Category: Alaska News

Testifying before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about last fall’s deadly remnants of Typhoon Halong, Paul J. Paul, Chief of the Native Village of Kipnuk, recalled the moment his six-year-old granddaughter asked the family to sing “Silent Night” — in the dark — as early-morning floodwaters swirled violently around their home.  

Lucy Martin, a tribal resilience assistant coordinator for Kwigillingok, listened as she dabbed her eyes dry.  Earlier that day, she described graves and caskets unearthed by the storm rolling outside her window as her home broke free from its foundation and floated away. “It was a real-life horror movie for me,” she said. 

Over two days of field hearings in Anchorage and Bethel, storm survivors from the hard-hit villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok offered a rare, emotional account of the fear and lingering hardships linked to the October 12 storm that killed at least one, left two others missing and displaced residents of both communities. Tribal leaders and policy officials used the hearings to urge Congress to rethink how federal agencies handle disaster recovery in rural Alaska.

Only Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and chair of the committee, attended the hearings on behalf of the Senate panel. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland also participated in the discussions alongside Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who joined the first day of testimony in Anchorage.

“I know that this is not easy,” Murkowski told survivors Tuesday. “We’re here to better understand the impacts of Typhoon Halong, how the federal response worked, where it fell short, and what we need to do together as we move forward.” 

No one wants to move back to Kipnuk, the tribal administrator, Rayna Paul said, as she spoke of the destruction and contamination that claimed 90% of village infrastructure.  “Our lands have been forever changed by these disasters,” Paul said. “We are no longer safe there.”

Kipnuk has endured three federally declared disasters in just 37 months, each more destructive than the last.  Viewing Typhoon Halong as a warning of what lies ahead, both Kipnuk and Kwigillingok — with a combined population of about 1,000 people — have voted overwhelmingly to relocate to higher ground.

But Wednesday’s hearing in Bethel exposed what tribal leaders have warned about for decades:  The deep flaws in the federal government’s disaster recovery system — from delayed housing aid and fragmented funding programs to the absence of any formal framework for responding to climate-threatened villages.

“The status quo is not sustainable,” Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium President and CEO Natasha Singh said, testifying how communities are often left navigating multiple agencies with overlapping rules and unclear authority—all while simultaneously responding to disaster impacts. “For the people we serve, the existing approach is unacceptable.”

Similar concerns were raised by leaders from the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Calista Corporation, the Yukon-Kuskwokwim Health Corporation and the Denali Commission. 

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland highlighted a recently announced $20 million emergency package from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, including $4 million for immediate fuel, water and firewood assistance in 16 Western Alaska villages and $16 million for erosion and infrastructure work in Chefornak.

But questions remained about the status of the BIA’s Tribal Climate Resilience Program, which was renamed the Branch of Tribal Community Resilience by the second Trump administration.  The grant initiative represents one of the federal government’s primary funding sources for tribal climate adaptation and migration planning since its creation in 2011.

One tribal administrator taking in the talks, Noelle George from Akiachak, told the Alaska Beacon that roughly $250,000 in erosion mitigation funding awarded during the Biden administration had yet to be distributed under President Trump.

Kirkland, who was confirmed in October, did not directly address the resilience grants during the hearings despite repeated references to it by witnesses. It also remains unclear whether any new funding has been awarded to any new recipients during Trump’s second term. During his first, the administration unsuccessfully sought to eliminate the funding program altogether. 

Bryan Fisher, director of Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, described Typhoon Halong as the most catastrophic disaster he has seen in 32 years, and warned that federal funding disruptions and staffing shortages have created new obstacles in the recovery process.

“FEMA is hard to work with,” Fisher said bluntly during a question-and-answer session following Wednesday’s hearing. 

He added that furloughs and delays within the Department of Homeland Security slowed reimbursements and recovery planning. On April 29, FEMA implemented Immediate Needs Funding, limiting spending to only the most urgent, life-saving measures amid the partial government shutdown.

Still, FEMA said in a six month recovery update that the agency and the state had distributed more than $60 million in individual and public assistance funds tied to Typhoon Halong recovery efforts, including housing assistance, infrastructure repair and debris removal.

In a press conference afterward, Murkowski confirmed that some disaster recovery funds tied to Halong had been stalled in Washington awaiting approvals while DHS funding remained unresolved.

The strain of those delays emerged in the case of Rayna Paul, whose FEMA appeal reviewed by the Alaska Beacon showed the agency denied her request for continued housing assistance after determining her living expenses did not exceed 30% of household income. The denial suggested Paul had achieved some degree of financial and housing stability.

But that stood in stark contrast to her testimony, Tuesday, when she described displaced families in Anchorage facing looming evictions, suicides, depression, bullying in schools and deep cultural isolation far from their ancestral villages.  

In that sense, Paul’s denial represented a broader concern raised throughout the hearings: that federal disaster assistance formulas often fail to reflect the realities facing Alaska Native families living on the frontlines of climate change. 

As relocation plans slowly take shape, Paul urged lawmakers to support an interim village where displaced families could remain connected to their homelands, while also establishing a federal pilot relocation project for climate-threatened Alaska Native communities.

