Swamp Sparrow
The Swamp Sparrow is a rare bird for this area, Ketchikan might get 0-2 sightings yearly. This Swamp Sparrow was seen in the Herring Cove area.
Front Page Photo by JIM LEWIS

Southeast Alaska: - Injured hiker rescued off mountainside - Keith Hutchins was safely rescued by an MH-60 Jayhawk and transfered to emergency medical service personnel in Juneau after he was hoisted off Ripinski Mountain near Haines Thursday.

Coast Guardsmen present a safety brief to personnel from Juneau Mountain Rescue prior to departing the Army National Guard Hangar to help rescue Keith Hutchins who contacted Alaska State Troopers after he was injured while hiking above 1,600 feet on Ripinski Mountain near Haines Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011.
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Walter Shinn

Forty year old Hutchins reported by cell phone on Wednesday around 2 pm that he had been solo hiking on Mt. Ripinsky when he got disoriented on his descent and fell off a cliff into a steep ravine. He said the fall caused him to suffer severe pain, a back injury, and he could not move his legs. Hutchins was laying in snow beneath a tree and not visible from above. Hutchins was hiking above 1,600 feet on the mountain.

The Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, United States Coast Guard, Alaska Mountain Guides, Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures, Haines SAR Team, Skagway SAR Team, and Juneau Mountain Rescue responded to assist in the search.

Hutchins' cellular phone allowed searchers to obtain his exact location on the face of a cliff which would require technical equipment and training to access. However, a weak phone battery complicated the communication with Hutchins.

A 4-member team responded to the base of the cliff on Mt. Ripinsky Wednesday afternoon where they established voice contact with Hutchins who was a few hundred feet away. The rescue team remained on the mountain overnight Wednesday maintaining contact with Hutchins but could not close the distance to him due to hazardous terrain. - More...
Friday PM - January 07, 2011

Southeast Alaska: SEARHC hosts Gene Tagaban ‘Art of Storytelling’ workshops - The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) will host noted Tlingít performer and artist, Gene Tagaban, for workshops and performances in the “Art of Storytelling” in late-January in Hydaburg, Craig and Klawock.

Tlingít performer and artist, Gene Tagaban
Photo courtesy SEARHC

While on Prince of Wales Island, Tagaban will provide two free community performances - at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Hydaburg School gym (before that night’s Yakutat at Hydaburg basketball games) and at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28, at the Klawock School gym. Tagaban also will visit schools in Hydaburg, Craig and Klawock to provide a series of workshops for local students about how to use stories to prevent suicide, prevent drug/alcohol abuse, add healthy foods to your diet, reduce screen time (TV, computer, video games, etc.), promote physical activity, prevent bullying and other topics.

Tagaban, who owns RavenDreaming Productions, shares his wisdom and talent through dance, Native flute and storytelling. He is of combined Tlingít, Cherokee and Filipino heritage. Tagaban, whose Tlingít name is Gaay Yaaw, is of the Tak’deintaan Raven Freshwater Sockeye clan of Hoonah and a child of the Wooshkeetaan Eagle Shark clan of Juneau. Tagaban started dancing when he was 5 years old, and he grew up listening to and learning the songs, dances and stories of Alaska’s Tlingít people. - More...
Friday PM - January 07, 2011

DAVE KIFFER: Bringing The World To Ketchikan - The holidays always afford me that rare pleasure, ten or fifteen minutes to read something slightly longer than a text message. Well, recently National Geographic posited that the world population will top 7 billion later this year (2011). Beyond the fact that the population has more than doubled since I was born (a mere 3 billion folks were around to celebrate my birth in 1959), I was also struck by another factoid in the magazine.

Someone at the magazine went to the trouble of “guestimating” how much space it would take to hold the entire earth’s population in one place if we were all standing together, elevator style (Otis Knows we would more than meet the maximium 2,500 pounds per car!).

Turns out that for everyone to get that 3 square feet of space, it would take something like 750 square miles to hold all 7 billion people (including you and me and George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden).

Kinda surprising how little space is actually required for all those people. I’m gonna have to up my guestimates on the number of folks I’ve been crammed into subway cars with before.

But to bring into a context we all can understand, there would be ten times as many people as could fit – comfortably or not – on Gravina Island. Or even five times as many people that could fit on Annette Island.

But – and you knew where this was going – they would all fit (relatively) comfortably on Revillagigedo, and there would be another 300 miles to stretch their arms out a bit. Heck, if you decided to use all of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough (at 4,700 square miles, give or take). Everyone would have nearly enough space to lie down in (although not to roll over!).

Of course, that got me pondering – natch – what life would be like in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough would be like if we had 7 billion residents. - More...
Friday PM- January 07, 2011

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