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A major copper-and-gold mining project in the rugged mountains of northwestern British Columbia - upriver from Wrangell - is poised for a boost from the Canadian government. Canada's Department of Natural Resources last month announced that it plans to inject about $15 million U.S. into a massive copper and gold development just 25 miles from the Alaska border. The project is perched above tributaries of the Stikine River - a major salmon-bearing waterway that flows into Alaska waters. The...
On the morning of Aug. 9, state biologists discovered dozens of dead fish in a creek near the Kensington gold mine in northern Southeast Alaska. Scientists from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game say their observations — and the fact that the die-off occurred downstream of a wastewater treatment plant at the large mine — suggest that the event stemmed from a water quality problem. Mine workers also used an unapproved explosive at Kensington a day before the dead fish were found, according to federal officials. But nearly two months lat...
Expectations were low this year for the pink salmon runs that power Prince William Sound’s commercial fishing industry. But no one expected them to be as bad as they’ve been. With just a few weeks left in the season, the sound’s seine fleet has harvested just one-fourth the number of pinks that it would have caught by now in a typical year. The small runs have forced managers to close fishing for longer periods than usual. And even during openers, fishermen are reporting abysmal harvests. Some have quit early. Others are thinking about new j...
A cyanide spill at a major gold mine in the Yukon Territory — high in the Yukon River watershed — has sparked widespread concern in Canada. But Alaska salmon advocates say the mishap isn’t just a problem for Yukoners: The spill happened upstream of a tributary of the Yukon River. The Yukon is Alaska’s biggest transboundary waterway, and residents along its shores who have depended on salmon for generations are already suffering amid crashes of fish runs. Officials on both sides of the border say it’s too early to know the full impact of the sp...
While Haines police investigated a theft of tens of thousands of dollars from Alaska Mountain Guides, the suspect and his wife were stopping in Las Vegas for a concert, seeing a Broadway show in New York and planning a cruise to the Caribbean, according to charging documents. Former Alaska Mountain Guides employee Dionicio Charles, 43, was charged in November with first-degree theft, scheme to defraud and misapplication of property. Police say he used the access that came with his position as finance director to wire at least $30,000 from the...
The biggest fish processing plant in the Haines borough will stay closed next summer for the third straight season, OBI Seafoods’ Excursion Inlet plant manager Tom Marshall said last week, citing a low pink salmon forecast and the company’s ability to handle the regional load at its Petersburg plant. The continued suspension of processing at Excursion means the borough will see another year of low raw fish tax revenue. Haines averaged about $200,000 in taxes on fish landed locally in the five years prior to the Excursion plant’s closure, compa...
Five dogs born in Haines in February were confirmed this month to be part wolf, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Carl Koch. The state last month sent samples from six suspected wolfdogs to the University of California Davis for genetic testing. State wildlife managers have received results from five of the samples so far. Some of the owners and the state suspected the animals were wolf hybrids after one registered as 50% wolf on a DNA home test. “Some of (dogs) were described as difficult to manage by their o...
While thousands danced and dined at the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines last weekend, Drew Robertson of Sedalia, Colorado, was rescuing a half dozen puppies that might be part wolf. The state suspects at least 10 dogs born at 35 Mile Haines Highway in February could be wolf hybrids, which are illegal to breed or possess in Alaska. The owner of the litter - "Seandog" Brownell - said he suspects the mother, Inja, a lab, could have mated with a wild wolf last December on or near his...
Three Haines commercial fishermen caught a 425-pound halibut measuring 91 inches in length. “It was just an epic fish,” said fisherman Cole Thomas, who hooked the fish with his father and captain Bill Thomas and friend Jeff Wackerman. “This one is a lot more special than most.” The three caught the halibut earlier this month in Icy Strait, near Point Adolphus, with a commercial longline using cod and humpy salmon heads as bait. “I could see the line was going straight down. That means something big’s coming. I was telling my friend (Jeff): It...
A science and policy review concludes that mining risks to salmon habitat have been underestimated across the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska and British Columbia. The report discusses the limitations on governance of mining operations and calls for greater transparency to prevent future damages. The study was written by 23 scientists and policy analysts and published July 1 in the peer-reviewed journal “Science Advances.” “Despite impact assessments that are intended to evaluate risk and inform mitigation, mines continue to harm salmo...
Next time you're on a flight with Alaska Seaplanes, your pilot might be a country music star. Sam Riggs, a singer and songwriter with more than 30 million streams on Spotify and 30,000 subscribers, is also a pilot for the regional air carrier. When Riggs, 34, is not on tour, he often flies the company's Juneau-Haines-Skagway route. Riggs, his wife, Rachel, and their 21-month-old son, Rock, moved to Juneau from Texas in January. "Life was super hectic," Riggs said. He was on tour much of the...
When Bruce Funk left his Whitehorse home at 8:30 a.m. Yukon time on Nov. 8, he didn’t expect cookies, hot chocolate, a band playing “O Canada,” news reporters, curious residents, a police escort, Haines Mayor Douglas Olerud and a gift basket all waiting for him at the visitor information center. But that’s exactly what welcomed the first Canadian visitor to cross the highway into Haines in nearly two years. The U.S. opened its land and ferry borders to fully vaccinated foreigners on Nov. 8. Funk expected a line of cars when he got to the border...
The Haines Borough had its largest population decline in history and the largest of any Alaska borough or census area over the past decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Haines’ population fell by 17.1% — from 2,508 in 2010 to 2,080 in 2020 — with much of the decline outside of the townsite that used to be considered the city of Haines. But the census numbers don’t align with the state Labor Department 2020 borough population estimate of 2,520, which was calculated using 2010 census data and Permanent Fund dividend application numbers...