Murkowski said she is already working with other senators on legislation aimed at reforming FEMA and improving disaster response systems. She also suggested Alaska could become a national model for climate-driven community relocation.

But not without tribal consultation and autonomy. The hearings also revealed growing tensions over agencies and contractors failing to communicate directly with tribal leadership in recovery efforts in  Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. 

“When you hear the tribal administrator say she learned of what was happening in her community because she saw a picture posted on Facebook, that’s wrong,” Murkowski said.

Tribal self-determination ran as a central theme throughout the hearings, among storm survivors and tribal leaders from across the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Many stated that the federal government bears a trust responsibility to help Native communities threatened by climate change — particularly in Alaska where federal Indian boarding school policies forced the settlement of  tribes now concentrated in some of the state’s most flood-prone danger zones.

For Paul, however, the crisis extends beyond federal policy and agency response. He described how, in his culture, nature is personified — but now storms no longer behave in ways elders recognize.

“Nature is talking to us,” he told the panel. “Remember that nature is stronger than man.” 

This post has been updated.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

10 years ago

After years of performing in makeshift tents, basements and other small venues around town, the Haines puppetry troupe Geppetto’s Junkyard is ready for the big stage.

Following three successful shows at Petersburg’s Little Norway Festival last weekend, Geppetto’s Junkyard is taking “Travels in the Belly of a Whale” to the Chilkat Center stage. 

For more than a decade, the group of ragtag puppeteers has set up in cramped quarters, like the Chilkat Center basement, Mosey’s restaurant and the circus-esque tent at the Southeast Alaska State Fair. But when a Petersburg resident contacted the troupe to perform on the town’s main stage, they scaled their new props and puppets accordingly.

Puppeteer Debi Knight Kennedy said the show features a 15-foot whale, elaborate sets depicting the creature’s innards, and full-size mermaids made of cloth and found objects. The main character, Inar, is a wooden puppet that stands more than three feet tall.

Though he plays the adventure-seeking Viking fisherman Inar in “Travels in the Belly of a Whale,” the wooden puppet isn’t new to the Geppetto’s Junkyard repertoire, Knight Kennedy said.

“He’s become like a movie star kind of guy. He has different roles,” she said.

The nautical tale follows Inar’s escapades around the world, with scenes involving underwater black light magic, singing palm trees and plenty of the group’s signature shadow puppetry. Live music and original songwriting punctuate the performance, including a knockout ballad by Hannah Bochart about Davey Jones’ Locker.

“When a lot of people think about puppets they think about hand puppets or the Muppets,” said puppeteer Melina Shields. “But we’ve really taken it to a different place that’s less Mr. Rogers and more in the European tradition of puppetry. It’s a full theater performance.”

Petersburg residents were thrilled by the group’s whimsical, humorous and poignant performances last weekend, Shields said.

“It will leave you smiling and engaged. People were so psyched at the last show that we did that they didn’t want to leave. They all came up on the stage and got up into the belly of the whale. Little kids were hugging Inar and leaning on the boat,” she said.

The whole “swallowed by a whale” plotline isn’t supposed to be a biblical reference, she added. “The whale is really more of a therapist/philosopher.”

Fourteen of the troupe’s core members will perform this Friday, as will three of their children: Yarona Jacobson (daughter of Merrick Bochart and Joey Jacobson) plays a squid, Zorza Szatkowski (son of Jessica Plachta and Nicholas Szatkowski) appears as an underwater critter in the black light scene, and Garland Bishop (daughter of Sarah and Chorus Bishop) dons a tiny hat to transform into a “baby wave.”

“Garland just rode around on (mother) Sarah’s back the whole show (in Petersburg) with a little binky in her mouth. She was like Maggie from ‘The Simpsons,’” Shields said.

In addition to the main performance, “Travels in the Belly of a Whale” includes a “pre-show,” with Knight Kennedy and her husband Gene portraying clowns named “Major Disaster” and “Minor Dilemma.”

The show is appropriate for all ages. “We had happy babies in the audience and we had laughing 80-year-olds,” Shields said of the Petersburg show.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. They are available at the Babbling Book and at the door.

25 years ago

Haines fishermen aren’t opposed to paying for using the crane at the Small Boat Harbor, but they don’t want to have to go to city hall for a key to unlock it. 

Gillnetters, city councilors and boat harbor committee members on Monday worked out a proposed ordinance change for using the crane that would require a seasonal or per-use fee. 

Those paying a seasonal rate would get a key, otherwise keys would be available at the harbormaster’s office and at the police station. Proposed fees are $10 per use or $50 for a season. 

“Everybody who understands the value of the crane, and that we’re going to have to pay for it,” said fisherman Stan Wood. An ordinance setting fees and key policy is being drafted to be introduced at the next council meeting. 

Wood said he’d like to see penalties for unauthorized use of the crane. If funds raised by the fee exceed maintenance on the crane, the city should buy an additional, smaller lift, he said. “There’s no point wearing his big crane out to pick up 300 pounds at a time.” 

