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Ketchikan: Remembering a local legend; 40 years after his death, Ed Todd remains fresh in the mind of the minds of those that flew with him By DAVE KIFFER - It has been 40 years since legendary Ketchikan pilot Ed Todd made his final flight. But the Ketchikan-based “Cowboy of the Skies” who called everyone “partner” remains very alive in the memories of the people who knew him.

Todd was 59 when he died in a crash in Misty Fjords on October 5, 1978. The fact that Todd was in a crash wasn’t a surprise because he had a decades long reputation for flying in every bad type of weather imaginable. Whereas most of the pilots in the area learned to be careful by observing how many of their cohorts died in bad conditions, Todd seemed to relish the challenge of flying when others wouldn’t.

Todd’s Air Service advertisements in the Ketchikan Yellowpages made that abundantly clear.

“We fly when YOU want to fly.”

In fact, it was common knowledge around town that there were three kinds of weather. Good weather. Bad weather. And Todd weather.

“No matter that the wind was gusting to 40 knots, or that dense rainfog forced motorists to use headlights at noon or that the sun had already set behind the western mountains,” Pilot/journalist Gerry Bruder wrote in his 2014 book “Seaplanes Along the Inside Passage,” which featured an entire chapter on Todd called “Barefoot Hero.”

“In marginal situations, when we stood by the office window, weighing the risks against the potential rewards, the sight of anyone else’s floatplane taxiing out into Tongass Narrows often goaded us into launching on of our own planes for a look; weather that was good enough for a neighboring air service was good enough for us. Todd exerted no such influence when he flew by, however. He had different standards and belonged to a different class.”

Indeed, even forty years later, locals can recall flying with Todd in situations that might have been inadvisable, at best.

“He told my Aunt Anna if the sea gulls can fly so can him,” Marlene Steiner said recently.

But even when the seagulls weren’t flying Todd was. Which sometimes meant “improvising” by either flying at very low altitude or even not “flying” at all.

“Dad and I were in Metlakatla for a dive job,” Dean Parkhurst said recently. “Ed was supposed to pick us up but it was terribly foggy that day. Off in the distance we heard a plane, it was Ed step-taxiing his way to the dock. Hop in, he says, it’s flat calm today. And away we went, step taxiing all the way back to town.”

“Weather permitting a phrase he was not familiar with” his daughter Joyce Adair said recently.

It seemed that if someone needed to get somewhere, Todd was always willing to give it a go.

“When I was 16 and working at National Bank of Alaska, I was asked to find someone/anyone to hire to fly Elmer Rasmusen to Metlakatla,” Connie Williams said recently. “It was your typical ugly Ketchikan late fall day, sideways rain. Ed Todd was the only one who said ‘Yes, have him out here in about 20 minutes.’ I dropped Mr. Rasmusen off, Mr. Todd told me to be back in 3 hours to pick him up. I was right there at the appointed time, only to have Mr. Rasmusen get in my car and state to me ‘Never again,’ I didn't know if he meant never aqain in this weather, or never again with Ed Todd. Good times.”

Of all the pilots in Ketchikan, Todd was known as the best of getting into – and out of - lakes -  a valuable skill as many people – Todd included – loved fishing in the numerous, secluded lakes in the area.

“My ex-wife (Maureen) and I and a couple others had flown into Heckman Lake,” Mike Crosby said recently. “We were to leave on a certain date... that date came and the weather was unbelievable. Well, not really having been born and raised there. But it was nasty. Rain, wind, low hanging clouds not a one of us at the Forest Service Cabin expected to be picked up, but just in case we packed everything up. Lo and behold a short time we hear power and here comes Todd. He pulls into the beach, we load up our gear, climb into the plane and again the weather is nasty, the lake isn't all that long and we have it loaded.”

Most, if not all, pilots would have emptied out the plane to make sure that it could get back out of the lake. But Todd was not most pilots.

“One of us said, 'Todd can you get off?' ” Crosby continued. “ 'Let’s find out' and he guns it. Bounces that plane down the lake finally at what seemed the last second he lifted off, I do believe if I had opened the window I could have grabbed a few spruce needles. As we were flying towards town, being in the front seat I notice that one fuel tank is on dead empty and the other needle is bouncing on empty. I asked Todd if we had enough fuel to get to town. His response was, 'heck yes. I planned this. How do you think we got off the lake? If I'd have been loaded with fuel no way. So I brought just enough.' We made it! Scary. My ex, who wasn't a drinker said after mine and Todd's conversation. I think I need a drink.“

Terry Carlin remembered a similar “close scrape” on Gravina Island.

 “Todd flew us into Long Lake on Gravina for deer hunting,” Carlin said recently. “Can’t remember how many of us or how many deer on the trip out but the plane was loaded very heavy. As Todd was pulling the plane as far back on the weedy shoreline for maximum takeoff distance one of us asked him if we would clear the trees at the end of the lake (stupid question but we were nervous). His reply: “Maybe”. Crap! We cleared them by about 20 feet.” - More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2018

Southeast Alaska: U.S.Secretary of State Urged to Defend U.S. Interests from Canadian Transboundary Mines - The Alaska Delegation recently joined together to urge the U.S. Secretary of State to discuss the risks posed by transboundary mining activity during upcoming bilateral meetings between the United States and Canada. Senators Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, Congressman Don Young, Governor Bill Walker, and Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing Alaska’s priorities for strong and continued engagement between the State Department and the Canadian Government on the management of mining activity affecting Alaska and British Columbia’s transboundary waters.

Today, Salmon Beyond Borders expressed their thanks to the delegation for their October 2, 2018 letter urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Department of State to act to defend Alaskan interests, salmon, and salmon-producing rivers from under-regulated mining activity in transboundary British Columbia / Alaska watersheds.

