Category: Alaska News

The Alaska Senate on Wednesday advanced a constitutional amendment that would establish a dedicated fund for public education.

If passed, lawmakers could design a new source of state revenue to go toward the fund that would be used specifically for schools. The resolution states that the Legislature could only appropriate money from the fund for public education. 

The Alaska Constitution explicitly prohibits the dedication of funds in most cases. Supporters say that prohibition was intended to give the Legislature flexibility in budgeting, and avoid mandated funds.

Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman said before Wednesday’s vote that education is his No. 1 priority. A dedicated education fund could be a “tremendous tool” to improve schools in Alaska, he said. Hoffman co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee which sponsored the constitutional amendment.

The Legislature last year approved an historic increase in school funding through the state’s complex formula, overriding two separate vetoes by Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Still, advocates say that substantially more school funding is needed with school districts facing sizable budget shortfalls and decades of deferred maintenance.

Two Alaska school districts in January sued the state, arguing that Alaska’s education funding levels violate a constitutional duty to fund schools adequately. School districts across Alaska have long complained about crumbling buildings that have reached crisis level. 

Republican Sen. Bert Stedman represents Sitka, home of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, a state-run boarding school which has reported leaking roofs and buildings in disrepair. Stedman said Alaska is one of the nation’s richest states, but the condition of its schools is “kind of embarrassing.”

Surrounded by school children in the Senate’s public galleries, Stedman said that “we should be doing better for our kids.”

“Every generation needs to make a little step forward and this is our little step,” he said in support of the resolution before the final vote. 

The Alaska Senate approved the resolution on a 17-3 vote. At least 14 of 20 senators are needed to support a constitutional amendment. Two-thirds of the Alaska House of Representatives would need to vote for the same resolution to put the proposal before voters at the November election. 

All 14 members of the bipartisan Senate majority supported the constitutional amendment, alongside three minority Senate Republicans — Sens. Robert Yundt of Wasilla, Mike Cronk of Tok and James Kaufman of Anchorage.

Three minority Senate Republicans voted no: Sens. Robb Myers of North Pole, Cathy Tilton of Wasilla and George Rauscher of Sutton. 

Myers said the drafters of the Alaska Constitution sought to block the proliferation of dedicated funds, which would consume the annual budget.  

He said that establishing a dedicated fund for education “removed any sort of flexibility for the Legislature.” He said that avoiding annual debates about school funding was “not necessarily a good thing.” Education spending could effectively be “out of sight, out of mind,” he said. 

Myers said the state has numerous other priorities such as health care and natural resource management, but they would not receive the same dedicated funds. 

The resolution now advances to the House. If approved by 27 of 40 House members, it would then be placed before voters at the Nov. 3 election. A simple majority of voters is needed to approve an amendment to the Alaska Constitution.

A governor cannot block a constitutional amendment from appearing on the ballot with their veto pen. The Alaska Constitution was last amended in 2004. 

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The Steinway Model B piano has resided in the Chilkat Center for 33 years and will soon be the center of an entire concert, “A Night on the Steinway.”

Michael Marks, a board member of the Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts, first had the idea for a concert when he noticed community members’ desire to play it while it was out on stage.

Concert pianist Jean-Paul Billaud donated the instrument to the Chilkat Center in 1993. 

According to a Steinway piano index, the piano in the Chilkat Center was manufactured in 1975. Former piano teacher Nancy Nash knew Billaud when he worked for the University of Alaska Southeast. After performing in the Chilkat Center, Billaud donated his piano to the community.

“It’s definitely not common for a town our size to have both that hall, which does have wonderful acoustics, and then an instrument like that,” Nash said.

“It would be hard to get even if you were planning to make the acoustics perfect,” said Lorrie Dudzik, a board member on the Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts. She and Nash said that Billaud admired the acoustics in the center.

The 1880s old grand piano was put into a box after the Steinway arrived. It remained mostly unused in the back of the Chilkat Center until Marks found it a few months ago. Upon recovering this piano, Marks had the idea to have a dueling piano performance during the “Night on the Steinway” concert. 

Marks showed the old grand piano to French pianist Baptiste Bailly, who came to Haines to perform with his band in mid-March.

“He (Bailly) sat down and played it for a while and had a big smile on his face and said something in French,” Marks said.

The goal for the concert, Dudzik said, is to “bring the local people who’ve always wanted to perform on that piano and give them an opportunity to do that.”

According to Marks, a piano tuner hasn’t been in town since before Covid. The Foundation for the Chilkat Center is looking for a piano tuner before the concert in May.

Nancy Nash last played the Steinway during the “Holly Jolly Follies” concert in the Center last December.

