Month: March 2026

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has tentatively decided that oil and gas exploration should be allowed on state land in the vicinity of the Yukon River.

In a public notice published March 4, the agency said its determination for the Yukon Flats “comports with constitutional direction to encourage the development of the state’s resources, and with the legislature’s direction that it is in the state’s interest to develop the state’s oil and gas resources.”

The flats are a large area of wetlands and lowlands at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in Interior Alaska. 

DNR’s preliminary approval is subject to a public notice process, and public comments on the agency’s position are due by April 6. They may be emailed to dog.bif@alaska.gov.

This month’s public notice comes as the oil and gas firm Hilcorp enters another year of operations in the area with Doyon Ltd., the regional Alaska Native Corp. for Interior Alaska. 

Last summer, Hilcorp drilled for oil on land leased from Doyon near the village of Birch Creek, south of Fort Yukon. Doyon’s subsidiary, Doyon Drilling, conducted much of the work.

As that drilling took place, Hilcorp applied for permission to conduct oil and gas exploration on state land nearby.

Most of the surrounding territory is within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, an area prized for its waterfowl nesting and breeding grounds. 

The only state land within the requested area is on “subsurface waters,” riverbeds and lake beds controlled by the state under federal law and a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Hilcorp’s permit application is on hold until the state completes the regulatory process covered by this month’s public notice.

The Yukon Flats are in what the state has colorfully labeled “Middle Earth” — a vast swath of Alaska between the North Slope and Cook Inlet that has no active oil and gas production and hasn’t been thoroughly surveyed for oil and gas.

The determination signed this month by Derek Nottingham, director of the Division of Oil and Gas, states that “the land within the Yukon Flats determination area has unknown oil and gas potential and there is limited access to existing oil and gas infrastructure in much of the region. Although oil and gas exploration has occurred in the past, technological advancements may facilitate more effective and efficient exploration. Further, the state would benefit from geological and geophysical data that may result from potential exploration.”

If the state does determine that oil and gas exploration is appropriate in the area, it would then have to go through a separate process to determine whether Hilcorp in particular should be given permission to explore.

A similar process took place in the Susitna River valley last year.

State permission in the Yukon Flats doesn’t automatically mean that a company could plop a drilling rig in the middle of the Yukon River. That kind of development plan would be subject to many different levels of regulation by several state and federal agencies.

Instead, the biggest impact is likely to be in cases where subsurface rights are split between the state and Native corporations. If an underground oil pool is beneath land with split ownership, ownership of that pool could be complicated.

An explorer working from corporate land wouldn’t have to worry about ownership issues if it also holds a permit from the state.

In Hilcorp’s case, the Birch Creek area being leased from Doyon is dotted with lakes whose bottoms could be state-owned.

Hilcorp has not yet announced its plans for the summer 2026 season. Last year, it had plans to drill two exploration wells but ended up drilling only one, according to data published by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. 

That well stopped work in October, but significant amounts of equipment, including a drill rig, remain on site at Birch Creek. 

Sarah Obed, a spokeswoman for Doyon, said by email that the company will be sharing an update with shareholders soon and is grateful for local residents’ collaboration on the project.

“As always, Hilcorp and Doyon will prioritize shareholder employment when opportunities arise and will continue to work closely with partners and our communities through this upcoming season and beyond,” she wrote by email.

U.S. Forest Service leadership is in flux as the agency takes sweeping actions in managing the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest, and making regulatory and administrative changes at all levels, Alaska-based officials reported this week.

At the beginning of a four-day federal subsistence Regional Advisory Council meeting in Juneau on Tuesday, Tongass Supervisor Monique Nelson spoke about shifts in the Forest Service since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.

Nelson said staffing on the Tongass is down 30% from this time last year; in the wake of federal workforce reductions by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, 270 USFS employees are currently working in Southeast Alaska.

Nelson, who’s worked for the Forest Service in Alaska for several years, stepped into the Tongass supervisor role last spring. She said that “since the changes in the administration, we have shifted our work from the focus on the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy to other agency priorities that include active forest management, disaster recovery, minerals and energy and access to outdoor recreation.”

“While I say that there is a shift, those things are always our agency priorities, and so we are certainly happy and dedicated to doing that work in front of us,” she said.

USFS personnel are currently working through planning processes for logging, mining, and energy projects, Nelson said. 

The largest of the planned logging projects are the South Revilla project east of Ketchikan and the Twin Mountain II project on eastern Prince of Wales Island, both of which include old-growth timber harvest, Nelson said.

“For both of those projects, we did find a significant likelihood of impacts to subsistence resources,” Nelson told the subsistence council members.

Among its energy projects, USFS is continuing to work on the Angoon-area Thayer Creek Hydropower project.

“With regard to minerals, I’ll say that really there is not a change. We are required to be very responsive to minerals needs,” Nelson said, noting there is currently a high price on gold. 

The service is preparing for tourist season by hiring seasonal staff to take care of Tongass National Forest day-use sites, bear viewing areas, camp grounds and visitor centers.

Following Nelson’s presentation, council member Ted Sandhofer remarked on the size and scope of current USFS projects on the Tongass.

Sandhofer worked with USFS for about 35 years, starting in 1987 as a forester based in Hoonah, and retiring in 2021 as the head of the Petersburg Ranger District.