City administrator Vince Hansen said he’d also like to establish a log of crane use, in part to determine wear and tear on equipment. Replacing the crane would cost an estimated $36,000. 

50 years ago 

The 1941 Howe fire truck—acquired surplus by the Haines Volunteer Fire Dept. in 1959—stands proudly but outclassed by the new Seagrave truck the HVFD received Wednesday. 

The new 350 h.p. diesel truck has an automatic transmission; it will pump 1,500 gallons of water per minute and carries 3,000 feet of two and one-half inch hose. The 125 h.p. Howe is gasoline powered, will pump 750 gallons per minute, and carries 1,500 feet of hose.

The new truck, ordered 18 months ago, cost $64,900; today’s price would be $76,000, but the contract entered into a year and a half ago was binding, Fire Chief Frank Wallace said. He and Assistant Chief Chuck Jones drove the new truck 3,200 miles from Wisconsin to Prince Rupert, B.C. to catch the ferry Taku. 

What’s the future of the Howe? It will continue to serve the area, Wallace said. However, the fire department has a problem: where to house it. Anyone with a secure garage at least 30 feet long might get in touch with the chief. 

The post This Week in History: Puppeteers, a new crane at the Small Boat Harbor and a new fire truck appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Kudos to the Southeast Road Builders’ fire brigade along with the all the others who responded to the fiery demise of my beloved SueBeeSue#6 along the highway just south of Klukwan. Thanks to the unknown driver of the blue pickup who I flagged down and dispatched to alert the SERB crew nearby. Thus, all the onboard fire extinguishers carried by SERB vehicles were promptly emptied, then topped off by the magical powers of Matty and his big hose knocking the flames down before the gas tank blew. Extra shout out to queen of the day, Helena Muench, who possessed the uncanny ability to drop her stop sign, enter the only phone booth south of the border clad as a fluorescent north-end flagger and appear on the other side donned in full fire turn-out gear driving a fire engine! 

Appreciation for the arrival of both fire departments who then followed with mop up, Dakota Strong for the ride home, and all the others who radio relayed and helped with the efforts. It’s always heartwarming to see neighbors taking care of neighbors and this response could not have had a better ending. Many thanks to you all.

Robin Beaudry

The post Thank you to those who helped extinguish car fire on the highway appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Fuel prices jumped Monday, up to $5.74 per gallon for gasoline and $6.53 for diesel at Haines Industrial’s pumps. At Delta Western across the street, prices are now $5.79 for gasoline and $6.58 for diesel. 

Prices had held steady in Haines for weeks, even as global fuel prices skyrocketed following the United States’ war on Iran. 

In mid-April, Delta Western spokesperson Di Do said the company hadn’t raised prices in Haines since March 13, the date of the most recent fuel delivery to the Lutak Dock. There has not been a new fuel delivery since then, Haines harbormaster Henry Pollan said. 

Haines Industrial owner Haynes Tormey, who is supplied by Delta Western, said he was notified of its pricing change Monday morning.

The post Same fuel, new price appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

After a unionization effort in the Upper Lynn Canal collapsed last year, a new group of Alaska Power and Telephone employees on Prince of Wales Island has voted to unionize. 

It’s the third time in just over a decade that workers at the Southeast Alaska utility have tried to organize and join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. 

Power crews in Haines and Skagway and Tok said the company has put them on notice that they may have to head to Prince of Wales and work if that crew decided to strike, said IBEW assistant business manager Jesse Young. 

The Chilkat Valley News has tried to contact company vice president of development and spokesperson Jason Custer for several days via phone, email and text. He did not respond to requests for more information about the unionization efforts and if the company intended to weigh-in publicly on what it is doing in response. 

The Prince of Wales vote comes after five linemen and one power plant operator between Haines and Skagway voted to unionize in November of 2024. They were looking for better benefits, healthcare, and training that covers Alaska-specific hazards and scenarios. Another group of four telephone combination technicians asked to join as well, and the company chose to add them as a second, separate bargaining unit in late December of that year. 

But before negotiations could begin, Young said it seemed like the company divided people and broke them down. 

Two telecommunications workers were laid off, two others in Skagway were transferred to non-union positions and another lineman left for a different job, leaving just three linemen and two telephone workers between the two communities waiting to negotiate contracts with the company. 

“That effort fizzled out and, as a union, we agreed to walk away because that’s what the majority of the potential members wanted,” he said. 

That same day, an AP&T worker on Prince of Wales called Young and asked about organizing. 

“The crew down here was keeping an eye on what was happening up north because they wanted to get in and they were hoping the [Upper Lynn Canal] crew would get a contract,” Young said. 

On Feb. 5, 2026 eight out of 10 eligible power division employees on the island voted for a labor union.  

That includes Jacob Hoppe, of Klawock, who has been with AP&T since 2004. He’s a journeyman lineman. It’s a good-paying job that, he said, started with a company that felt like a family. 

“They would have company picnics,” he said. “In one instance, we had a coworker whose father had a heart attack and he had to go down south. His water froze up. The vice-president of the company …  sent a couple of guys over to his house to get it fixed. In my mind, right, wrong, or in-between, that told me that the company I was working for would take care of me.”  

