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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...
The top two officers of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. board of trustees were replaced at the beginning of the board’s quarterly meeting on July 24 in a contentious vote, with displaced Vice Chair Ellie Rubenstein announcing her resignation hours later. The moves came after months of controversy involving allegations of improper financial actions by Rubenstein, sparking further accusations of politically motivated behavior among some board members. Ethan Schutt was ousted as board chair and Rubenstein replaced as vice chair in a 4-2 vote at t...
Alaska firefighting departments will have to stop using fire-suppression foams containing contaminants known as “forever chemicals,” under a law that went into effect July 24. Legislators passed the new law nearly unanimously this spring. It went into effect without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature, an option that governors can choose when they don’t want to veto a bill but also don’t want their name on it. The new law targets per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. They have qualities making them resistant to fire, water and oil....
When the only preschool teacher left Harold Kaveolook School in Kaktovik, a village of around 250 people on the northern coast of Alaska, Chelsea Brower was in charge. It was January and she had been the preschool aide for about a year and a half. “Being with the kids and trying to be their teacher is what really made me realize I want to be their teacher — and it also made me realize I need to become certified to be their teacher,” she said. The only problem was that universities that offered the requisite courses were hundreds of miles away,...
When Kay Brown was director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas in the 1980s, her job was to make sure the state got the maximum benefit from its abundant fossil fuel. At the time, North Slope activity was on the rise and Alaska was on its way to supplying 25% of the nation’s domestically produced oil. Now the producing oil fields are mature, Alaska production is down to less than a quarter of its late-1980s peak and climate change impacts have become dramatic in the state and elsewhere in the far north. And Brown, who went on to become a s...
Last week, Jim Kauffman, director of U.S. Capitol grounds and Arboretum at the Architect of the Capitol, selected one of seven Southeast Alaska finalists for the official 2024 Capitol Christmas Tree. The winner is a secret, for now. All seven finalists are located within the Wrangell Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest. This means that when the tree is harvested in October - an operation that requires multiple cranes and an 82-foot-long trailer - it will be paraded through Wrangell's...
Alaska’s population is set to decline by 14,000 residents by 2050, according to a new forecast from the Alaska Department of Labor, with Wrangell showing the highest rate of annual population loss over the period, dropping on average by 1.5% annually. The community’s population is forecast to drop to under 1,400 people by 2050, continuing its steady decline from 2,369 residents in the 2010 U.S. Census and 2,039 in last summer’s state estimate. The ongoing loss of working-age residents is a leading cause of the statewide population decli...
When Dan Trail took his dogs to play fetch on June 20 at Petroglyph Beach, the last thing he expected was to find himself involved in a statewide baby seal rescue mission. But when he reached for his tennis ball and noticed it lying on the tail of a 1-week-old lost seal pup, he sprang into action. The seal - now called Rocky by her rescue team - was extremely dehydrated when Trail found her. Wedged in between two rocks, high above the receding tide, she was sucking in air on a warm June day....
In closely watched oral arguments on July 18, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicated that it is unlikely to grant an environmental group’s petition for an order that could halt — at least temporarily — a valuable Southeast Alaska king salmon fishery. In May 2023, a judge in the U.S. District Court covering western Washington issued an order that said federal officials were allowing Alaska fishermen to harvest king salmon at rates that harmed an endangered population of killer whales in Puget Sound. The whale...
Heat pumps, which can be a cost- and energy-efficient upgrade from traditional heating systems, are growing in popularity in Southeast Alaska - especially in Wrangell. Charlie Hazel, one of two licensed contractors who installs the units in Wrangell, said when he moved to town in 2013, 60% of homes used electric boilers for heat. In the past 11 years, Hazel has installed around 120 electric heat pumps. For context, Wrangell has just over 1,000 residential properties. While most models cannot...
Sam Pausman, the Sentinel's newest reporter, switched coastlines to start work in Wrangell on July 15. He moved from Maine to Alaska. "I wanted to see something totally new, nothing close to anywhere I had ever been before," Pausman explained. The closest he had ever been to Alaska was Chicago. A May graduate from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, he majored in history, with a focus on journalism. He worked on the college newspaper, including a stint as editor-in-chief his senior year,...
The Arts in the Cove festival, formerly known as Arts and Seafood, is scheduled for Aug. 9 and 10 in Coffman Cove. The festival — about 40 boat miles southwest of Wrangell on Prince of Wales Island — promotes local artisans and features everything from handmade fine art to crafts, soaps, candles, oils, jams, jellies, syrups, fur, seafood, smoked meats and fry bread. The festival also will feature live music and entertainment, along with prize raffles throughout the two days. The festival, which is free to attend, will run from 3 to 10 p.m. Fri...