“We’re very, very fortunate to have that (piano),” Nash said.

Currently, five performers are signed up for the May 10 concert. Interested pianists can call Lorrie Dudzik at 766-2071. Musical selections are due by April 16.

The post Fifty-one-year-old piano to be center of May concert appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

It has been 15 years since Haines had a reported case of a highly contagious skin infection in local mountain goats.

But state wildlife officials are raising the alarm in neighboring Juneau, which has seen three dead mountain goats and at least five reports of animals showing the disease since the beginning of winter.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game area management biologist Carl Koch said that while contagious ecthyma is “not as much an issue in Haines,” it is something to keep an eye on while out hunting.

The viral disease contagious ecthyma is sometimes called CE, sore mouth, or as local hunters referred to it “orf.” It can affect other species besides mountain goats, like dall and bighorn sheep and muskox. It can also infect domestic sheep and goats and is spread through contact with other infected animals.

Koch said that goats can be carrying the disease without showing “observable outward signs.” The symptoms are not always severe and can sometimes be just a small sore.

“I’ve seen some with just like red rings around their eyes, and then others were like, you’re surprised to think and eat and breathe properly because the face is so infected,” Koch said.
Koch said he thinks reports of contagious ecthyma in the region date back to the 1970s or 80s.

Local hunter Kevin Shove remembers shooting a goat prior to 2011 that “looked like it had scars on its face” when he went up to dress it. He said that the scarring looked similar to the images he had seen of contagious ecthyma.

In severe cases, the disease can cause lesions around goats’ orifices like their mouth, nose, ears and hooves. For goats with weaker immune systems, the lesions can get infected and swollen to the point where it impacts the animal’s ability to feed, see and hear.

Kevin White, a goat researcher at the University of Alaska Southeast, said generally “its immune system can respond to it and then the symptoms will pass.” Adult animals tend to survive; it is generally the youngest and oldest animals who are most vulnerable, White said.

While working as a wildlife research biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, he took the blood samples of over 500 mountain goats in four different areas of Southeast. He was screening for many diseases, one of them being contagious ecthyma. He found that around 5% of the population had an immunity to contagious ecthyma.

“It was interesting that it was widespread” and was found in almost all of the different populations and subpopulations that White tested. “It means that it was occurring in all these areas at some point.”

But even with that wide spread of animals with the disease, in all of his time gathering samples, White said he never saw any instances of animals with outward signs of it.

And local guides, like Larry Benda, who owns Alaska Fair Chase Guiding, said in his 30 years of hunting and guiding, he has never seen a mountain goat with it. Third generation hunter Donald Hotch also said he’s never seen it or heard about the disease.

White recently conducted an aerial survey to estimate the mountain goat population that covered Davidson Glacier, up through the Chilkat Valley, over towards Skagway until Creek Pass. White estimated a total of about 1,400 mountain goats over the more than 1,158-square-mile area.

And, while the disease hasn’t been seen much by local hunters, Koch warned that carnivores can get it and spread it to other carnivores.

“If a goat’s dead and it’s infected and an eagle, scavenging on it, and it was to fly away, it’s probably low likelihood but if it’s carrying the dead cells, it could transfer them somewhere else,” Koch said.

According to Koch, severe winters drain the goat’s immune system. This in combination with the disease took a toll on the goats who ended up dying. The goats who died, he said, “didn’t look that bad months ago.”

Humans can get contagious ecthyma but according to Koch, it does not get worse than a blister in the human cases he has seen.

“I wouldn’t rub my face if I touched a goat, but we don’t get those horrific-looking things that sometimes the goats get.”

Koch suggests that “anybody cleaning any game animal – because this isn’t the only disease out there – should be wearing gloves and cleaning up and then cooking the meat” to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Koch said that cold does not kill this virus but heat does. It is still safe to eat the meat of an infected animal; one just has to cook the meat to the proper temperature.

The post Goat disease resurfaces in Juneau, officials urge caution appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Ten months after the state raided a Chilkat Valley wildlife facility, and owner Steve Kroschel left for Russia, the fate of some 20 animals left behind by state troopers and wildlife regulators has still not been resolved.

The animals are part of a long-running dispute between the state and Kroschel over how he managed the dozens of animals that used to live at the Kroschel Films Wildlife Center.   

Retired wildlife trooper Patrick McMullen has been caring for the animals in the absence of Kroschel and the state. Previously McMullen cared almost exclusively for the facility’s three wolves. 

Now, he’s responsible for all of the animals left behind. It’s difficult to verify the exact number of animals that were in the facility from any one source, but Kroschel and state staff now agree there are about 20 animals left behind. Fish and Game previously reported ermine, arctic fox, martens, minks, and a snowy owl are still at the facility.