But over time, Hoppe said, the company has taken away benefits and flexible scheduling that were good for employee morale and saving customers money. He said the company also changed its sick and vacation time policy and cut the amount of time newer workers were accruing. 

This isn’t the first time Prince of Wales AP&T workers have tried to unionize. In 2013, a group organized and Hoppe said the company fought back. 

“They brought up a bunch of union-buster speakers. We had both power and telephone [staff] who had to sit in on these mandatory speeches and they’d go two to three hours,” he said.  “You had to listen to this gentleman speak about how bad the unions were.” 

At the time, Hoppe said the potential union members and AP&T argued over who should be allowed to vote. Hoppe remembers that the company took the stance of saying that its superintendents should be eligible to vote. 

“They were vocal about not wanting to unionize so the company pushed for them to vote,” Hoppe said. 

Eventually, 20 people were classified as eligible to vote and in 2013, just five of them voted to join the union according to National Labor Relations Board records. 

Now, the company has reversed course and is contesting the vote of two superintendents during the 2026 election, arguing that because they’re supervisors they should not be part of the bargaining unit. 

“This time around, we have a superintendent who … has been vocal about his pro-union position. Now the company’s stance is that they don’t want superintendent votes to count,” Hoppe said. 

After the vote was taken, the company changed the job class of two of the newly-unionized Prince of Wales workers. 

“They were offered a substantial pay cut or termination,” Young said. “They’re claiming those positions don’t exist anywhere else. But they are basically doing the same job they did before but with a pay cut.” 

But AP&T did that without consulting with the union first and when the union staff reached out to note that any changes should have been done at the bargaining table, he said they were told “we have the right to do whatever we want with our workforce.” 

He said it’s very similar to what happened in the Upper Lynn Canal. 

“A lot of companies do it because it drags things out and busts morale,” Young said. “It’s a common corporate playbook move, and the reality is the system often gives employers more leverage than workers. 

The two workers chose to accept substantially lower pay and the union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint, but Young said the financial penalties to the company are minimal and it could take the National Labor Relations Board a substantial amount of time to take up the complaint and make a ruling. 

“It could be a year before they get a decision,” he said. “Then these guys are out $20-$40k a year. That’s a substantial amount of money.”

On Prince of Wales, Hoppe said he understands why the company would fight a unionization effort. 

“It’s taking control from them. They have all the control right now and they can do these things,” Hoppe said. “They can take somebody who, yesterday their job was important and needed, and reclassify them and say we’re dissolving that position but you can go over here. That person asks ‘do I have to perform my same duties’ and the answer is ‘yeah, but for less money.’ To me, that’s not ok.”   

Former Upper Lynn Canal AP&T lineman Jordan Frost said he is also not surprised to see the company fighting a union. Frost was part of the Upper Lynn Canal organizing effort. He said in Haines and Skagway, workers were elated when the vote was successful. 

“We were excited for the changes,” he said. “We were going to get a voice. The company was going to have to sit down with us and discuss wages, training and safety.” 

But then when two of his coworkers were let go in the middle of winter, with no similar job prospects in Haines or Skagway, Frost said, morale hit an all-time low. 

“I felt responsible for that. I was the one pushing it, telling these guys we’d be fine and the company can’t do anything and it turns out they can,” he said. 

Frost quit his job and moved to Oregon, but has been following the Prince of Wales unionization effort. 

The post-vote job reclassifications and pay cut are familiar, almost a company playbook to avoid having to negotiate with a union, he said. 

“I’m not surprised. But it’s sad to see that they do this to these people. Without the guys they’re doing this to, they don’t really have a company to run,” he said. 

Frost said from his perspective, what workers need in both the Upper Lynn Canal and on Prince of Wales is community support and for people in the communities to push the company to go to the bargaining table. 

“I felt like it was more hush, hush in the canal. There were a lot of mixed reviews in the community,” he said. “And as soon as two guys ended up without jobs in the winter, I don’t think they were nearly as interested in seeing what could happen to the other workers. It’s a scary thing.” 

Hoppe said he’s not sure how supportive the communities on Prince of Wales would be to the idea of a union. But they are supportive of the workers themselves. 

“Our response time for outages here has been, in my opinion, incredibly fast. In the past during big storms or wrecks, people have come out and brought us coffee and have taken care of us,” he said. “I would expect to see the same thing during this time. Some people might look at unions in a negative light. But we wouldn’t have gone this route if the management or administration hadn’t pushed us in this direction. I feel like they painted us into a corner.” 

There are some signs of community support for what the workers are trying to do. On Tuesday, the company posted on social media about its newest hire, Laura Desmond. She’s the new vice president and chief employee services officer. She’s to help emphasize a “holistic, employee-centered experience” and create an environment where employees “feel supported, heard, and empowered to do their best work.” 

The first, and only, comment is from a woman who said she hopes Desmond helps AP&T realize they need to put their employees first and start by working with the union. 

Desmond also did not immediately respond to a reporter’s phone inquiry.

In the Upper Lynn Canal, Young said, workers in a job class which voted to join a unionize in 2024 could still be included in this latest effort. 

