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Tuesday
June 17, 2014
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BE BEAR AWARE
Tread lightly. It’s a tremendous privilege to observe wild animals in their natural environment. In return for that privilege, it’s your responsibility to be respectful of both wildlife and their habitats. This beautiful black bear is using a local road to travel in order to check out the outgoing tide and search for food.
ADF&G wildlife viewing, tips and safety
Front Page Photo By CINDY BALZER ©2014
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: Ketchikan's Iconic Tunnel Turns 60 By DAVE KIFFER - To some Ketchikan’s downtown tunnel seems redundant.
South portal of the Tunnel during construction, 1953
Donor: Evelyn Valentine, THS 80.9.5.10
Photo Courtesy Ketchikan Museums
SitNews file copy 2003
After all, according to a “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” newspaper column in 1967, it was the only tunnel in the world that could be driven “over, around and through.” It could also be walked under at one point via a cramped catwalk that was submerged at high tide.
To others, the tunnel is representative of Ketchikan’s biggest boom times. A point in the mid 1950s when Ketchikan Pulp Company built one of the world’s largest pulp mills and the town population doubled in a few years. The tunnel was part of a large infrastructure boom intended to meet that growth.
In the late 1940s, Ketchikan was in the economic doldrums. The salmon canning industry was rapidly shrinking as demand for product was decreasing and the once endless salmon runs were falling off because of the overuse of fish traps.
There had been talk of a timber industry in the Tongass National Forest for decades, but it was just talk until two large corporations signed 50 year contracts to harvest timber from the national forest. Most of that harvest would go toward the operation of two pulp mills, one of which would be located six miles north of Ketchikan at Ward Cove.
At the time, Ketchikan’s infrastructure had changed little from the 1920s, a time when there were fewer and much smaller automobiles. But with Ketchikan faced with more than 1,000 workers in town to build the mill and a likely year round mill employment of 500 to 700 workers, it was clear that the community was facing significant change.
Some of that came in new housing as four large apartment buildings, including two 11 story ones in Ketchikan’s West End, were built. New neighborhoods were also developed in such areas as upper Carlanna Creek and the Heath Addition, where Ketchikan’s First through Seventh Avenues now are. - More...
Tuesday PM - June 17, 2014
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Ketchikan: From Ketchikan to Fairbanks, Governor Signs Bills into Law - It's a busy week for Governor Sean Parnell as he travels the state signing bills into law. Monday, in front of a packed, joint Ketchikan Chamber and Rotary meeting, the Governor signed legislation authorizing the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) to finance the Bokan and Niblack mines on Prince of Wales Island. Senate Bill 99 will also provide a loan of up to $18.6 million for the Blue Lake hydroelectric energy project in Sitka. Senator Lesil McGuire (R-Anchorage) sponsored SB 99.
“This legislation will go a long way toward creating new opportunities for Alaskans and growing Southeast Alaska’s economy as a whole,” Governor Parnell said. “By authorizing AIDEA to issue bonds for the Bokan and Niblack mines, as well as the Blue Lake Expansion Project, we are moving these critical projects, and the many jobs they will create, one step closer to reality. I want to especially commend Senator Lesil McGuire for her work on this crucial legislation.”
These mining projects can be anchor employers for high-paying jobs in Southeast. The governor was joined by mayors from Prince of Wales Island, Ketchikan and Sitka, and Deantha Crockett of the Alaska Miners Association.
“Natural resources are the base of Alaska’s economy. Today’s bill signing further broadens that base by supporting responsible development and creating new jobs while giving a big boost to industry in Southeast Alaska,” said Senator McGuire who sponsored the bill. “These two projects will give the much-needed economic injection into the Ketchikan area in the same way the SETs fund is helping Interior Alaska with the gas-trucking project the Legislature passed last year. The other project will reduce the cost of electricity in Sitka, which is essential to revitalizing the economy in the region.” - More...
Tuesday PM - June 17, 2014
Southeast Alaska: Two POW roads to temporarily close for bridge installation - The U.S. Forest Service is installing bridges in the Thorne Bay Ranger District and announced today the closure of two roads in July.
Forest Service Road 20 will temporary be closed at mile marker 117 from July 10, 2014 to July 15, 2014. Forest Service Road 27 (north of Whale Pass) will temporary be closed at mile marker 4.3 from July 21, 2014 to July 26, 2014. - More...
Tuesday PM - June 17, 2014
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Alaska Science: Arctic Alaska a different kind of place By NED ROZELL - Slicing through the top quarter of the Alaska map, the Arctic Circle marks the boundary of perpetual light. North of the line, the sun won’t set on summer solstice.