McMullen did not return a phone call seeking more information and texted that he didn’t have any interest in talking. But he followed by saying he feeds and waters the remaining animals every day. 

“[Fish and Game] has been totally fine. And supportive,” he wrote. “Obviously it’s a difficult situation. There is a lot of snow at the park. It will be resolved soon.” 

Kroschel, who said he is currently living somewhere near Yekaterinburg, Russia, said he texts McMullen from time to time to “see how he is doing.” “[He] does not tell me much.” 

Kroschel’s son, who did not respond to a phone call seeking more information, is also on the property but Steve Kroschel said he is often not there. 

“I am worried about vandalism, among other things,” he said. 

Fish and Game wildlife division director Ryan Scott, said he was not able to share a lot of detailed information due to the pending court case against Kroschel, but that Fish and Game staff had been in contact with McMullen. 

“We’ve had conversations about food, water, and electricity, things like that,” he said. “We’re keeping tabs on what’s going on via phone call and email. [McMullen] has been responsive.” 

He said the state intends to go back in and capture some remaining animals and place them in other facilities. 

His office asked for his help retrieving the animals from the property on Oct. 7. 

“It just hasn’t worked out,” Scott said. “And then winter showed up in a big way. There’s some concerns. We want to do it right and we want to do it safely for the animals.” 

Scott said he assumed Kroschel was paying for supplies for the remaining animals. He said Fish and Game has offered to assist with food and supplies but has not started doing that. 

“I think it’s important that people know, we didn’t just walk away. We’re still here. We’ve been keeping tabs,” he said. 

Kroschel said McMullen has been scraping up enough money to feed and care for the animals on his own. 

“I ask him and he somehow finds a way,” Kroschel said. 

Kroschel is facing three felony and two misdemeanor cruelty to animal charges. 

During his last hearing in the case on Jan. 22, Kroschel’s counsel withdrew and he is now representing himself. But there was some disagreement over how he’d be communicating with state prosecutors about the case given that there is an active warrant out for his arrest. 

Kroschel said he is applying for asylum in Russia, though he said his understanding is that his passport will be taken away for about a year if it gets granted. Then, he’ll be free to return to the U.S.

The post Nearly a year after the raid, 20 animals remain at Kroschel’s wildlife facility  appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival was about preserving traditions and reawakening them, on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and beyond.

During this year’s festival, recently formed dance groups from the Norton Sound communities of Stebbins and St. Michael performed for the second time ever outside of their communities.

Group co-organizer Suzzuk Huntington summed up the feeling.

“Such a blessing to be here. I think we all feel more excited being at Cama’i than we would getting to Disneyland. So it’s just such a heartwarming place, and it’s just filling our spirits,” Huntington said.

Young dancers from the far Western Aleutians community of Atka working to revitalize Unangax̂ dance tradition, Atx̂am Taliĝisniikangis, also performed. Group leader Crystal Dushkin said dancing is being rebuilt after a 50-year hiatus.

“We formed our dance group in the 1990s because our dancing had fallen asleep after World War Two,” Dushkin said.

From far away on the edge of Bristol Bay, dancers from Togiak returned to Cama’i for the first time since 2002. Group leader Margie Frost was born and raised in Bethel, but has been working to revitalize dance in Togiak since moving there in the late 90s.

“It’s an honor to be back home, and it’s more of an honor to present to you our kids from Togiak,” Frost said.

Frost was once a pupil of the recipient of this year’s Living Treasure award, Arevgaq Theresa John of Toksook Bay. John spent decades teaching at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where her research highlighted the central role of dance in Yup’ik culture. Her father, the late tribal leader Paul John, was a lifelong advocate for traditional ways of living.

John says she is carrying on that legacy. And she says her work preserving Yup’ik teachings ultimately comes down to promoting unity.

“There is a saying in Yugtun worldview, Yup’ik philosophy that [aa-tlaa-mek yo-gg-tai-took] There’s no other humanity in this globe, just you and I and everybody, and we all have common needs,” John said.

New faces and old friends

This year’s Cama’i brought some brand new faces to the stage, like singer-songwriter Martin Paul of Kipnuk and Kalskag.

The 22-year old, who has amassed a huge following on social media, was trailed by packs of young people in search of selfies at this year’s festival. In performances that wove together traditional songs, Yup’ik humor, and deeply personal stories, Paul said better things are ahead if you just keep on going.

On the final night, Paul brought his grandmother, Minnie Paul, up on stage to sing a song she taught him as a young boy growing up in Kipnuk. They dedicated the song to the community devastated by last October’s storm.