“They could be worked into this organizing drive on Prince of Wales. Same with Tok as well,” he said. “If these guys wanted to join IBEW and be part of one large group, there are ways to do that.” 

The post After failed Upper Lynn Canal union push, AP&T workers regroup on Prince of Wales appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Haines High senior JC Davis got a knock on his front door last week. When he answered it, he found a high-profile visitor.

It was the mayor, Tom Morphet, come on “bended knee,” as Morphet later described it, with $100 in hand. He needed the young Davis’ help. 

The trouble had started a few weeks earlier, when the local marching band, Morphet included, had been contacted to be in a community play, the Thirty Nine Steps. 

Many know the mayor as a trumpet player, having seen and heard him play music at parades and official events. Morphet, though, makes a distinction. He may play music, but he says he’s not a musician. 

“I’m not a musician, but I am a big supporter of the marching band,” he said in an interview this week. 

So, musician or not, he agreed to show up with the rest of the band to rehearse for the play. But quickly, there were warning signs. 

For one, there were no other loud brass players to hide behind.

“My modus operandi with the marching band is to hide behind people who actually know what they’re doing,” he said. 

No such luck this time. Then, he looked at the sheet music, and saw he was meant to be playing the lead trumpet part.

“When I sat down and saw the sheet music, I thought, this is not going to work,” Morphet said. “Too many high notes have to be played too fast. It gets hairy when I have to play (lead trumpet).”

There was only one trumpet player Morphet could think of in town with the chops to play the lead trumpet part, and it was Davis. 

That night, Morphet knocked on his door, and Davis accepted the lucrative offer — to everyone’s benefit, the mayor said. 

“My greater interest is in the band sounding good. With me as lead trumpet, that was a bridge too far.” 

Davis showed up just a day later to opening night, his first time being a part of the cast or the band. He looked unfazed, the play’s director Annette Smith said, and the band performed well. That included Davis’ mother, Holly Davis, on flute. 

“They’re such a talented family, and they’re so generous with their talents,” Smith said. 

For Morphet, too, the whole saga ended well, even with his wallet $100 lighter. “It went to a good cause. The band sounded good and I got to sit in the audience and enjoy it.”

The post Trumpet student assists mayor in time of need appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Ed and Yuko Hays visited Duluth, Minn. for the home birth of their granddaughter. Ariel Susan Hays was born to Mori Hays and Julia Hays on Jan. 15, 2026. She weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces at birth and was 20 inches long. The proud grandparents will get to visit her again when they attend the wedding of their son Kai Hays to Bailey Schroder on Aug. 28 in the Seattle area. 

The newly refreshed ball field at Mosquito Lake Road saw heavy snow this winter, damaging the backstop hood. Glen Scott and Jim Stanford made a plan to fix it up. They donated the labor to the borough and righted the fencing. Stanford calls this “geezer power.” He and Scott take on projects, as older gentlemen sometimes do, and this ballfield repair was one of them. The duo cut parts of the twisted backstop, refabricated the pipe joints and fixed the damaged piece.  Stanford and Scott were part of the original group who built the ball field, along with about 75 other people. Stanford has a new project in mind. He says that we can look forward to a pickleball court at the park in the near future. He encourages others to get involved and welcomes all community members to spruce up the neighborhood. 

Rose Fudge graduated with a master of social work from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Instead of attending graduation she spent the special day with her son at the Chilkat River, where they found a heart-shaped rock. Fudge said she’s grateful to her husband Cosmo Fudge for being the best and most supportive spouse and dad while she completed her degree. 

Tattooly-noted

Suns out, guns out. The springtime warmer weather has allowed everyone to catch a glimpse of some of the ink in town. 

Brandy Peters’ left shoulder tattoo is a Harry Potter-inspired wand, stone and cloak. Peters got the tattoo with her friend Gina Randles right here in Haines to celebrate their 20-year friendiversary. Shelley Gasch has the Matagorda lighthouse from her hometown in Calhoun County, Texas on her left arm. This tattoo ties  in with her mermaid, turtle and undersea life on the arm. Richard Cook has a stingray tattoo, to commemorate the unexpected sting he received from an unpredictable stingray in Baja, Mexico. Cook has another tattoo of a phoenix rising from the ocean and flying into a setting sun. It’s a memorial to his younger brother who loved the ocean and surfing. Cook said the tattoo allows him to remember his brother as memories of his face and voice fade. Lance Nesbitt has been taking wildlife photos in Alaska for 15 years, and two of his tattoos were created from his photos.  A bear on his right forearm was from a photo featured in the January 2019 edition of Canadian Geographic, where you can see more of his work. He is such a fan of Fujifilm that you can find a tattoo of the company’s logo on his right arm. An eagle in flight depicts a photo he took in Juneau. An eagle on the center of his neck is not from a photograph he took, but ties in nicely with a bear in the northern lights right next to it, which is his.  Possibly the most infamous tattoo in Haines currently is a Care Bear tattoo on Shannon Miller’s butt. He got the tattoo in the Chicago area when he was 22-years-old and said he has shown it to well over 200 people in Southeast Alaska. If you hear someone say “have you seen Shannon’s Care Bear?” you can assume that you are about to see it as well. 

