Author

Yereth Rosen

Yereth Rosen

Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has been reporting on Alaska news ever since, covering stories ranging from oil spills to sled-dog races. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. She covers environmental issues, energy, climate change, natural resources, economic and business news, health, science and Arctic concerns -- subjects with a lot of overlap. In her free time, she likes to ski and watch her son's hockey games.

A gray beluga whale calf and three adults swim together in Cook Inlet. (Photo by Paul Wade/NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center)

Citizen science event focused on endangered belugas returns after pandemic interruption
By: - September 14, 2022

After a two-year hiatus, crowds of wildlife lovers will be back this weekend at designated observation points to count beluga whales swimming in Cook Inlet. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be staging a citizen-science event on Saturday called Belugas Count! The annual event was put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it […]

A small boat rests on Sept. 30, 2020, at the shore of Safety Sound, a sheltered area located east of Nome. A Nevada-based company was seeking federal permission to conduct a major gold-dredging operation in the sound, an imporant site for fish, migratory birds, seals and for subsistence food gathering. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has denied the permit sought by the company, IPOP LLC. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Corps denies permit for company seeking to dredge for gold in sensitive area near Nome
By: - September 13, 2022

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has rejected an application from a Nevada-based company that was seeking to operate a controversial mining project near Nome. The Corps said on Friday it denied IPOP LLC’s application for a wetlands-fill permit for a gold-dredging operation that would have affected about 195 acres at Safety Sound and Bonanza […]

Benjamin Pister, director of resource management at Kenai Fjords National Park, stands on July 5 at a spot where the trail was extended to allow visitors to get as close as possible to rapidly retreating Exit Glacier. The park is trying to plan for a long-term future when the walk-up glacier, currently a prime tourist attraction, is no longer easily visible. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska park managers preparing for loss of some of the state’s most iconic attractions: glaciers
By: - September 12, 2022

 On the route to one of Alaska’s most-viewed glaciers, there is little doubt about the destination. Visitors drive on Exit Glacier Road to get to the Exit Glacier trailhead of the 1-mile Exit Glacier trail that takes them to the face of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. Now, with the climate continuing to […]

A sign directs visitors on Sept. 9 to a site for COVID-19 testing at the Alaska Native Health Campus. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has already closed its walk-up test site, and the drive-through site is scheduled to be closed on Sept. 29. Demand for such testing has dropped, in part because of the availability of in-home tests. More than two years after the pandemic arrived in Alaska, the state Department of Health, ANTHC and other health organizations are gearing up for distribution of new vaccine boosters. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

First shipment of new COVID-19 booster signals shift in fight against disease
By: - September 10, 2022

More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Alaska, the fight against the disease is pivoting from testing to vaccine boosting. Fall is here and winter is coming, and health officials are encouraging Alaskans to view vaccine boosters as part of the normal preparation for the time of year when people spend more time […]

The rising sun lights the sky over frozen Norton Sound in Nome on the morning of the 2018 winter solistice. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Use of new 988 suicide and crisis hotline shows Alaskans are willing to seek help, officials say
By: - September 9, 2022

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 […]

The European green crab, as pictured here, is an invasive species that threatens native crf populations. European green crabs have been found as far north as British Columbia but have not yet been detected in Alaska. (Photo by Emily Grason/Washington Sea Grant)

Metlakatla residents and partners trying to eject invasive crabs from their first Alaska beachhead
By: - September 8, 2022

When Natalie Bennett was walking 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 […]

The sunrise lights the sky over Thomsen Harbor and Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka in this 2011 photo. The city is among the communities surrounded by the Tongass National Forest. (Photo by Jeffrey Wickett/U.S. Forest Service)

Final projects selected in $25 million program for sustainable development in Southeast Alaska
By: - September 7, 2022

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 […]

Seasonal caretakers Marissa and John Neill of Trapper Creek survey a garden at Pilgrim Hot Springs on Sept. 4, 2021. The area's soil is warmed geothermal heat, creating an oasis within permafrost territory. Crops have been grown at the site, on and off, for more than a century. A Kawerak project is investigating ways to use vegetables grown at Pilgrim Hot Springs to help address food-security needs in the Nome region. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Policy changes can help Alaska’s new farmers work in permafrost conditions, UAF experts say
By: - September 6, 2022

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 […]

Candidates for Alaska's U.S. House seat, appearing at an Aug. 31 forum held at an Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference, hold up signs to show their position on the Infrastructure Jobs and Investment Act. Only former state Rep. Mary Peltola, at right, supports the act. From left are Republican Nick Begich, Libertarian Chris Bye and Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin. The forum was held just before the Alaska Division of Elections released results showing that Peltola had won the special election to fill the remaining months in Rep. Don Young's term. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

House candidates make pro-development pitches at Alaska oil industry conference
By: - September 1, 2022

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. […]

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 plan issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2022-08/Aquaculture-StrategicSciencePlan-21JUL2022-%5B508%5D.pdf The plan is intended to guide aquaculture-related research conducted over the next five years by NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. It considers ways that science can help achieve the ambitions championed by a state panel seeking to expand the industry. The Governor’s Mariculture Task Force, established in 2016, set a goal of developing a $100 million-per-year Alaska aquaculture industry within 20 years. Doing so will require some boosted research, public education and support for partnerships among government agencies, Indigenous communities, academia, industry and others, said the strategic plan. It identifies specific goals to accomplish those objectives. https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=amtf.main#:~:text=%22To%20provide%20recommendations%20to%20develop,%2C%20environmental%2C%20and%20communities%22 For now, the Alaska aquaculture industry is small – just 82 permitted farms, with 24 additional permits pending as of January 2022, the report said. The value of the industry at the start of 2022 was $1.5 million, it said. There is potential for rapid growth, even though finfish farming is illegal and even though Alaska is the only coastal state where aquaculture is unlikely to expand into federal waters in the near future, it said. “The cold and nutrient rich waterways of Alaska are ideally suited for the development of shellfish and algae aquaculture,” it said. But there special challenges include Alaska’s accelerated climate change and ocean acidification, the plan said. Climate-change problems include marine heat waves, more harmful algal blooms and extreme rainfall events, it said. Acidification, which lowers available calcium, poses known threats to shellfish populations and shellfish farms, it said. At the same time, climate change and acidification have created incentives for expanded aquaculture in Alaska, the strategic plan said. There is “strong interest” from local communities and industry to use kelp farming to create local areas that are more protected against acidification, for example. And aquaculture is also seen by the U.S. Department of Energy as a possible tool for carbon sequestration, a strategy that would mitigate climate change, the plan said.Mauka Grunenberg looks at live oysters for sale at Sagaya City Market in Anchorage. The oysters came from a farm in Juneau. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

NOAA office releases strategic science plan to support Alaska mariculture ambitions
By: - August 30, 2022

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 […]

Antony Blinken speaks during his confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 19, 2021, in Washington, D.C.(Photo by Alex Edelman-Pool/Getty Images)

State Department to appoint first U.S. Arctic ambassador-at-large
By: - August 29, 2022

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 […]

Lakes and connecting streams in the northeastern part of hte National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska are seen from the air on June 26, 2014. (Photo by Bob Wick/U.S. Bureau of Land Management)

Dry summers could mean trouble for use of lake water for North Slope ice roads, study says
By: - August 26, 2022

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 […]

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