New York City-based percussionist C.J. Joseph and his snare drum acrobatics were also new to the Cama’i stage. Festival organizer Linda Curda said she invited Joseph to Bethel after catching his subway performance in New York City’s Grand Central Station.

Joseph said he’s one of just a handful of musicians keeping rhythm and dance traditions from his native country of Panama alive on the streets. Kids mesmerized by Joseph’s beats clamoured for a chance to sign his drum after he finished.

“If I can leave one last message here in Alaska, it’s to manifest your dreams and to do what you love wholeheartedly. Don’t care who’s watching, and do it when nobody’s looking,” Joseph said.

Throughout the three-day festival, audience members became performers. The Cama’i stage held strong as it filled with cauyaq frame drums for the ever-popular Heart of the Drums ceremony. And it held as children rushed the stage to show off their dance moves for adoring parents.

The longevity of the Cama’i Dance Festival was on full display this year with the return of Inuit-soul group Pamyua for their 30th anniversary since debuting at the festival in 1996.

“Half of us are grandpa and grandmas Now, the other half are right behind. So quyana for having us, we’re glad to be back home,” Pamyua member Stephen Blanchett said.

Stephen and his younger brother Phillip Blanchett took the stage for that first performance alongside founding members Ossie Kairaiuak of Chefornak and Karina Moeller of Greenland.

This year, it was like old times as the four joined other former members to sing the hit “Reindeer Herding Song” from their first album.

This story was originally published by KYUK Public Media. 

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Pamyua performed as a duo for their 1996 Cama’i performance.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, shared a message of tempered optimism and hope for the opportunities before Alaskans at her annual speech to the Alaska Legislature on Tuesday, yet called for collaboration to address a wide range of challenges and uncertainty under the Trump administration. 

“Alaska has big needs that demand strong leadership. We’ve got a lot going for us,” she said. “But we have to be clear eyed about our challenges. We need to tackle them head on, and we need to remember we are in this together.”

In her annual legislative address, Murkowski highlighted federal accomplishments in Congress, in step with Alaska’s other federal representatives, Republicans U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich III in speeches to the Legislature in recent weeks. That included investments in infrastructure, the U.S. military, Arctic defense, and extended tax credits. 

“We have kept federal income taxes low. We made the child tax credit permanent. We provided tax relief for everyone from waitresses to whaling captains,” she said. “We made historic, absolutely historic, investments in aviation safety, and, of course, for our Coast Guard.”

She praised the Trump administration’s focus on opening federal lands in Alaska and pushing for expanded oil and gas development, citing companies’ renewed investment and expanded future production in the National Petroleum Reserve in the North Slope.  

“Nothing is going better for Alaska than resource development,” she said. “Our state is no longer the special on the menu, but we are the heart of the plan.”

However, Murkowski said while it’s a moment of optimism for Alaska, the time demands realism. 

“Part of my purpose this morning is to help perhaps translate some of what is happening outside our state and the implications for us here in Alaska,” she said. 

“We can start with the crises around the world that are impacting Alaskans now from military service members who are deployed abroad, to rural residents who are already feeling the echoes of war through higher fuel prices, shipping surcharges, and certainly more expensive groceries,” she said. 

Murkwoski said people should prepare to confront volatility and economic hardships caused by a prolonged war in Iran and regional conflict in the Middle East. 

“I’m worried about the impact of higher fuel prices, but I’m also worried about shortages, shortages of our ability to get refined products,” she said. “This is something we all need to be paying attention to.”

In a news conference after her speech, Murkowski defended her vote against a war powers resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s military authority, citing the need to support actively deployed troops in the region.

“Those who are now in this fight need to know that they are supported by their country,” she said. 

But she said she is pushing for a vote in Congress on the Authorization for Military Use of Force, in part to compel a more clear military mission. 

“We’re no longer seeing a targeted approach to the conflict in Iran,” she said. “So an authorization of use of military force would put some guardrails, (and) allow the President to execute his war plan, but would also require a level of reporting to the Congress. And I don’t think that that’s asking too much.”

Murkowski said that Alaska may see a continued surge in oil prices and state revenues resulting from the regional conflict in the Middle East, but cautioned lawmakers against banking on the boom and bust of oil prices. 

“The windfall will only go so far and last so long, and I think it’s much better to get revenue from volume than it is from price,” she said. “We can’t count on anyone or anything to bail us out of our fiscal woes, only a long term plan will truly end the cycle of a boom and bust.”

‘Political football’

Murkowski criticized more frequent government shutdowns amid deep divides with Congress and the Trump administration as adding to the uncertainty.