Codi Sambrano is currently getting some fresh ink from Haines’ very own Cassie Benassi. Yours truly was unclear on most of the references in the piece, but editor Rashah McChesney spotted the reference photo and stepped in to explain that it was a [Hayao] Miyazaki Masterpiece. She described it like this: “Ok, from bottom to top is Totoro, Calcifer, Ponyo, a group of Kodama, Kao-Nashi – but you can call him “No-Face–” more Kodama, Princess Mononoke, Haku surrounded by a group of Shikigami, then some soot sprites, Yu-Bird carrying Boh and then at the top is Sophie being carried by Howl on the right  and a witch named Kiki on a broom but I haven’t seen that one.” If you, like I, have no idea what she’s talking about, she suggests watching My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo and Kiki’s Delivery Service. 

Thom Ely and Aimee Creelman arrived back in Haines recently from a vacation ferry-hopping the Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan. Ely read about the islands in a New York Times  ‘50 places to go’ list about 15 years ago, and finally had the opportunity to plan the trip. Originally planned as a bike trip, they ended up bringing no bikes, but did include a stunning bike ride through rural Japan along the way. They also enjoyed snorkeling in the cobalt blue waters surrounding the Kerama Islands. They swam with turtles and walked on uninhabited beaches. Ely and Creelman used a language-translation app, but not always with success. They learned to carve chopsticks from ancient cedar when they visited Yakushima, a UNESCO world heritage site featuring 3,000 to 7,000 year-old trees resembling a fairy-tale landscape. They say the highlight of their trip was the natural hot springs, or Onsen.  This location has a unique feature of being accessible only with the tide, as it is right at sea level.

Brooke Robison loved every bit of living in Haines during her seven months here. She loved the mountains, the moss, the borough assembly meetings, the chest-high snow, the dogs and especially the people. Robison’s plans to stay forever were derailed when she applied to grad school, and got in. So alas, Mountain Market is losing one fantastic worker, as she is off to Juneau to get some field experience in social work for her degree. Robison promises Haines is not truly safe from the likes of her. She will return. 

The post Duly Noted, and Tattoo-ly noted appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Palmer Project owners have announced a $13.7 million budget for 2026 operations at the Chilkat Valley’s lone major mining project — an increase after a year without new drilling. 

The Palmer Project is currently in the mineral exploration phase. Its managing company Constantine Metals was purchased last year by Vizsla Copper. 

Before extracting and selling ore, the company must demonstrate enough valuable ore in the ground to entice investors, and eventually get the mine permitted and into production. Much of that work centers around drilling and analyzing core samples from the deposit, located above the Little Jarvis Glacier, just north of Flower Mountain.

If the company’s planned 10,000 meters of drilling this year goes forward, it would be on the high end for recent Palmer Project exploration.

Constantine’s reports to the state list one year of comparable drilling in 2023, which saw 10,500 total meters of drilling. The company reported 6,036 meters of drilling in 2024 and 3,500 meters of drilling in 2022. No new drilling occurred last year. 

A 2025 regulatory filing estimated the company would need an additional 30,000 meters of drilling to produce an updated economic assessment — the expected next step in project development. Theoretically, this summer’s planned work gets them a third of the way to that mark. 

The company did not respond this week to questions about their plans or upcoming work.

The Palmer Deposit has seen years of similar work, with no certainty about whether the exploration project will ever result in a producing mine. Statistically, few do.

The mine, however, has completed a preliminary economic assessment, a key benchmark in mineral exploration, said Robert Loeffler, a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research and former state mining regulator. 

Exploration generally follows a rough overall progression, from initial exploration, to more advanced exploration, to permitting, and eventually production. 

Along that progression, mining companies are subject to regulatory requirements to be publicly listed on major stock exchanges. In Canada, where Vizsla is traded, that includes standardized reports on the estimated economic value of exploration projects — the preliminary economic assessment being one such report. 

Those reports done by third-party geologists serve as “semi-independent assessments so that investors can feel companies’ claims are accurate,” Loeffler said.  

Reaching a preliminary economic assessment puts the Palmer Project in somewhat rarified air. 

According to a 2021 paper co-authored by Loeffler, of 110 major mines and exploration projects in the state that year, only 18 had advanced past a preliminary economic assessment.

Studies cited in Loeffler’s research show only a small fraction — potentially less than 1 percent — of all exploration projects ever make it into production. But for projects that have advanced to an economic assessment, some studies show three-quarters or more making it into production. 

The updated economic assessment recommended in the company’s 2025 filing would add new data to the 2022 preliminary economic assessment. That’s not an uncommon step for projects with new owners or major investors, Loeffler said.

Updating the economic assessment would still leave plenty of checkpoints before serious consideration of the mine going into production.

The company would likely have to complete a series of increasingly detailed updates of the economic assessment — a prefeasibility study and then a feasibility study — before beginning permitting. At each step, the new information would have to demonstrate economic viability.

Without comment from the company, it’s hard to say how far off those next steps might be, and what exactly it would take to get there. However, there’s been a recent spate of public relations spending from the mine and from opponents of the mine. 