He said that the current USFS project list is “a big workload, as big as I’ve seen on the Tongass.”

“I know that there’s a reduction in (workforce), so it seems like you’re going to be doing more with less. … Do you have enough people?” Sanhofer asked.

Nelson told him the agency currently is working through “interim operations” while adjusting to staffing reductions.

“Our regional offices and our Washington office are acting as consolidated units where we have that high-level expertise working in much larger groups across much larger land masses,” Nelson said. “Now, we in Alaska are now working as part of a larger Pacific team with California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, overseen by a (Pacific Northwest) Regional Forester on their executive leadership team.”

Acting Regional Forester for Alaska, Jerry Ingersoll, started in the role in October. He previously worked with USFS in Ketchikan and Juneau for about seven years.

Introducing himself at the council meeting Tuesday, Ingersoll said that he’ll be retiring at the end of April. 

The permanent Regional Forester for the Pacific Northwest Region, Jacque Buchanan, spoke to the transition in USFS leadership for Alaska.

“When Jerry steps out, I’m going to step fully into it, to get us through the interim place to you getting back to a full staff at the Alaska level,” Buchanan said.

“This is the interim space,” Buchanan said. “I think we will probably be in this space for the next six to eight months. And so what the future is exactly going to look like, we don’t know.”

“I have pretty high assurance that, especially here in Alaska, there will remain a state-level leadership,” Buchanan said “It may be called something different, you know, it’s probably, it’s not going to be (an Alaska) Regional Forester, but it would be a state leadership at the same level.”

Buchanan said she’d like to help USFS get back to full staffing levels.

Nelson said that, with reduced staffing levels, “a lot of the local projects will be harder to address, and the emphasis on partnerships is really what’s going to make a difference for us to be able to make sure that we’re attending to those very local needs.”

She said partnerships remain a priority for USFS.

“Just recently, we entered into a shared stewardship agreement with the State of Alaska, and that agreement is focused on providing wood to the wood products industry, and pairing that with restoration actions on the forest,” Nelson said. 

“We also have the opportunity to enter into more shared stewardship agreements, and we hope to be able to do so with many tribes and tribal partners, as well as other landowners in Southeast,” Nelson said. 

Nelson said the Trump administration is prioritizing “deregulation and organizational efficiency, and then also an emphasis on partnerships as part of the deregulation agenda.”

Forest Service personnel in Washington, D.C., are working through the process to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule, which could open the Tongass to more logging. A draft environmental impact statement is expected this spring, and will be released for a public comment period. 

Last month the Forest Service issued a notice of intent for its ongoing Tongass National Forest Management Plan; public comments are due by March 20 as to “purpose and need for action” driving the Tongass plan revision by USFS. 

Meanwhile, personnel in Washington, D.C., are working on changing the agency’s National Environmental Policy Act regulations and administrative review regulations, Nelson said. 

This story was originally published by the Daily Sitka Sentinel.

The post Forest service staffing in Southeast down 30% from a year ago appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Coast Guard today identified two crew members who died in an accident Sunday aboard a freight barge as 21-year-old Ben Fowler of Sitka, and 28-year-old Sidney Mohorovich of Washington state.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Stanley Fields, commander of Sector Southeast Alaska, offered his condolences and said the Coast Guard is conducting a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.

“This is a heartbreaking reminder that confined spaces on vessels can contain extremely dangerous, invisible hazards,” he said. “The Coast Guard is committed to a thorough investigation to understand what happened and prevent a tragedy like this from occurring again.”

Coast Guard Arctic District staff said the “fatal confined space incident” occurred aboard the barge Waynehoe while it was moored in Skowl Arm, 25 miles northwest of Ketchikan.

Rescue crews from the Coast Guard and fire department in Ketchikan responded after the crew of the tugboat Chukchi Sea reported at 9:14 a.m. Sunday that they had lost contact with four individuals who were in a confined space on the Waynehoe.

Two of the four crew members were recovered and responsive on Sunday. The third crew member was recovered Sunday and later declared deceased. The fourth was unaccounted for on the barge on Sunday; today the Coast Guard reported that he was recovered and declared deceased on Tuesday, after the barge had been towed to the Ketchikan area.

The Coast Guard worked with partner agencies in Ketchikan on Tuesday to access the confined space on the barge in a safe manner, and find the crew member who was unaccounted for, USCG said.

The South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department of Ketchikan helped the Coast Guard respond to the emergency on Sunday. Its chief, Steve Rydeen, told the Sentinel that the Coast Guard search and rescue boat received the call to the barge, and called the STVFD fire hall.

A paramedic and two EMTs from STVFD went with the Coast Guard aboard the USCG vessel on Sunday; Rydeen said the department provides limited medical care for Coast Guard search and rescue cases.

The barge was moored in McKenzie Inlet within Skowl Arm on the east side of Prince of Wales Island.

Ketchikan North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jerry Kiffer said the barge is operated by the Bellingham-based Hamilton Marine Construction.

After the accident a Boyer Towing vessel took the barge to Ward Cove, north of Ketchikan, Kiffer said.

The 92-foot-long tugboat Chukchi Sea, owned by Hamilton Marine Construction, was returned to the Ketchikan harbor by its owner on Monday.

This story was originally published by the Daily Sitka Sentinel.

The post Second body recovered from barge accident near Ketchikan appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.