“Shutdowns are becoming far too routine and too many policy makers are just becoming numb to their impacts,” she said. “These are real and they are harmful, and we cannot use a shutdown as a form of a political football.”

“It’s not great there in Congress right now,” she added. 

She also criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. She said she supports securing the southern border, but not at the expense of working people, citing a recent arrest and immediate deportation of a family in Soldotna. 

“It’s important for our security. But when the extension of these policies results in a mother in Soldotna and her three children being taken into custody with the mother deported and the oldest put in jail, I think it’s time for serious reflection and reform of our legal immigration immigration policies in this country,” she said. 

Similarly, Murkowski said she agrees only citizens should be able to vote, but she opposes a measure currently being debated in the Senate, the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship in-person to register to vote. 

“The premise is strong. It was not intended to disenfranchise Alaskans who can rightly vote, but I fear that that could be its effect,” she said. 

Murkowski urges state action to capture federal dollars

Murkowski also urged Alaska lawmakers to do their part, and said there are areas where the state is “not meeting expectations,” particularly for federal match programs for transportation and the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system.

“The fact of the matter is federal funding for AMHS is a lifeline. It’s not an entitlement. We’re going to try but there’s no guarantee that we’re going to be able to renew it at any level. And so it’s not a good strategy to rely on a temporary, competitive federal grant program to cover 45% of our state’s operating costs, all of which used to be paid for by the state,”

Murkowski urged timely action from Alaska leaders to secure health care funding through the Rural Health Transformation Fund, a $50 billion fund created by Congress last year as part of the negotiations that cut $1 trillion from Medicare and health care subsidies. 

“Alaska will receive the second most dollars of any state and the most per capita, about $1.3 billion in all, but the state needs to do dramatically better on this five-year effort than we did on ferries, just putting it out there,” she said. “Because If we don’t, Alaska’s funds can be redirected elsewhere, and we will miss a generational opportunity to improve care.”

Focus on partnerships

Murkowski urged state lawmakers to continue to support fisheries, which continue to be “in crisis” with some salmon runs collapsing, disputes in the industry around bycatch laws, and uncontrollable factors like climate change. 

“We need to have sound science, that’s the foundation of sound management,” she said. “And we need constructive dialogue that respects the needs of communities upriver, while also recognizing the benefits of industry.”

Murkowski called for more state investments in public education, citing visits to schools in “appalling” conditions with deferred maintenance needs. She called for increased pay, local investment in housing, and competitive retirement benefits to recruit and hire teachers in Alaska, as well as families wanting to stay in the state. 

Murkowski highlighted her efforts to secure federal dollars, called earmark spending for specific regions and local projects, like hydropower, drinking water infrastructure, child care, substance abuse recovery services and housing. 

“Over the past five years, my team and I have secured just over $2 billion for the state of Alaska,” she said.  

She touted her role as chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and work focused on Alaska Native communities. 

“We’ve got a big measure that we’re working on to convert the recommendations from the Commission on Native Children into legislation that addresses child welfare, behavioral health, nutrition, education, housing and more,” she said. “So we’re going to be introducing this in the next month or so.”

Murkowski said she’s committed to her role serving Alaska, and urged lawmakers to work across political and regional divides to address the significant challenges ahead.

“We are blessed to live in this great state and even more blessed to be able to represent this great state,” she said. “Let’s set aside the politics, and the regionalism. Let’s focus on partnerships for all of Alaska to achieve as much as we can for every part of our state and for every person in it.”

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On March 31, the U.S. Forest Service announced plans to move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah. It will also close or repurpose all nine of its regional offices, create 15 state offices, and shutter research and development facilities in more than 30 states. According to a news release, the plan is intended to make the agency more “nimble, efficient [and] effective.” Forest Service leaders told staff on a call after the announcement that no changes will be made to fire and aviation management programs or field-based operational firefighters.

Since first announcing its intent to reorganize the agency last July, the Trump administration has marketed the plan as a way to streamline Forest Service operations, with a focus on boosting timber production and communicating more closely with local communities. But during a congressional hearing and public comment period on the subject last summer, more than 80% of the 14,000 public comments submitted were negative, with many tribal representatives, conservation groups and former Forest Service staffers opposing the move. A U.S. Department of Agriculture summary of public comments included concerns that relocating Forest Service staff and further cuts to its budgets “could compromise ecological management, public access, and employee morale.” The current plan incorporates many elements of the original proposal, including the move to Salt Lake City and the closure of regional offices.