Earlier this year, Vizsla paid a firm $600,00 to run a six-month marketing and public relations campaign. The firm, Machai Capital, has run public relations campaigns for a large number of mining firms. 

On the other side, the Chilkat Indian Village’s Chilkat Forever initiative has run a high-profile anti-Palmer Project campaign, including buying billboard ads at a Vancouver mining conference and large ads in the Anchorage Daily News, Vancouver Sun and Seattle Times. 

In recent months, some, including borough elected officials, have said the mine’s future hinges on its economic viability. 

But public opinion may yet have some role to play if the project moves forward. 

If shown to be economically viable, state and federal environmental permitting would still represent an avenue for public voices to come into play. 

According to Loeffler, those permits fall into two broad categories: criteria-based permits and balancing permits. In the first category, government regulators weigh the project against a strict set of criteria. If the criteria is met, the permit is granted. 

Balancing permits have slightly less definitive terms, where “an effect or risk to public resources is balanced against a company’s right to operate,” Loeffler said. 

Those permitting processes include statutory public-input processes, where in theory the public could provide both technical information, but also testimony regarding the effect on public resources. 

Many valley residents have raised concerns about the environmental impact of a potential mine. In a written statement this week, Chilkat Indian Village Tribal Council member Shawna Hotch pointed to a Chilkat Forever letter in late February signed by 245 Chilkat Valley residents opposing the mine. 

Chilkat Indian Village Tribal Council president Kimberley Strong, in her own written statement this week, said the Chilkat Indian Village has concerns with the impact of this year’s exploratory drilling, not just impacts down the road. 

“It’s very important for Chilkat Valley residents to be aware that the ‘exploration activity’ Vizsla is doing involves drilling into potentially acid-generating rock, yet their plan of operations fails to describe how they will address any acid-generating cuttings from the drill rigs,” Strong wrote. 

Others have pointed to potential jobs created by a producing mine. 

Constantine has advertised a range of job openings this spring, and the Palmer Project is projected to employ 94 people if ever in production, roughly a quarter of the employees at nearby currently-producing Kensington and Greens Creek mines. 

The post Palmer Project announces uptick in exploration appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

When a wall of rock collapsed into Southeast Alaska’s Tracy Arm last August, it triggered one of the highest-reaching tsunamis ever recorded in the world. The event happened to be in a place heavily visited by cruise ships.

A study newly published in the journal Science describes its massive magnitude.

The landslide dumped 64 million cubic meters of debris into the water, triggering a megatsunami with an initial wave of 328 feet, or 100 meters, the study said. The tsunami pushed water as high as 1,580 feet, or 481 meters, up the slope on the opposite side of the fjord and, as it traveled to Tracy Arm’s mouth, stripped the surface of the mountain face to bare rock.

The tsunami had the second-highest slope run-up on record, with a height just below the record 1,730-foot run-up in Alaska’s Lituya Bay that was created in 1958 by an earthquake-generated slide.

Unlike the Lituya Bay event, the Tracy Arm slide had no connection to any earthquakes, even though it created its own seismic signal equivalent to a magnitude 5.4 quake.

Instead, the collapsed rock wall had been destabilized by the melt of the glacier that used to buttress it, coupled with rain. It is an example of a hazard that is becoming more prominent in coastal regions of Alaska that attract crowds of tourists.

“With fjord regions increasingly visited by cruise ships, and climate change making similar events more likely, this unanticipated, near-miss event highlights the growing risk from landslides and tsunamis in coastal environments,” said the study, which had coauthors from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

No one was hurt in the Tracy Arm landslide and tsunami, a contrast with the 1958 earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in five deaths.

 

The only casualties from last year’s event were some material goods. A kayak and some other equipment that campers about 25 miles away from the landslide site were lost when the huge waves washed on the island where they had set up their tent – fortuitously, in the woods rather than directly on the beach.

The campers saw the results of the tsunami, and some boaters even farther away felt it raise the water level even as the tide was falling.

Alaskans were lucky to be left unscathed by the event, considering that Tracy Arm has long been a popular tourist and recreational destination, said study coauthor Ezgi Karasözen, a seismologist at UAF’s Alaska Earthquake Center and a study coauthor.

“It was a close call. I think we dodged a bullet here, because there were multiple cruise ships in the area the day before,” she said.

It helped that the landslide resulting in the tsunami happened at 5:26 a.m. on a rainy morning, when visitors were not in the area, Karasözen said.

“It’s the timing of the event that saved us all,” she said.

In the landslide’s aftermath, tour companies that used to ferry people to Tracy Arm to watch the calving glaciers there are now skipping the area.

Large cruise lines that previously listed Tracy Arm as a stop now show Endicott Arm, a fjord farther south, on their itineraries. Allen Marine Tours, historically the largest tourism operator in Tracy Arm, isn’t sailing there this year. Instead, its boats are traveling from Juneau to Endicott Arm, farther away from the capital city.

“To my knowledge, there is no cruise-related tourism activity in Tracy Arm this year, and I’m not aware of any commercial local operators in Tracy Arm this year,” said Liz Perry, director of Travel Juneau, the city’s tourism bureau.

