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Use of new 988 suicide and crisis hotline shows Alaskans are willing to seek help, officials say
Alaska in July switched its suicide hotline system to an easy-to-dial 988 hotline, calls have increased by 22% – an indication that more people in crisis are reaching out for help and now know how to do so, state health officials and suicide prevention experts said on Thursday. Increased use of the line is a […]
Metlakatla residents and partners trying to eject invasive crabs from their first Alaska beachhead
When Natalie Bennett was surveying a beach on Annette Island as part of a team trying to defend Southeast Alaska from marine invaders, she made a major but ominous discovery: the state’s first documented shell of an invasive European green crab. Bennett, a summer intern with the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute who was working with […]
Final projects selected in $25 million program for sustainable development in Southeast Alaska
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made its final funding decisions in a $25 million program to support local organizations in Southeast Alaska, officials said on Tuesday. The Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, announced last year, has now made commitments to over 30 local and regional partners for 70 locally driven projects, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack […]
Policy changes can help Alaska’s new farmers work in permafrost conditions, UAF experts say
A century ago, when Fairbanks was a young mining town and a hilly area was set aside for agricultural experiments, people tried growing potatoes there to help feed the community. It was not a success. Disturbance of topsoil caused permafrost thaw, producing lots of mud in which tractors became mired, and the melt of below-ground […]
House candidates make pro-development pitches at Alaska oil industry conference
Shortly before Mary Peltola was announced as the winner in the special election to become Alaska’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives for four months, she and the three other candidates vying to succeed the late Don Young for a full term as Alaska made pitches to an oil industry audience on Wednesday. […]
NOAA office releases strategic science plan to support Alaska mariculture ambitions
Alaska has special opportunities for developing a thriving aquaculture industry, but also special challenges that stand in the way of such ambitions, according to a new strategic science plan issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The plan is intended to guide aquaculture-related research conducted over the next five years by NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries […]
State Department to appoint first U.S. Arctic ambassador-at-large
The U.S. State Department announced Friday that President Biden will appoint a designated Arctic ambassador, a new position for the nation and a sign, officials said, of the administration’s commitment to the region. The U.S. is the only Arctic nation without such an ambassador, though the State Department does have an Arctic coordinator. It is […]
Dry summers could mean trouble for use of lake water for North Slope ice roads, study says
For decades, the oil industry has built ice roads for seasonal travel across Alaska’s North Slope. The ice roads, built and used in the hard-freeze winter seasons, are designed to be thick enough to protect the tundra from vehicle weights but temporary enough to melt away in summer, avoiding the myriad negative impacts created by […]
Alaska’s COVID ‘superstorm’ experience of 2021 offers lessons for future pandemics, study says
Alaska’s experience with the delta wave that emerged in the COVID-19 pandemic is likened to a “superstorm” in a new study that compares pandemic patterns in regions across the Arctic. The study, by a research group at the University of Northern Iowa that is focusing on COVID-19 in the Arctic, was published on Aug. 17 […]
Inuit Circumpolar Council gets new Alaska president and vice president
The Inuit Circumpolar Council’s Alaska branch has new leadership, the organization announced on Tuesday. Marie KasaNnaaluk Greene, a former chief executive of NANA Regional Corp., is the new president, and Nicole Kannik Paniġiuq “Kanayurak” Wojciechowski is the new vice president, the organization said. The ICC represents Inuit people in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia’s Chukotka […]
Sweeney drops out of House race after posting disappointing results
Tara Sweeney, the fourth-place candidate in the race to succeed the late Don Young as Alaska’s sole U.S. House member, ended her campaign on Tuesday. Her travels around the state “reinforced my passion to do whatever I can to make Alaska an even better place to call home,” Sweeney said in a statement. “That said, […]
To encourage more young fishermen, look to farm programs as models, new study argues
Young Alaskans seeking to break into commercial fishing face a lot of the same barriers that confront young farmers in the Lower 48 states, but they have far fewer resources to help overcome those barriers, according to newly published research. A study by Alaska experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration argues that the […]