Category: Alaska News

AAA reports Alaska’s average gas price is $5.22 per gallon, about $1 above the national average, with some Anchorage stations nearing $5.50 and costs rising sharply from last year.

Post Content

Post Content

Post Content

Post Content

Post Content

Post Content

Seventeen people have registered as candidates for Alaska governor in this fall’s election, though the final slate won’t be set until June 27, the withdrawal deadline. Only four will advance in the Aug. 18 primary.

The deadline to register as a candidate was 5 p.m. Monday. Former state Sen. Lesil McGuire and former Gov. Bill Walker, both running as independents, were among those who registered on the last day.

The field of candidates, which includes 11 Republicans, three Democrats and three independents, is especially large this year. Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run for another term.

Unless they withdraw, all of the 17 candidates will compete in the Aug. 18 statewide open primary election. Voters will each pick one candidate, and the top four vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to the November 3 general election. 

In November, voters will rank those final four candidates in order of preference using ranked-choice voting. The winner will take office at noon Dec. 7 for a four-year term.

Current Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican, dropped out of the race on Monday, 13 months after she said she would run for the office. 

Dahlstrom had raised a relatively small amount of money since her announcement, according to preliminary campaign finance disclosures.

Two other independents, Jessica Faircloth and Gregg Brelsford, and one Republican, Bruce Walden, also declined to register as candidates despite filing preliminary paperwork. 

Because a gubernatorial candidate must have a lieutenant governor candidate as a running mate, the days before the filing deadline brought a flurry of announcements.

Former Alaska attorney general Treg Taylor, running as a Republican, announced businesswoman Candice English as his lieutenant governor choice. Self-funded Republican candidate Matt Heilala picked former Wasilla Rep. Jesse Sumner, a fellow Republican.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Matt Claman of Anchorage picked healthcare executive Sarah Skeel, and former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins chose current Anchorage Assembly member Zac Johnson. 

If a lieutenant governor candidate drops out before June 27, the candidate for governor can pick someone new to replace them. If a candidate for governor drops out, the lieutenant governor candidate may replace them and pick a new lieutenant governor. 

Candidates for Governor

• Former state Sen. Tom Begich (Democratic) with Lt. Gov. candidate Julia Hnilicka (Democratic)
• Former state Sen. Click Bishop (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Greta Schuerch (independent)
• Former Bristol Bay Borough manager Gregg Brelsford (independent)
• Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Josh Church (Republican)
• Former state revenue commissioner Adam Crum (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Robert Craig (Republican)
• Current state Sen. Matt Claman (Democratic) and Lt. Gov. candidate Sarah Skeel (Democratic)
• Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom (Republican)
• Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate George Hightower (Republican)
• Organizer Meda DeWitt (nonpartisan) with Lt. Gov. candidate Christopher Steere (nonpartisan)
• Kasilof resident Jessica Faircloth (independent)
• Anchorage podiatrist and state medical board member Matt Heilala (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Jesse Sumner (Republican)
• Former state Sen. Shelley Hughes (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Blake Gettys
• Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (Democratic) and Lt. Gov. candidate Zac Johnson (nonpartisan)
• Author Hank Kroll (Registered Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Tommy Nicholson (undeclared)
• Former state Sen. Lesil McGuire (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Elizabeth Rexford (undeclared)
• Angoon resident and former teacher James William Parkin IV (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Ramadhani Greer (Democratic)
• North Pole resident Destry Payne (nonpartisan) with Lt. Gov. candidate Cliff Silvers (nonpartisan)
• Former Attorney General Treg Taylor (Republican) with CEO Candice English (Republican)
• Palmer resident Bruce Walden (Republican)
• Former Gov. Bill Walker (nonpartisan) with Randy Hoffbeck (nonpartisan)
• Businesswoman Bernadette Wilson (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Mike Shower (Republican)

When Westin Nelson of Skagway became the first Alaska hunter on record to harvest a mule deer, he may have been doing the state a favor.