“Nobody is asking for this,” said Robert Bonnie, who oversaw the Forest Service as a Department of Agriculture undersecretary during the Obama administration. “None of the farm groups want this. No one in conservation wants this. Nobody.” To Bonnie and other former Forest Service staff, the plan, which will uproot thousands of employees, looks like it will only make the agency’s existing troubles worse, especially given the past year of deep cuts and chaos.

“This is not going to strengthen the Forest Service, it is going to weaken it,” Bonnie said. “It’s not about solving problems, it’s about blowing things up.”

MARY ERICKSON, a retired Custer Gallatin National Forest supervisor, had more questions than answers after the announcement. “I’m not going to say if it’s good or bad at this point,” she said. “It’s just such a sweeping change with no real analysis about if there would be cost savings.”

Under the new proposal, some states will have their own offices and others will be lumped together, similar to the organization of the Bureau of Land Management. This will be a new approach for the country’s 154 national forests, which have long been managed by the nine regional offices that will be shuttered or repurposed. Now, forests in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Alaska and Idaho will each be managed by their own state office. Forests in Nevada and Utah, however, will be managed together, as will forests in Colorado and Kansas.

Some Forest Service research facilities, including the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Fort Collins, Colorado, will stay open. Others, including the research station in Portland, Oregon, which is responsible for critical work on species like spotted owls, will be closed. Losing local leadership “is not going to improve the programs,” said former Forest Service wildlife biologist Eric Forsman. Forsman, who retired in 2016, studied spotted owls and red tree voles at the agency’s Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, which will remain in operation. “It may help budgets,” he added, “but it won’t improve the quality of the research or the amount of research that gets done.”

Erickson and others were also concerned about the plan to move high-level bureaucrats out of D.C., where the nation’s law- and policymakers reside. “I would push back on this idea that moving out of D.C. is moving closer to the people you serve. That’s not the role of the national office,” Erickson said. The national office, she added, is supposed to coordinate and create guidance based on national policy. “Forests and districts have always been the heart of local communities and local delivery.”

After talking with current and former Forest Service staffers following Tuesday’s announcement, she also worries that, at least in the short term, disarray created by the reorganization will hamstring the agency’s ability to address the complex and worsening challenges that modern forests face. Those include tree disease outbreaks, the growing wildland-urban interface and climate change-induced drought. The Forest Service is already reeling from the loss of thousands of employees during the last year, through the terminations and deferred resignations effected by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The reorganization may also lead to states playing an even bigger role in forest management, said Kevin Hood, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, who retired in 2025 after decades working in the Forest Service throughout the West. While local coordination isn’t bad in theory, he said, he’s concerned the new structure will be a step toward ceding the management of national forests and other public lands to states.

Tribal representatives, several of whom declined to comment for this story, voiced concerns during the July public comment process that the reorganization would lead to losses of expertise and fractured relationships. Mass staff relocations, one representative wrote, would “destroy irreplaceable knowledge about Treaty rights, forest conditions, and working relationships built over decades, and new staff unfamiliar with the land will make mistakes.”

FOR MANY PEOPLE in conservation, the Forest Service reorganization feels like déjà vu, or even a recurring nightmare.

In 2019, during Trump’s first term, his administration announced a plan to move nearly all Bureau of Land Management staff out of the agency’s D.C. headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado — then a 66,000-person city located hundreds of miles from a major airport. As with the March 31 Forest Service announcement, the administration said the change would put high-level staff closer to the mostly-Western lands they manage. Instead, many of those staff left the agency altogether, said Tracy Stone-Manning, who directed the BLM under President Joe Biden and is now president of The Wilderness Society.

In fact, by the time the Grand Junction office opened in 2020, only 41 of the 328 BLM employees expected to move West chose to do so, according to a High Country News investigation. For many, moving meant uprooting their entire family, and required a spouse to find a new job in a much smaller market.

The reorganization cost taxpayers $28 million. And the Biden administration ended up moving many high-level positions back to D.C., though it did keep some agency leaders in the Grand Junction office, which it renamed the agency’s “Western Headquarters.” John Gale, who headed the office for two years under Biden, sees merit in searching for ways to improve public-lands management. But restructuring and relocation need to be done thoughtfully and carefully to be effective, he said.

That’s because agencies lose irreplaceable institutional knowledge when people with decades of experience are forced out the door, said Stone-Manning. And while that may not have been the first Trump administration’s intention, it was indeed the outcome of the BLM reorganization. She and others expect the Forest Service to suffer the same fate, with even more dire results for the public.

“Our public lands are not being cared for the way they need to be,” she said. “And what that means is ultimately people will throw up their hands and say the federal government can’t manage them, let’s sell them off.”

We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.

This story is part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation and the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation.

