week despite all the rainy days. “We got really lucky on the first shoot day, the bigger day, when we were out with all the machines. We even got a little bit of sun in the sky.” The film crew used a remote controlled helicopter camera to do some of the shooting. “We kind of shoot thing... Full story
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service plans to take a portion of the timber payments it has promised or paid out to 22 states, citing federal budget cuts. Collection letters from Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell went out to governors around the country Monday, saying money would be taken from funds used for habitat improvement and other national forest-related projects that put people to work under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Oregon stands to lose the most in the move, with nearly $4 million in reductions....
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski intervened on behalf a Wrangell daycare operator after a US Forest Service officer issued her a citation in July for picnicking with her daycare children at Middle Ridge in the Tongass National Forest. US Forest Service Law enforcement officer Doug Ault fined Marilyn Mork $375 for operating a business on federal land without a permit. Mork said former U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski caught wind of the situation, made a copy of the citation and sent it to his daughter, Senator Murkowski. Murkowski happened to be meeting...
The Banana Point floating dock project has been canceled after conflicting interpretations within the U.S. Forest Service concerning the use of grant funds. The Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake Resource Advisory Committee, or RAC organized the project that was two years in the making. RACs fall under the authority of The Secure Rural Schools Act, which is meant to provide collaboration between local communities and federal land managers to create projects on federal land. Each U.S. Forest Service region in the country has a RAC. The local RAC...
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski and Petersburg residents had a conversation Tuesday night in the Sons of Norway Hall about community, regional and state issues. The first subject Murkowski brought up was the less than ideal condition of the Petersburg jail. “You were in the running with Bethel for the worst city jail,” Murkowski said. “And now Bethel’s (jail) is looking pretty good. You win the prize in my view, of all the communities that I’ve gone to, for the worst conditions.” Murkowski f...
SITKA — Half a century of Sitka history in a 61-foot steel hull is being auctioned off by the U.S. Forest Service. The M/V Sitka Ranger, which entered service in 1959 as the floating presence of the Forest Service in the Tongass National Forest, is on the auction block. Roy Mitchell, deputy regional fleet manager for the Forest Service in Anchorage, said the Sitka Ranger and its sister ship the M/V Tongass Ranger are being auctioned off because there’s no longer enough field work in the cou...
Dean John Weeden, 82, passed away on July 17, 2013 at St. Mary's Assisted Living in Eureka, Mont. He was born on November 7, 1930 in Lynn, Mass. to Dagny Thoresen and John Sven Weeden (Widen). Age five to seventeen he lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. with his mother and step-father Ole Olsen. Dean hopped a train out west when he was seventeen years old launching his first job in the Forest Service doing seasonal work in Idaho. In 1951 he served in the Air Force as a Surgery Technician for the 452 Bomb...
Kake Access Committee Chair Cindi Lagoudakis updated the Assembly during Monday night's meeting regarding the latest progress in the Kake Access Environmental Impact Study and Purpose and Need draft. The Kake Access project is to bring better access to the community of about 500, and could include the construction of a new road, the development of new ferry connections, or a combination. The State in 2012 appropriated $40 million for the project. A project to bring more affordable power to Kake is also in the works as part of support to the... Full story
July 26, 1913 – Strange things happen these days, even in Alaska. For instance: we all have heard of the man who catches the “bug,” or in other words, gets “buggy” on something. Of course there are different kinds of bugs. The “potlach bug” we heard infesting Seattle lately, was thought to have been the latest discovery in “bugdom,” but that is a mistake. The latest, as far as we know, is the “fishing bug.” Strange things never happen singly but in pairs. So in this instance, the other strange thing in connection with this “fishing bug” is...
The Borough Assembly voted to award the gymnasium floor refinishing contract to Alaskan Industries based on a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Dept. Alaskan Industries is the company that has worked on the floor for the last 15 years, said Parks and Recreation Director Donn Hayes. The cost for the floor refinishing will be $32,400, or $35,900 with the Petersburg branded logo installed in the middle of the gymnasium floor. Part of the funding, $13,000, has been provided by a grant...