Mule deer, better known as inhabitants of the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions, have been expanding their range northward, including into Alaska. As they do so, they are expanding the risks of parasites and some contagious diseases.

The most concerning issue is the winter tick, or Dermacentor albipictus. It has yet to be documented in Alaska, but it has wiped out much of the moose population in New England and started causing problems for moose populations as far north as Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories.

In recent years, nearly half of the mule deer examined in the Whitehorse area were found to be tick-infested, said Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s wildlife biologist. That is ominous for Alaska, she said.

“All it takes is one mule deer with one female tick on it to come into Alaska, and that would completely devastate our moose population,” Beckmen said.

Mule deer have been well-established in the Yukon Territory since at least the 1980s, and in Alaska, people have been spotting them on sometimes fleeting occasions for a little over a decade.

Most sightings have been in the northern part of the Southeast panhandle, but some were as far north as Interior Alaska. Three mule deer were reported in 2013 near Delta Junction, one was photographed near the Fort Knox mine outside of Fairbanks in 2016 and one was struck by a vehicle and killed in North Pole in 2017, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

Though they are related to the Sitka black-tailed deer that live in territory stretching from the British Columbia rainforest to the Kodiak Archipelago, mule deer are different from their Alaska cousins.

The contrast is striking, said Nelson, the Skagway hunter.

“These deer are big, maybe twice the size of Sitka black-tailed deer,” he said. “Mule deer have enormous ears. They have ears like a mule.”

Adult Sitka black-tailed deer generally weigh 80 to 120 pounds, according to the Department of Fish and Game, while adult mule deer often weigh more than 200 pounds.

Nelson said he has seen mule deer occasionally in the Skagway area over the past few years. He had a light-hearted competition with a friend about who would be the first to hunt one. It was not until April when circumstances came together to result in a successful hunt – right in that friend’s yard.

“I just happened to kind of get lucky,” Nelson said.

The rules for hunting mule deer in Alaska, where the species is non-native and considered “deleterious,” are liberal. There are no seasonal restrictions and no bag limits. Even though it took until this year for Nelson to become the first hunter on record to harvest a mule deer in Alaska, state officials first authorized mule deer hunting in 2019.

The caveat for mule deer hunters is that the Department of Fish and Game wants them to submit tissue samples for testing. That is to screen for signs of tick infestations and for numerous problems like brain worm, also known as “moose sickness,” chronic wasting disease, different types of hemorrhagic diseases, bluetongue, worm infestation and other diseases or parasites.

Nelson provided abundant samples to the department: the hide, head and neck, liver, heart, lungs, spleen, lower colon and two lower legs with the hooves attached, according to officials with the Department of Fish and Game.

Importantly, Beckmen with the department said, there were no signs of hair loss or breakage in the hide, indicating that any tick infestation during the past winter was unlikely.

Nelson said he has been reading up on mule deer and the state’s concerns about ticks and other dangers. But he downplayed any contributions he might have made to state wildlife safety. “I wouldn’t say I’m super-noble or anything. I just wanted to get one,” he said.

Climate change, along with factors like road-building and agricultural development, have allowed mule deer to thrive in new territory even as some habitat is lost to development, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

Climate change is also helping spread the winter tick northward and westward.

The ticks do not travel on their own. Rather, they grow from eggs that are laid on the ground in the spring that grow into larvae that climb up plants in packs to latch onto passing hosts in the fall, a process known as “questing.” If they stay attached all winter, they develop into adults that repeat the cycle by dropping from their hosts in spring to lay eggs. Shorter winters and later snowfalls are increasing opportunities for successful questing by the ticks, scientists say.

In New England, moose have been found with tens of thousands of winter ticks embedded in their skin. The blood loss they cause can be fatal, especially to young moose. In Maine, for example, biologists in 2022 found that 86% of the moose calves they had collared died from tick infestations. In New Hampshire, the moose population now is only about half of what it was in the 1990s, according to state biologists there.