This article first appeared on High Country News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

HOUSTON — Global energy leaders have convened here this week, spiffed up in dark suits and polished shoes, to discuss the industry’s most pressing issues: war in the Middle East, Venezuela, artificial intelligence.

But behind the scenes at this annual conference of industry executives — known formally as CERAWeek by S&P Global but nicknamed the “Super Bowl of energy” — a big story about Alaska oil is unfolding.

It involves a massive lease sale in the Arctic, a remarkable show of interest from global oil giants that had faded from Alaska’s frontlines and an emerging race to find deposits potentially worth billions of dollars. Industry proponents say a flood of crude from the largely undeveloped western Arctic, if companies can locate and produce it, could open a new era for the state’s industry.

In what was by far the highest-value federal lease sale in the vast National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska in more than two decades, oil companies last week snatched up more than 1 million acres across the western Arctic.

The scale of interest, with 11 companies participating and a record $163 million spent on bids, was itself notable. But so were the identities of some of the bidders. Two, in particular, surprised even industry insiders: ExxonMobil and Shell. 

Both supermajors have a history in Alaska. 

ExxonMobil still owns shares of existing Arctic oil fields and the trans-Alaska pipeline. But Shell no longer operates in the state and hasn’t drilled a well in Alaska since its failed offshore exploration campaign more than a decade ago. And ExxonMobil hadn’t bid on leases in years.

Their renewed interest — along with continued investment from established players like ConocoPhillips and Colorado-based wildcatter Bill Armstrong — accelerates an industry revival that was already playing out on the North Slope. 

Just a few years ago, new production and investment in the region lagged as some companies struggled to raise money and even pulled out of Alaska amid successful advocacy campaigns against Arctic drilling. 

But major geologic discoveries by Armstrong — and a pair of big new oil fields now under construction — have made the North Slope a more attractive investment. And the industry also has political tailwinds coming from a Trump administration keen to boost resource extraction in Alaska. 

“This sale absolutely shows the world the potential for Alaska,” Armstrong, one of the primary bidders, said in an interview at CERAWeek. “This could be a game-changer for the state.”

The region still faces obstacles to development, like high costs and competition from other basins where drilling is cheaper. 

And the lease sale is just a preliminary step, far from an assurance of future production: No new wells have been drilled yet, and companies often spend years doing exploratory work before deciding whether to start pumping oil. 

Conservation groups, meanwhile, continue to fight the industry’s expansion in the reserve — where, they note, federal law instructs policymakers to not only to oversee oil development but also to protect the environment and cultural values. Multiple lawsuits are challenging the Trump administration’s oil-friendly policies in the Arctic, and advocates have asked a judge to invalidate leases set to be awarded after last week’s sale. 

“What we saw last week were companies pushing into some of the most sensitive areas of the reserve,” said Suzanne Bostrom, an attorney with a conservation-focused Anchorage law firm, Trustees for Alaska, that represents some of the organizations suing the administration. “We and the groups that we work with are going to continue to fight for this area, and fight for the protections that it deserves,” Bostrom added. 

But even amid the pending legal questions, the sale’s results are still a step toward new development; further investment and competition in the petroleum reserve are likely to follow, conference participants told Northern Journal in Houston this week.   

A surprising sale

Leading up to the sale, there were signs that oil companies could show up in force. 

It was the first auction in NPR-A in seven years, and more acreage was up for grabs than in many previous sales. The offerings included large swaths of tundra and wetlands that Democratic administrations had designated off-limits to drilling. 

And after years of comparatively tepid industry interest, recent oil discoveries have expanded the known resources on the North Slope, said Bob Fryklund, a top oil and gas analyst at S&P Global Energy, a research firm.

“It’s kind of been a sleeper basin,” he said. 

A decade ago, the petroleum reserve was beyond the western edge of the North Slope’s oil infrastructure, making it more expensive to bring in equipment and drill. 

But the industry has been moving in its direction: Construction is now underway at two big new oil fields in the area — ConocoPhillips’ Willow project and Santos’ Pikka project. Both will tap into a long-overlooked oil-rich geologic formation, known as the Nanushuk, that Armstrong initially discovered near the reserve’s eastern boundary. 

It was no surprise, then, that ConocoPhillips, Santos and Armstrong all showed up at the recent auction, analysts said.

Few people, however, predicted that so many other companies would put in bids, or that major corporations like ExxonMobil and Shell would participate. 

ExxonMobil, committing more than $7 million on some 138,000 acres, came as a particularly big surprise.

That company, headquartered in Houston, owns shares in the existing Point Thomson and Prudhoe Bay oil fields on the North Slope. But it doesn’t manage either field, and the company has not been active in exploration and new development in the state: Until last week, ExxonMobil had not bid on a federal or state oil and gas lease in Alaska in more than a decade, according to data provided by Welligence, an industry research firm. 

