Category: Alaska News

On March 30, Alpenglow Woodfired Pizza – one of Haines’ few year-round restaurants – announced  it would be closing its doors.In a social media video, owner Nolan Woodard said the restaurant would close for the week but open one final time on Saturday for a combined three-year anniversary and goodbye party. 

The move came after the building owner posted a lease nonrenewal notice on the building, giving the business a month to vacate – bringing the breakdown in negotiations between Woodard and landlord Chris Thorgesen into public view. 

Woodard shared a proposed lease with the Chilkat Valley News that contained provisions he called untenable:  like one requiring him to carry a $1 million insurance policy on the building, removing a 48-hour notice requirement for entry, and allowing the landlord to seize equipment within 15 days if he fell behind on rent or violated the lease. 

“I basically said to him that I don’t feel comfortable signing an agreement that gives you the right to basically take away things that would disrupt the operation of my business.” 

Woodard said he understands repercussions for deferred payments, but “if the punishment for not paying you is something that disrupts the flow of me being able to operate my business, then I can’t pay you,” he said. “That would sink us.” 

The lease dispute accelerated a decision Woodard said he was already weighing, as the restaurant has operated at a loss each year, since he bought it in 2023.  

Community reaction

The closure drew strong reactions in the community.  Local restaurant owner and Haines Chamber of Commerce president Travis Kukull called the lease terms unethical and compared the arrangement to sharecropping in a post on Substack. 

In the post, Kukull wrote that landlords hold disproportionate power in small markets with limited commercial space. “The landlord, on the other hand, risks very little, pays no wages, and takes most of the harvest.” 

Kukull wrote that he thinks the best lease agreements are those that include the tenant’s success and are mutually beneficial. He suggested things like landlords providing funding for tenant improvements and rent being set as a percentage of business sales. 

Thorgesen commented on the post, disputing Kukull’s characterization of events and arguing that landlords also carry financial risk. 

He wrote that he does not normally “concern myself with the thoughts of sheep,” but felt compelled to respond given Kukull’s role as Chamber president. 

“You say, ‘a small, independent business like Alpenglow cannot and should never take on the risk.’ Then why should a small independent landlord? Your inherent Marxism blinds you to any true win-win relationships so long as one is the bourgeoisie,” Thorgesen wrote.  

He also disputed the idea that the landlord is offering nothing in this situation. 

“Why don’t you go and buy a crappy building spend an exorbitant amount of money fixing it up, another small fortune in throwing away the trash that had been built up for decades, and fight with bureaucratic middle-managers who don’t know the difference between bologna and mayonnaise, only so you can let someone else use your building with no recoupment of costs,” he wrote.  

In an email to the Chilkat Valley News on Wednesday, Thorgesen did not agree to an interview or address the specific lease provisions Woodard objected to. But wrote that Nolan’s three-year lease ended on the last day of March. 

“As of today, Nolan owes me $10,262.10 in back rent,” he said. “When you don’t pay your rent, people tend not to rent to you.” 

A difficult financial situation

Woodard said the lease disagreement was the immediate trigger, but that the last few years have been increasingly financially precarious. 

While his gross sales have gone up year over year, he has been struggling financially – for one thing, costs have gone up. 

“A simple example is that when I first started this business, my flour was $70-80 a bag. It’s now over $100. So I spend, on average, $300-500 a week on flour.” 

The demand hasn’t kept up, he said. “I’ve had days of summer, I’m not even kidding, where we have had $250 in sales the whole day. It doesn’t even offset the cost of the dough.” 

He’s had to rely on flexible payment arrangements with vendors, gone through periods where he couldn’t pay his staff, and said he has fallen behind on the rent. 

Former owner Olen Larson said the outcome was genuinely surprising. 

“Myself and my wife doing the cooking, my wife doing the prep, me doing the books and a dishwasher. We made that survive for the three years we owned the business and we still came out on top. We were in the green,” he said. “Yes, I saw my challenges of course – wintertime being the hardest due to the lack of tourism and lack of year-round residents.”

When they sold the business to Woodard, the couple retained a 25% minority ownership and acted as advisors from afar. 

When they sold the business to Woodard, the couple retained a 25% minority ownership.

“It must have been inflation and the economy starting to turn. I’m not too familiar with what started driving the business down as far as numbers go,” he said. 

Larson said he doesn’t know what caused the breakdown over the lease negotiations to occur but called a nearly 10-year run of a pizza restaurant in one place in Haines incredible. 

Larson said he would check in with Woodard every few months and said he never heard anything negative other than that the winter months were slow. 

“My wife and I wanted to be able to support him and the crew as much as possible so we kind of deferred payments and kept pushing payments back and back to where it would allow him to use those funds to continue to have the cash flow into the business and keep it alive.” 

Now, he said, the couple is focused on helping Woodard navigate the debt, liquidation, and closure of the business. 

The fallout

As more details about the situation became clear, particularly the revelation that Woodard owed thousands in back rent, some early reactions began to shift.

Kukull said he initially read Thorgesen’s lease proposal as more of an eviction notice. “Nobody in their right mind would propose this,” he said. 

But, he said restaurant closures are rarely driven by a single issue. Rather, they come from a combination of financial strain, operating costs and timing. 

“All of a sudden, it just spins out of control and before you know it, you’re just scrambling to cover your ass in every direction, asking people for favors you shouldn’t be asking for,” he said. 

In this specific case, he said he didn’t think people should go around looking to lay blame on any one person and that he wants people to read his column as a place where he’s advocating for a small business owner to review their leases and fight for their best case scenarios. 

“I have sympathy for [Thorgesen] as a property owner. I don’t know all of the problems he has with all of his businesses and leases. But if something’s not working for him and it’s not working for [Woodard], can we try to figure out a different option here?” he said. 

In hindsight, Kukull said, he could have offered to mediate a discussion between Woodard and Thorgesen. It could have gotten more people in the community talking about how to create a more small-business-friendly environment in Haines. 

“Stories like this are detrimental and they don’t make people want to move here, they don’t make people want to try to open a small business. It just stops everything,” he said.

Woodard said people have asked him if he would move the restaurant into another building, including two vacant commercial buildings on Main Street. 

But, he’s looked at a few and at least one needed extensive repair before he’d be able to open. “I don’t have $100,000 of repair money,” he said. 

He’s considering his options and the future is uncertain. 

“I still owe a lot of people a lot of money,” he said. “I’m not fully out yet. I still have some irons in the fire. But the way it’s currently looking, the most likely occurrence … we will liquidate the business, recoup as much as we can in terms of costs with that and then from there, make the final decision on whether or not I have to file bankruptcy. I’m trying to avoid that, but also be realistic about the fact that it might be our only option.” 

A loss for the town

One of the darkest parts of the closure of Alpenglow is that Woodard was within sight of getting a beer and wine license.

He spent the past two years working to get a beer and wine license, pushing the issue through borough meetings and state hearings before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved two more licenses for Haines in February of 2025. 

Those licenses became available March 1, 2025 and Woodard said finalizing a lease was the last step needed to move forward with his application and get it in front of the licensing board this month. 

Without the lease, that effort stops short.  While it would not have guaranteed success, it could have provided some breathing room, particularly during the slow winter months.

“All of that work he’s done over the last few years is basically trash,” Kukull said. “To put that much effort into anything and he didn’t see any benefit for himself … I hope everybody’s pissed.” 

Editor’s Note: The Chilkat Valley News rents office space from Chris Thorgesen and has maintained a commercial advertising trade relationships with both Thorgesen and Alpenglow Woodfired Pizza.  

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.