Similar adjustments have been made by tour companies operating in Prince William Sound, about 100 miles east of Anchorage. They have swapped out different destinations for Barry Arm, a fjord where a mountain slope is already moving and is in danger of a massive, tsunami-generating collapse.

Karasözen said it makes sense for visitors to avoid Tracy Arm for now, as there are still portions of rock face that may be in perilous shape and could collapse in new tsunami-producing landslides.

But Tracy Arm and Barry Arm are not the only coastal Alaska areas with landslide and tsunami dangers, she said.

“There are many fjords in Alaska that have steep slopes, retreating glaciers and similar conditions, so it can produce these kinds of landslides, probably, and a tsunami. So in that sense, the hazard is not confined to a single location,” she said.

How to keep safe is a “difficult question,” she said. Avoiding coastal areas entirely may be unrealistic, given that they are the areas where people want to live and visit, she said.

The Alaska Earthquake Center is working on establishing a landslide early warning system to keep people safe even as they move around coastal areas.

Already, the center has created a landslide-detection system developed by Karasözen and Mike West, Alaska’s state seismologist. The system enables scientists to identify slides and possible tsunamis within a few minutes. It expanded the monitoring program established at heavily instrumented Barry Arm, a site considered to pose tsunami risks to the community of Whittier and to the many users of western Prince William Sound. That area of the sound is heavily trafficked by vessels of different kinds, including cargo ships, tour boats, fishing boats and recreational watercraft.

The Alaska Earthquake Center scientists’ intention is to create a system to warn people about landslides before they happen, something that does not yet exist in the United States.

The Tracy Arm event provides some information that would help in that effort, according to the Science study. For several days before the big landslide, there was “microseismicity,” or movements of magnitudes too small to be felt by people, the study said. And the shrinking of Tracy Arm’s Sawyer Glacier, along with the heavy late-summer rainfall, could be seen as precursors to a slide, the study said.

James Brooks contributed to this story from Juneau.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

The first month of the American war against Iran caused crude oil prices to skyrocket around the world, and the price of Alaska’s oil has risen particularly far.

That rise is making extra millions of dollars available for state services and the Permanent Fund dividend, even as it squeezes the finances of individual Alaskans.

In figures newly compiled by the Alaska Department of Revenue, the average price of a barrel of Alaska North Slope crude was $111.17 in April. 

That’s $8.70 higher than the average price of a barrel of Brent crude, a standard based on oil extracted from Europe’s North Sea. It was also $13.11 per barrel higher than the average price of West Texas Intermediate, a standard based on oil from America’s second-largest state.

“The differential is the largest monthly value since the year 2000 and may be the highest value in history,” said the Department of Revenue, referring to the gap between Brent and North Slope crude.

“The large premium is due to a tightness in the Pacific basin oil market, where ANS is traded. “Most mid-east crude oil is supply constrained and cannot reach major importers like China, Japan, India, and South Korea,” the department said by email. “Uncertainty about shipping and delivery is incentivizing refiners to pay a premium for available crude that does not transit areas with substantial security risks. Crude grades from the Americas are the safest option. Brent primarily trades in the Atlantic basin, where the impacts from the Iran war are not quite as pronounced on a barrel for barrel basis.”

The premium now being paid for Alaska crude will have a significant impact if it continues for months. 

Each increase in the average annual price of a barrel of ANS crude is worth roughly $30 million. The exact value varies, because the state collects different amounts of money at different price levels.

While more than half of the state’s general-purpose revenue now comes from the Alaska Permanent Fund’s investments, oil is still the No. 2 source of flexible spending money for the state, and prices — combined with production — cause the amount of available money to flex up and down each year.

Legislative budgeters write the state’s budget with an average crude price in mind for an entire fiscal year, from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.

In the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Department of Revenue expects prices to average $75.26 per barrel. 

Thanks in part to the Alaska premium, the average through May 5 was $75.71. Every day that prices stay above that level, the more unexpected money the state will receive.

The state Senate already has a plan for that extra money. The first $96 million would go to an “energy relief” payment that increases the amount of the 2026 Permanent Fund dividend. The next $111 million would be distributed to public schools, and anything above that would go into the state’s principal savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

While Alaska’s state treasury is receiving a boon from the high prices, legislators don’t expect it to last. In the fiscal year that starts July 1, they’re anticipating significantly lower average North Slope oil prices.

“The Senate operating budget, when combined with spending agreements for the capital budget, balances the budget on $73/barrel oil, with some money left over,” said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel and co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, speaking about the Senate’s budget proposal on Wednesday.

“The (House’s draft) budget, when combined with spending agreements for the capital budget, has close to a $320 million deficit at $75 a barrel oil,” Hoffman said.

Staff for Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage and co-chair of the  HouseFinance Committee, said they believe that estimate is accurate. The House’s draft budget includes a Permanent Fund dividend of $1,500. The Senate’s proposed dividend is $1,150, including a $150 energy rebate.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

This article has been updated to better explain the fiscal impact of ANS price increases.