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As Alaska duties evolve and expand, military branches’ housing needs grow, leaders say
The Alaska-based military branches that are patrolling the Arctic, buffering against an increasingly hostile Russia and standing ready to deploy to global trouble spots are coping with another adversary: a housing squeeze. In testimony at the 2023 legislative session’s first hearing held by the Joint Armed Services Committee, Alaska military leaders on Tuesday described some […]
APU president says the school can help address Alaska’s outmigration woes
Alaska Pacific University, with about 600 students, is dwarfed by its next-door neighbor, the University of Alaska Anchorage and its approximately 11,000 students. But university President Janelle Vanasse said the small private university, which is transitioning into a federally designated tribal college, can play an important role in addressing a sweeping Alaska problem: the continued […]
Antibiotic-resistant microbes lurk in poop of Anchorage moose, UAA research finds
The moose that amble through Alaska’s largest city are leaving more in their wake than piles of nugget-shaped feces. Within that scat, researchers from the University of Alaska Anchorage have discovered, is something troubling: microbes that are resistant to several varieties of antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli, a pathogen commonly abbreviated as E. coli, and other […]
Appeals court denies injunction request, allowing ConocoPhillips to proceed with Willow work
Planned construction of a gravel road for ConocoPhillips’ huge Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope is cleared to proceed, now that a federal appeals court has rejected petitions for a temporary injunction blocking that work. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday issued a one-page ruling rejecting requests from an Alaska Native organization and […]
Looming mine development puts Southeast’s Chilkat-Klehini system on list of endangered rivers
A pair of connected Southeast Alaska waterways are on the 2023 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers issued by a national environmental organization. The Chilkat River and its biggest tributary, the Klehini River, are among the rivers cited as at risk by the organization American Rivers, which issued its annual list of top 10 threatened […]
Advocates make an economic-development case for improving Alaska’s outdoor trails
Trails are places for people to relax, exercise and have fun outdoors. Now their advocates in Alaska are increasingly promoting another aspect of trails: their contributions to the economy. “When you talk about outdoor recreation. People are, like, ‘That’s just the fun stuff we do every day,’” Lee Hart, executive director of the Alaska Outdoor […]
Alaska young adults tripled e-cigarette use in recent five-year period, report says
Alaska posted the nation’s highest rate of increase in electronic cigarette use by young adults from 2016 to 2021, according to a report tracking patterns in all the states. The rate of e-cigarette use by Alaskans in that age group more than tripled, from 4.8% in 2019 – the lowest rate in the nation at […]
Kasilof River wetlands ‘Dinosaur Parcel’ to be preserved as state park
A 309-acre parcel of wetlands in the Kenai Peninsula purchased by a nonprofit conservation organization has been transferred to state ownership so that it can be preserved as a park, officials from the involved organizations said on Wednesday. The Dinosaur Parcel, so named because of its dinosaur-like shape, holds 2.25 miles of Kasilof River shoreline […]
Pogo Mine operator fined for waste violations
The operator of the Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska has agreed to pay $600,000 in fines for waste-management violations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday. Northern Star (Pogo) LLC, a unit of Australia-based Northern Star, committed 81 violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, EPA’s Seattle-based Region 10 office said. The violations, […]
Fishery council moves toward more limits on chum salmon bycatch, but no firm caps yet
Federal fishery managers took a step over the weekend toward applying a firm cap on the accidental catches of chum salmon by large vessels trawling for pollock in the Bering Sea, a subject that has gained urgency with salmon run failures along Western Alaska rivers. But it didn’t go as far as what was sought […]
Liberty, an ambitious offshore oil project that once sparked excitement, is now in limbo
Before the ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow project emerged as a subject of excitement and controversy, a different North Slope oil project promised to open a new Arctic oil frontier. The Liberty field, with an estimated 150 million barrels of recoverable oil, was to have been the first producing oil field located entirely in the federally controlled […]
Alaska commercial fishing fatalities decline, reflecting national trend
Commercial fishing in Alaska, long notorious as a dangerous and potentially deadly occupation, is getting safer, according to data presented this week to federal regulators. Alaska fishing-related fatalities declined at a rate of 57% from 2013 to 2022, according to the presentation made on Thursday to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is meeting […]