While mule deer can become infested with winter ticks, they also are able to get rid of them fairly effectively through self-grooming.

Moose lack those grooming skills. That results in moose rubbing and scratching off so much of their hair that they are called “ghost moose” because their bald spots make them look white.

Mule deer are not the only species expanding their range to Alaska.

Another such species is the mountain lion, also known as cougar. The Alaska Board of Game early this year approved a first hunting and trapping season for mountain lions. It is set to start on Aug. 1 in parts of Southeast Alaska.

The post First Alaska mule deer harvest follows years of fleeting appearances in the state appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Early Saturday morning, three canoes, all built with guidance from master carver Wayne Price Ká jeis yutsi.aak, began their journey to Juneau. With rough seas predicted until Berners Bay, Price anticipates the crews will have to ride aboard the three support boats until the handmade vessels find calmer seas.

Price said this will be his seventh time making the journey to Juneau for the biennial Celebration since 2014 via canoe. This year, Price says that the crew contains a mix of new and experienced pullers.

“We’ve got three different size canoes. We’ve got three different size crews,” said 23-year-old Brandon Kaayúkw Gomez. Gomez lives in Juneau, where he interns for Price and has been learning how to carve dugouts.

Each canoe, or dugout, starts as an old-growth tree that is usually 475 years old and weighs 15,000 pounds, according to Price. It takes roughly six months to carve a dugout, which weighs 700 pounds. Each tree is different, “so every time you do one, you run into different things.” 

“Back when I first started out, there wasn’t nothing going on,” Price said about the consistent canoe trips from around Southeast to Juneau for Celebration. “With the help of a few others now we’ve got all this going on.”

Jibba, the dugout that Price completed before the canoe trip to Juneau in 2014 for Celebration, has roughly 1,500 nautical miles on it. This trip will be some of the first times on the water for the canoe Wavedancer, according to Price. He developed a new formula to make a dugout using strips of wood instead of carving a dugout out of one tree for the Wavedancer.

“In our future, when it’s getting harder to find the trees, they’ll be able to use my formula and make a strip canoe and still have that experience being in a dugout,” Price said. 

During their journey, Price said the crew will be drug and alcohol free.

“We support healthy lifestyles and healthy living and helping bring the side of the culture that was this close to being decimated because of colonization,” Price said. Price started his first dugout in early June 1982. He said his mentor, Archie Klaney from Klukwan, walked into the forest two weeks after Price started work on the dugout. Price has since built 18 canoes. He’s currently working on one of those.

“The transfer of knowledge is occurring and it’s going really well. I’m having a lot of fun,” Price said. Some of the paddlers on this journey helped Price build the dugouts they are using.

The third boat and crew came from Haines Junction. Their boat’s name, dan kinghar nàkudle, means “bringing people’s spirit back,” according to captain Khásha from Haines Junction. Khásha has made this journey two times and will be the captain on the boat for his third trip. This is the second journey that the canoe dan kinghar nàkudle will make down to Juneau after being finished in 2024 before the last Celebration. Ten crew members hail from Haines Junction and their support boat captain is from Whitehorse.

“I tell them the real work will come, but right now it’s everyone’s excited and just lovestruck with everything,” said Khásha, who has made this journey three times. 

The three support boats will carry the crew’s camping supplies. Each member has a smaller day dry bag with any essentials they need while paddling. 

“Besides my battery chargers that I brought, this isn’t too atypical from what they [ancestors] would have been doing,” Gomez said. He then pointed toward his paddle, “Oh, I’ve got my paddle,” that he had just finished up on the ferry from Juneau.

If crews get a northeast wind, they will be able to put their sail up and “just sail all the way,” Price said Friday. “That’s really living.”

“It’s like you’re in a solarium ride without the heat, but it’s really cozy … they don’t have prettier views than this,” Gomez said.

The post In three canoes, 35 crewmembers depart from Haines heading to Celebration in Juneau appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.