Tonka facts To the Editor: U.S.D.A. Forest Service has led the public to believe pre-commercial thinning (PCT) creates wildlife habitat but conversely PCT promotes nothing of extended value but potential timber harvesting opportunities. For the Tonka Timber Sale the U.S. Forest Service never cites Cole etal. (2011) which was an agency research project that demonstrated the main positive effects of pre-commercial thinning (PCT) are short lived, about 7 years, which includes the time needed to collapse the slash enabling deer access to food. Inst...
A nearly week-long celebration for Independence Day brought a halt to Nordic Drive road construction and even a break in the clouds. The festivities kicked off on Tuesday evening with a retirement party for Judy Forgey, including a pie eating contest, at the Community Gym. Forgey also served on Thursday as the parade Grand Marshal. Wednesday’s activities began with the Scrap Fish Derby. Two categories, kids age seven and younger and kids 8 -to 12 competed using only bait and hand lines. The w... Full story
The Tongass National Forest issued its Record of Decision and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Big Thorne Project last week. The decision allows for the harvest of 148.9 million board feet from approximately 6,186 acres of old-growth and 2,299 acres of young-growth near Thorne Bay and Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales Island within the Thorne Bay Ranger District. According to Tongass National Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole, the U.S. Forest Service believes the action could help stabilize the timber industry in Southeast Alaska as the...
Local preference To the Editor: I attended the Borough Council Meeting on July 1, 2013. I was disappointed to see attendance was so low but maybe the listening audience was large. Other than Department Heads, Councilpersons, me, Joe Viechnicki and the new police chief, there was only one other person present. Acting Mayor Sue Flint conducted a short, sweet, and to the point meeting that everyone appreciated. Bravo. There were two things that bothered me. The first was personal in that they are going to enter into a contract with Mike Renfro...
A young moose calf trots behind its mother along the shore near the Forest Service’s West Point Cabin....
The United States Forest Service will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, July 1 to discuss a request by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to change subsistence hunting regulations for deer on a portion of Unit 3. The request is to reduce the Federal subsistence deer season and harvest limit on the Lindenburg Penisula portion of Kupreanof Island for the 2013 season. The proposed action is to reduce the current four month, August through November season to a two week Oct. 15 through Oct. 31 season and to reduce the harvest limit from...
The Tonka Timber Sales Logging Project was contracted in September 2012 and the work commenced on two projects in Feb. 2013. “Two different projects came from the original notice of intent in 2008,” United States Forest Service District Ranger Jason Anderson said. “These projects were the sort yard and the actual timber sale contract.” The sort yard project is an area for upland log storage above the existing ramp and dock at Tonka. This contract was finished in late April. As that project was ending the timber sale contract began and continu...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — More than 200 scientists have signed onto a letter asking Congress to enact legislation protecting 1.9 million acres of salmon habitat in this country's largest national forest. The proposal is billed at the “Tongass 77,” referring to the number of watersheds in the Tongass National Forest that would be protected from activities like logging, mine development and road-building. There is currently no bill pending in Congress but the roughly 230 scientists who signed the letter, dated Monday, as well as other activ...
For the last 30 years, students from Petersburg High School have tracked the movement of LeConte Glacier and continue this tradition to this day. PHS teacher, Victor Trautman, along with students have used approved surveying techniques to measure the terminus of the glacier. The group usually does this in the second week of May and they map it from there. “With this map we are able to generate the general idea of whether the glacier is advancing or receding,” Trautman said. “What we have to re...
National Maritime Day on May 22 is a holiday created by Congress in 1933 to honor America’s sea-going industry. It marks the day when the steamship Savannah set sail from Georgia on the first ever transoceanic voyage under steam power. As celebrations are underway, another maritime benchmark will be set as the first full container of 18 tons of fresh salmon from Chile is offloaded from a cargo ship in California after an iceless month at sea. How can that be? By using fuel cell technology in a new way. A fuel cell is an electrochemical e...
The Petersburg Police Department received a call from a concerned citizen Sunday, May 5 reporting a possible portable Methamphetamine lab. After further investigation, PPD, with the assistance of SEACAD and the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement, determined it was a portable lab. “A family was out hiking in the Noseeum and Lumber Street area,” Petersburg Police Chief Jim Agner stated. “They found a backpack and looked inside. They suspected it was a meth lab, picked it up, took it to the road and called police.” Agner also stated that he did...