The treeless country in Alaska's Arctic north of the Brooks Range. Researchers think cold air temperature may be the biggest factor preventing trees from growing on the North Slope.
Photo by Ned Rozell
But somehow the breezy, treeless tundra of Barrow has a more arctic feel than Fort Yukon, also poleward of the line but home to dense spruce forests and Alaska’s all-time high temperature of 100 degrees.
A more “ecologically sound” definition of the Arctic is any area with an average July temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Alex Huryn and John Hobbie wrote this in their book, Land of Extremes: A Natural History of the Arctic North Slope of Alaska.
While that definition applies to Adak, Shemya, Wales and a few other cool places south of the circle and excludes Umiat (with a long-term July temperature average of 54.7 degrees), it includes most other towns and villages in what most people consider Alaska’s Arctic. When plotted as a line, that temperature standard somewhat marks the northern limit of trees.
Huryn, a professor at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and Hobbie, with the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, have spent many hours on Alaska’s North Slope, a Nebraska-size region extending from the backbone of the Brooks Range to the pale salt water of the Arctic Ocean. Hobbie is a founding researcher of the Toolik Field Station.
Land of Extremes is full of reasons why arctic Alaska, in particular the North Slope, is a place like no other.
While driving north on the Dalton Highway and passing the final spruce tree in a narrow valley north of Coldfoot, people have contemplated why there are so few trees in the Arctic. The authors write that while there are several factors that contribute, cool summer temperatures are probably number one.
Abundant woody shrubs that don’t get much taller than a moose have the advantage of growing closer to the ground, where it is warmer. Hovering within the shrubs are a species no writer would omit from a book of Alaska fauna. Huryn and Hobbie wrote of the Toolik Field Station mosquito record: in 1994, a researcher there killed 278 with one slap. Extrapolating from the size of the man’s hand, the authors calculated that a naked person stranded on tundra in such conditions would die from blood loss in 22 hours.
“True flies” including mosquitoes make up 50 percent of insect species in North America’s Arctic. Beetles rule everywhere else on the planet, but up north four fly species exist for each beetle. - More...
Tuesday PM - June 17, 2014
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Alaska Hunting: Kenai Peninsula Spring Brown Bear Harvest Suggests New Rules May Be Working - The RB300 spring registration hunt for brown bears on the Kenai Peninsula closed on May 31, and information gathered from harvest reports, sealing records and hunter comments is providing Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists early insight into the hunt and some new regulations governing it.
The total spring brown bear harvest for Kenai Peninsula Game Management Units 7 and 15 was 51 bears. Of the bears taken, 29 were adult males (57 percent of the total harvest), and five were adult females (10 percent of the total harvest). The remaining 17 bears were sub-adults – nine males and eight females.
“Only five adult females have been taken by hunters in 2014 compared to 15 in 2013,” said Soldotna area wildlife biologist Jeff Selinger, “and there have been no non-hunting human-caused brown bear mortalities reported so far this year. If you add the non-hunting human-caused mortality (road kills, bears killed in defense of life or property, and those killed illegally by poachers, etc.) to the 2013 hunt take, 23 adult females were killed in 2013 compared to only five so far this year. This is important because adult female mortalities have the biggest impact on the brown bear population.”
Reasons for the shift could be partly related to new regulations allowing hunters to harvest brown bears at registered black bear bait stations on lands outside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
“There are likely several reasons the percentages of adult male brown bears went up this year on the Kenai Peninsula,” said Selinger. “Adult males tend to leave their dens early in the spring and travel over a large area; if they find a good source of food (as with a registered black bear bait station) they’re likely to stay for a while. Also, I believe it’s easier to distinguish males from females in the spring because they are both relatively lean, and their different physical characteristics are more pronounced.”
Bait stations draw bears out of heavy brush and dense forests and into view, providing hunters more spotting opportunities. Thirty-nine brown bears, or 76 percent of the total 2014 spring harvest, were taken at bait sites. - More...
Tuesday PM - June 17, 2014
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 The Word Parnell Refuses to Say…"Deficit" By Bill Walker - Alaskans take pride knowing we are the largest state with the most lakes, tallest mountains and longest summer days. But there are other extreme facts we aren’t boasting about, nor is our governor willingly discussing. Under Parnell, we have blown through 35 percent of our savings and are saddled with the largest budget deficit in state history. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Census recently announced that Alaska is one of only two states with declining revenues in 2013. - More...