The request follows up on a November 13, 2017 letter from the lawmakers to then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with similar asks. This letter, however, specifically requests the State Department deliver this “strong message” to Global Affairs Canada at the U.S.-Canada bilateral meetings later this month in Ottawa.??

The October 2nd letter also reiterates “that the Department’s representatives impress upon their Canadian counterparts the critical need for binding protections, joint water quality monitoring, and financial assurances to protect Americans downstream of large-scale Canadian mines.”

Salmon Beyond Borders Campaign Director Jill Weitz said she was thrilled the letter urges those actions, specifically. ?

Weitz said, “The development of large-scale open-pit B.C. mines in watersheds that flow into Alaska is moving forward at a mind-blowing pace, while the cleanup of mines like the bankrupt Tulsequah Chief, which has been polluting the Taku River watershed for more than 60 years, is at a seemingly constant stand-still. With the uncertainties regarding Imperial Metals' financial standing, we need enforceable protections now, before the Red Chris mine goes bankrupt and begins polluting the Stikine River on a far greater scale.”

Weitz said, “This unity and leadership from Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, Representative Young, Governor Walker, and Lt. Governor Mallott during otherwise politically divisive times is in direct response to their constituents. Fishermen, tribes, businesses, municipalities, and nearly 10,000 Alaskans have called for these measures to help ensure Alaskan economies and ways of life stay healthy for generations to come."

The Alaska Delegation wrote in their letter,  “We write to express our appreciation for the Administration’s preliminary efforts to protect American interests in the face of potential environmental harm from large-scale hard rock mines in Canada that lack fundamental international oversight.” The Alaska Delegation wrote, “These Canadian mining projects are located near transboundary rivers that flow from British Columbia into four U.S. states, including Alaska, and, if managed poorly, pose a threat to Southeast Alaska’s flourishing commercial fishing and tourism industries.” - More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2018

Polar bears are shown scavenging on the carcass of a dead bowhead whale that washed ashore on Wrangel Island, Russia.
Photo Credit: Chris Collins/Heritage Expeditions

A new study led by the University of Washington found that although dead whales are still valuable sources of fat and protein for some polar bears, this resource will likely not be enough to sustain most bear populations in the future when the Arctic becomes ice-free in summers, which is likely to occur by 2040 due to climate change. The results were published online Oct. 9 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

"If the rate of sea ice loss and warming continues unmitigated, what is going to happen to polar bear habitat will exceed anything documented over the last million years. The extremely rapid pace of this change makes it almost impossible for us to use history to predict the future," said lead author Kristin Laidre, a marine biologist at the UW's Polar Science Center and associate professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Polar bears need sea ice to survive because it is an essential platform for hunting seals, their main food source. They travel over the ice, searching for breathing holes or seal birth dens. When the ice breaks up in late spring, polar bears in some populations will fast on land, waiting for the ice to re-form so they can resume hunting.

Still, polar bears are opportunistic feeders and have been observed in multiple locations eating the carcasses of whales that died at sea and washed ashore. The bears can quickly consume and store large amounts of fat, which works in their favor. In some cases, between 40 and 60 different polar bears have been observed feeding on large bowhead and gray whale carcasses and, in 2017, more than 180 bears were seen scavenging on a single dead bowhead whale. Individual bears frequently return to the same carcass over multiple years.

The authors drew upon years of observations in the field to assess the potential importance of whale carcasses and how they might help polar bears survive an ice-free Arctic. It is clear that polar bears persisted through low-ice interglacial periods in the past that resulted from naturally occurring climate cycles. The researchers hypothesized that, to a significant degree, the bears likely survived by scavenging on whale carcasses, storing large amounts of fats when hunting seals was not an option. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2018

TOM PURCELL: Failing U.S. Citizenship - "If younger generations don't know why and how America is such a great nation, we are doomed!"

"Ah, you speak of the recent Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation survey that finds only one in three Americans can pass the U.S. Citizenship Test."

"You got that right. Two-thirds of Americans failed the 10-multiple-choice-question test even though they only needed six correct answers to pass."

"That is troubling. The foundation says, 'Only 13 percent of those surveyed knew when the U.S. Constitution was ratified.' It says: 'More than half of respondents (60 percent) didn't know which countries the United States fought in World War II. And despite the recent media spotlight on the U.S. Supreme Court, 57 percent of those surveyed did not know how many Justices actually serve on the nation's highest court.'"

"What are these people being taught in high school and college?"

"A better question is what are they NOT being taught? As the foundation notes, 'It would be an error to view these findings as merely an embarrassment. Knowledge of the history of our country is fundamental to maintaining a democratic society, which is imperiled today.''"

"Just for the heck of it, I took the test. The questions aren't so difficult. How can so many Americans not answer at least six correctly?"

"The foundation reports that 72 percent of respondents weren't sure about or misidentified the 13 original states, and just 24 percent 'could correctly identify one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for, with 37 percent believing he invented the lightbulb'" - the same percentage who 'knew the correct answer as to why the colonists fought the British.'"

"Yeah, and I'm especially worried about the 2 percent who thought climate change was the cause of the Cold War!"

"The survey also found that younger generations are especially ignorant of the American system. Americans age 65 or older 'scored the best, with 74 percent answering at least six in 10 questions correctly.' But only 19 percent of those under 45 passed, 'with 81 percent scoring a 59 percent or lower.'"

"That means older generations, who understand the importance of checks and balances to restrict each government branch's power - and the triumph of our free-market system over socialism and communism - will eventually give way to younger generations who don't understand these basic concepts." - More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2018