Meanwhile, Shell, in a partnership with a Spanish company, Repsol, submitted some of the highest bids. The two companies offered more than $2 million on many individual tracts, and committed more than $90 million in total.

Experts said the return of those players was likely influenced by the ongoing development in the area.

Although neither the Willow nor Pikka project is producing yet, the multibillion-dollar investments by ConocoPhillips and Santos may have given other companies more faith in the surrounding geology and the ability to pump oil in the area, analysts said. 

“What you saw Shell do, and even Exxon, was validation of the work done by other players on the North Slope in recent years,” an oil company executive said in Houston, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. 

Industry headwinds subside

Shell’s interest represents a reversal from its announcement a decade ago that it was pulling out of Alaska. The company had spent some $7 billion on its failed effort to drill for oil offshore in the Chukchi Sea, citing Obama administration policies and high costs when it departed the state. 

In 2020, another major, BP, also pulled out of Alaska, selling its assets to Hilcorp, a privately owned Texas business. 

Those decisions both seemed like signals of the industry’s decline in the state, as the daily flow through the trans-Alaska pipeline shrank to 500,000 barrels from a high of 2 million decades earlier. An era of oil giants spending freely on big new projects was giving way to one of smaller companies wringing the last drops of crude out of aging fields.

At the time, companies were contending not only with the usual impediments to drilling in Alaska, like high costs and opposition from environmental groups, but also with growing political pressure from climate-minded shareholders and activists opposed to expanding fossil fuel production. Even oil executives acknowledged that advocacy against the oil industry, which is a major driver of climate change, was deterring investment in Alaska. 

But even as the burning of fossil fuels continues to warm the planet, global demand for oil remains high — and industry confidence in the North Slope’s potential appears only to be growing. 

The newly discovered oil deposits there “have proven that Alaska is not over,” Fryklund said.

ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Santos declined to make officials available for on-record interviews. Shell did not respond to a request for comment. 

“This marks an important step in our continued commitment to responsible energy development in Alaska and the U.S.,” an Exxon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. 

Once the company’s leases are finalized, ExxonMobil will work with the state and local communities as it evaluates “potential next steps for the area,” the statement said. 

“I wish I were 30 years younger” 

For those who work in the oil industry, the central plank of Alaska’s economy, the sale stirred excitement, and some relief: New activity in the federal reserve could bring more gigs for contractors that have long wondered if there would be enough development on the North Slope to sustain their businesses.   

“We’ve all had this little worry of, ‘Well, what’s next?’” said Greg Miller, vice president of operations at Cruz Construction, a Palmer-based company with oil-related contracts on the Slope. “Now, there’s a little bit of reason to be a little bit more hopeful and positive about the next 10, 20 years.”

The sale won’t lead to immediate growth for Miller’s business, he said. But new exploration activity, if and when it happens, will create jobs: A single project can provide a year’s worth of wages for as many as 100 employees at Cruz, Miller added. 

For the president of another Alaska oil services company, Kevin Durling, the hype around the petroleum reserve is reminiscent of the boom days when oil started flowing through the trans-Alaska pipeline, in the 1970s and 1980s.

“I wish I was 30 years younger,” he said. 

The state’s conservation community, meanwhile, has reacted with disappointment, and concern for the western Arctic ecosystem. 

The vast, largely undeveloped region contains important habitat for migratory birds, and it sustains tens of thousands of caribou, some of which calve around Teshekpuk Lake, a major water body in the northern part of the petroleum reserve. 

“I’ve had better weeks at work. No question about that,” said Andy Moderow, senior policy director at Alaska Wilderness League, one of the environmental groups suing the Trump administration. But, he added: “The war is still well in front of us.”

One potential hurdle for development is a legally disputed conservation area around Teshekpuk Lake. The protections, across about 1 million acres, were set aside by the Biden administration for the nearby Iñupiaq village of Nuiqsut, where many people still depend on caribou and other wildlife for food. 

The Trump administration canceled the protections late last year, touting the area’s oil and gas potential and aiming to authorize leasing there. Nuiqsut’s leaders then sued, saying the move violated a prior agreement and threatened the village’s subsistence traditions. 

Two days before the lease sale results were announced, a federal judge restored the Teshekpuk protections while the lawsuit played out. 

But the area still attracted bids from a few companies — including ExxonMobil. 

The administration has not said whether it plans to award leases in the disputed area to high bidders — or how, exactly, it intends to navigate the apparent conflict between the sale results and the court ruling.

Nathaniel Herz contributed reporting from Anchorage.

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