Saturday PM - June 14, 2014
Fate of the TLMP revision By Gretchen Goldstein - Doomed from the start. That’s the fate of the TLMP revision recently announced by the USDA. The revision faces controversy and legal challenges because, of the 15 revisers appointed to the Tongass Advisory Committee, not one represents subsistence. Yet California, Washington, and Oregon each have a voting representative; the timber industry, Native corporations and the government all have multiple representation. - More...
Saturday PM - June 14, 2014
UNITED AS ONE By Diane Gubatayao - Last November, outstanding Kayhi students Eimy Anzueto, Roselyn Cachero, Benz Guillermo, Mikala McKim and Omar Mendoza, attended the statewide LEAD ON! conference in Anchorage. They met students from all over Alaska and learned about issues facing young people. Each community chose a goal, and our Kayhi youth decided to sponsor an event to celebrate the wonderful diversity of Ketchikan. These wise young people recognize that many groups lead parallel lives in Ketchikan and rarely do their paths cross or come together. - More...
Saturday PM - June 14, 2014
The Declaration of Independence and The U.S. Constitution By Rex Barber - The Declaration of Independence is America's creed. The absolute belief that the only legitimate form of Government is Government by consent of the people.(Republican form of Government) That they (We the people) are endowed with certain unalienable rights. Rights that are sown in the very nature of man. Rights that exist in the wine dark deep recesses of our DNA. - More...
Saturday PM - June 14, 2014
Plan addresses workforce needs of Alaska’s maritime industry By Kris Norosz, Julie Decker and Doug Ward - With our massive land endowment and bragging rights as the largest state in the nation, it’s easy to lose sight of an important fact – Alaska is a maritime state. - More...
Wednesday - June 11, 2014
My kid is not fat! ... no really. By Linda Beaupre - Ah my friend Kevin, thank you for writing a thought provoking letter. I am going to have to respectfully disagree with your argument. I have heard of these letters before reading your letter to Sitnews. My child is not yet school aged, but let's pretend he is. - More...
Wednesday - June 11, 2014
Thank you Sen. Begich By Willard S Jackson Sr - My friend Mark Begich, thank you for all you are doing for the veterans. - More...
Wednesday PM- June 11, 2014
Police foot patrol By Helga Ohmer - Years ago there were Ketchikan police on bicycle and on foot present during the summer months. I wished they would continue to do so . I'm tired of pot smokers and abusers of other drugs in the ally and doorways downtown. - More...
Wednesday PM - June 11, 2014
Marijuana legalization By Frank Rodgers - The federal government still holds that marijuana is a drug with no medical benefit, whatsoever. Apparently the federal government has not googled "medical benefits of marijuana" lately. there are tons of benefits, too many to list here, but one big one is that it cures cancer, if taken orally, in quantities sufficient to the cause, without horrible side effects. It helps people who suffer from PTSD and helps some of our veterans who, without a little pot, might harm themselves and others when they enter into depressive episodes. - More...
Wednesday PM - June 11, 2014
TIME ZONES & OBESITY By Chris Elliott - While I was not in any way in favor of the time zone change, I don't believe another hour of daylight would change the level of obesity in Ketchikan children. Referring to Uncle Al's admonishment, I believe changing what we feed our children (Big Mac v. Big Salad) would be considered an inconvenience by some parents just as helping an overweight, out-of-shape child improve would be inconvenient. - More...
Wednesday PM - June 11, 2014
RE: My Kid is not fat By Ken Lewis - In response to this subject of child obesity and how Ketchikan turned down a chance to have Big Brother show us the way to healthier life styles for our children... Please, not just Ketchikan, but SE AK wake up. Bill Sheffield, the worst governor in AK history, consolidated time zones for the railroad that he worked for. In so doing, he stole an hour of afternoon (according to the clock) recreational daylight from SE AK's families! The sound science of time zones was ignored for the convience of a few. And nobody asked our kids if they would prefer to do less after school, nor did SE Alaska voters, vote to give time to this PHAT CAT. - More....
Friday - June 06, 2014
RE: My Kid is not Fat! By Chris Elliott - Bravo, Kevin! I've discussed this health issue many times with the person funded by the grant. There was certainly never any intent to tell parents that their children are "fat." Americans have a real problem with obesity, and all of us should do our best to eat healthy foods and exercise. That starts at home. - More...