Wrangell's deer hunting season will open on Aug. 1 and remain open through Nov. 30. The dates for archery season are the same for rifle hunting. Hunters are permitted two bucks over the course of the four-month window, and no doe harvest is allowed to protect the herd's population for future years. Hunters must always carry their harvest tags with them while they hunt. Harvest tags are free, but an annual hunting license will cost residents $45, or $5 for low-income residents. Nonresidents will...
Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Earth Branch, Tl’átḵ, is working with the U.S. Forest Service to install temperature loggers (data recording devices) in selected salmon streams on Wrangell Island to help get a better understanding of the impacts of thermal variations on salmon populations. The two agencies are planning to deploy three to six temperature loggers on the island. As of July 15, two had been installed. Alex Angerman, Earth Branch coordinator, said “monitoring stream temperatures is crucial for assessing the health of salmon p...
Fishery managers overseeing Alaska’s faltering salmon runs should be able to rely on a more comprehensive and holistic approach to science that considers all habitat, from the middle of the ocean to freshwater spawning streams far inland, according to a task force report on salmon research needs. The report was issued this month by the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, a group established through a 2022 act of Congress to identify knowledge gaps and research needs. The task force comprises close to 20 members and includes scientists, f...
Bearfest this week provides an opportunity for people to try their artistic skills at making holiday ornaments. In the shape of bears, of course. But nothing ordinary about these ornaments — they will hang on the national Christmas tree on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The U.S. Forest Service has selected a tree from the Wrangell Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest — they won’t say which one yet — and the agency has called on Alaskans to create 10,000 ornaments for the big tree and multiple smaller trees that will be display...
Somewhere in the Wrangell district of the Tongass National Forest lies a prize package — a special holiday ornament containing a possible winning ticket, among other surprises. The U.S. Forest Service hid ornaments in each of the nine districts of the Tongass to raise awareness for the 10,000 ornaments that Alaskans are being asked to create for the Capitol Christmas Tree and multiple smaller trees that will be on display this holiday season in the nation’s capital. This year’s premier holiday tree will come from the Tongass. It comes from...
Ottesen's Ace Hardware is restoring the outside of the former fire hall on Front Street to bring back its original appearance. The fire station was completed in 1941 and was active until 1986 when the department moved into the Public Safety Building on Zimovia Highway. The building later became part of Ottesen's. When David and Boots Roehildt bought the hardware store in 2022, the sign that said Ottesen's Inc. was removed to reveal that the original Wrangell Fire Department lettering was still...
Living amid craggy peaks and remnant glaciers, Southeast Alaska mountain goats survive in variable conditions, often dealing with heavy snowfall and extreme cold. But a new study published and written by an Alaska wildlife ecologist shows that many goats die in avalanches. Kevin White, who worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game before continuing his studies at the University of Alaska Southeast and University of Victoria, British Columbia, has concluded over a 17-year project, using data from 421 collared goats, that between 23%...
Tens of millions of dollars raised by a landmark climate law in Washington state will go to Native American tribes that are at risk from climate change and rising sea levels to help them move to higher ground, install solar panels, buy electric vehicles and restore wetlands, Gov. Jay Inslee announced July 16. The money — $52 million — comes from the 2021 Climate Commitment Act, which auctions off allowances for heavily polluting companies in the state to emit carbon, with the revenue invested in education, transportation and other programs. Con...
Two environmental groups have filed a new legal challenge to the Biden administration’s approval of a proposed multibillion-dollar project that would send Alaska North Slope natural gas to overseas markets. In a petition filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club argued that federal agencies failed to properly consider harms that the massive gas project would cause to Endangered Species Act-listed animals living in the affected marine areas: polar bears, Cook Inlet beluga whales and...
The Alaska Division of Public Health is hoping to expand wastewater-monitoring programs that have proved useful in detecting outbreaks of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, a recent report said. Testing at Anchorage’s John M. Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility, the municipality’s main wastewater plant, was able to provide notice of a spike in COVID-19 cases in January 2023, several days ahead of patients’ cases that were confirmed by health laboratories, said a bulletin recently issued by the division’s epidemiology section. The inf...
Photographer Matt McDonald had lived on Puget Sound for years but had never seen a whale, so he was elated when he spotted a giant marine mammal just off Seattle’s waterfront one evening. The excitement was short-lived. As McDonald tracked the whale in his camera’s viewfinder, a Washington state ferry that dwarfed the animal came into the frame. The next morning, he saw on the news that the humpback whale had died in the collision he witnessed. “I still remember the moment when they crossed paths and my heart just started sinking like, ‘Oh m...
Though it may be of little solace to people who struggle to find available housing, Wrangell continues to rank among the lowest-cost communities in the state for apartment rents. This month’s Alaska Economic Trends magazine, published by the Alaska Department of Labor, shows the median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment — utilities included — at $1,081 in Wrangell and Petersburg, which are lumped together for the annual survey. That’s the lowest of the 11 areas covered in the report. The Kodiak Island Borough topped the survey at $1,713...