Friday - June 06, 2014
Un-necessary consequences for Marijuana By Anthony M. Johnson - I am writing this letter in response to Mr. Seibert. As mentioned in my previous letter, I am a Ketchikan resident and parent of two children. For my children's sake I do support the legalization of Marijuana, please read on. - More...
Friday - June 06, 2014
Surveys By Charlie Freeman - Do I call you dear Sit News? Anyway, I just got off the phone talking to another know nothing conducting a "blind" survey for some unknown group or person interested in either getting elected or getting someone unelected. Considering the questions asked, what kind of idiot would put any faith in the results? I'm sure you've all have gotten at least one. What was your take on the questions? Did you feel the answers you gave represented what you really thought or were you frustrated that none of the little boxes fit your feelings? Moreover, did you know more than half the people mentioned? Bet not. Pretty much an Anchorage show and, outside of Anchorage, nobody much cares about Anchorage but Anchorage, but they care a lot. Sorry about the rest of us. Don't mention we're here. - More...
Monday PM - JUne 02, 2014
MY KID IS NOT FAT! By Kevin Staples - At the beginning of the school year, Ketchikan was lucky enough to receive a grant that was aimed at helping our youth live a healthier and more active life style. All of our children were measured for BMI, and after all of the data was collected letters were sent out letting parents know that some should be concerned about very real risk factors. - More...
Monday PM - June 02, 2014
Unuk River fishery changes By Victoria McDonald - Recently, the Ketchikan Daily News reported that ADFG is concerned about king salmon not meeting escapement goals for the past 2 years on the Unuk River. King salmon fishing in northern Behm Canal is closed from May 27-June 30 and only one king can be harvested per day in eastern Behm. Meanwhile the rest of Southeast has a limit of 3 kings per day. Restricted fishing is bad news for a community that markets itself as “Salmon Capital of the World”. - More...
Monday PM - June 06, 2014
A mother's pride By Bonna L. Booth - I wrote this comment into a review online after having tried civilly to deal with Ketchikan-based airline people via telephone. The situation began on May 16th, after our having had a beautiful flower bouquet of roses and sunflowers (the yellows being part of the school colors) hand-delivered to a Ketchikan-based airline company's freight department and told that they would be on the 3:00 p.m. flight to Metlakatla for our high school graduate to have for her walk of promotion. You could imagine our excitement in anticipation of handing my daughter (and granddaughter to the other two ladies involved in this transaction) this floral arrangement, unexpectedly, for her special night. - More...
Monday PM - June 06, 2014
Name that Team By A. M. Johnson - In these glory days of political correctness the opportunity to poke fun at the absurdly displayed lack of common sense is over whelming. Take the latest waste of stupid. - More...
Monday PM - June 02, 2014
Response to Jail for processing Marijuana By Marvin Seibert - I would like to respond to Mr. Anthony M. Johnson on the prospect of jailing our children for procession of Marijuana. No one is suggesting that some youngster who makes a mistake because he is young and foolish be sent to a penitentiary. I am also for making kids accountable for those actions. Currently in the State of Alaska procession for less than 1oz of this poison named marijuana is a maximum of 90 days and a maximum of $2,000 fine and is listed as a misdemeanor. Now if you are caught with Intent to distribute or selling or distributing and you have more than an ounce it is a felony punishable by a maximum of 5 years and $50,000 fine. The selling of this poison should have stiff penalties. If you can't do the time don't do the crime. - More...
Monday PM - June 02, 2014
Marijuana and addiction By Marie Zellmer - Legalization? It is weird for me to say that i am a former pothead, most people who know me would be shocked. But it's true. In college I tried it for the first time and discovered that it helped me deal with all the stresses I was faced with, and kept me on track to getting an AA with a gpa of 3.75. My grades improved because i smoked, but I was concerned that if i got arrested for it I would lose everything - my scholarships, my grades, my respect. I was fortunate to never get caught buying or selling it because I grew it myself. - More...
Monday PM - June 02, 2014
Repeal the 16th Amendment By Wiley Brooks - I have an answer to the below listed revelations: Repeal the 16th Amendment which will end the income tax and close the IRS doors. Replace the income tax with a consumption tax which will be transparent to everyone who pays for needs and wants at point of purchase. There are now approximately 140 million individual/family income tax filers with only one-half of them paying taxes. Under the proposed consumption tax legislation all 325 million inhabitants on our shores will have skin in the game (legal and illegal residents, foreign visitors, those that prosper in the underground economy and those who never file a return). The proposed legislation in Congress is known as the “FairTax” designated as H.R. 25 in the House and S.122 in the Senate. - More...
Monday PM - June 02, 2014
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