CBJ- No significant new snowfall is expected until early next week. Avalanche risk remains elevated on Mount Juneau slide paths affecting the White Subdivision, Behrends Ave, and all neighborhoods below Mount Juneau.
This week’s historic storm has created conditions that may persist over an extended period, requiring continued awareness even without daily changes. Conditions can change quickly with little warning.
CBJ will send alerts if conditions worsen.
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF)’s avalanche hazard reduction work was completed yesterday morning.
Thane Road has reopened. DOT&PF reminds drivers not to stop in the avalanche zone and to use caution while travelling on Thane Road.
Moving forward CBJ will only issue alerts like these if conditions worsen or major changes are observed. The absence of an alert does not mean the hazard has diminished. You can find current hazard levels at bit.ly/CBJavalanche.
This is not an evacuation advisory. Residents should remain alert, have a go-bag ready, know their risk, and stay signed up for emergency alerts.
Photo courtesy of Docks and Harbors’ Facebook page
NOTN- Prolonged heavy snowfall and extreme winter conditions have sunk at least eight vessels in Juneau’s harbors, and have required urgent response from Docks and Harbors crews who say they are rapidly running out of resources as the storm continues.
City officials said three additional large vessels sank overnight, bringing the total number of boats lost during the storm to eight. Docks and Harbors officials said Dozens of other vessels have been saved through round-the-clock efforts by Docks and Harbors staff, and by quick action from fellow harbor users and boat owners.
Crews have been working nearly nonstop, deploying every available dewatering pump as heavy snow accumulation overwhelms vessels and dock infrastructure.
Despite those efforts, officials warned that conditions remain severe and that limited equipment and personnel are straining the response.
Juneau Docks and Harbors urged the public to report any vessel at risk of sinking. Harbor staff can be reached at 907-586-5255, and after hours, residents are asked to call the Juneau Police Department’s non-emergency line at 907-586-0600.
In response to the scale of the storm, Docks and Harbors is bringing back seasonal summer staff and has created short-term emergency employment positions to assist with snow removal.
“This is truly an all-hands-on-deck event,” officials said in a Facebook post, thanking harbor users and the Juneau community for their support.
Students begin their first day of school at the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School in Juneau on Aug. 15, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
It was a difficult and consequential year for Alaska schools, educators and students.
While Alaska lawmakers passed the first significant education funding increase since 2011, the state rode a federal funding rollercoaster as funds were frozen, released, disputed and appealed.
Western Alaska students and families also endured the devastating storm disaster of Typhoon Halong. Hundreds of students, as well as teachers, were displaced from their homes and forced to move and adapt to new schools across the state.
Here are some of the top stories of the year:
A state education funding fight culminated when the Alaska State Legislature passed a historic override of a veto by Gov. Dunleavy to enact a boost to per student funding for K-12 schools in a one-day special session in August.
Education was the top priority of the Legislature and Gov. Dunleavy this year, and an embattled topic throughout the legislative session, with an ongoing dispute around funding for schools and education policy changes sought by the governor to address lagging school performance and test scores.
Gov. Dunleavy vetoed two education funding bills during the session, citing a lack of policy changes he favored to boost homeschool and charter school options, and address test scores. In April, he vetoed a bill increasing the BSA by $1,000, calling it a “joke” and insisting that policy changes be included. Legislators introduced and passed another bill increasing funding by $700 per student in late April. In an effort to compromise, they included many of the governor’s priority items, including charter school changes, incentives for reading programs, and establishing an education task force to recommend further education policy changes.
Sen. Loki Tobin, D-Anchorage, holds her hand to her chest on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025, after the close vote on overriding Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of education funding. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)
Dunleavy vetoed the education funding increase out of the final budget in June. The legislature came back in August to override the veto. It was the first time since 1987 that Alaska lawmakers have overridden an appropriations veto by a sitting governor.
School officials said the additional $50.3 million in per student funding, known as the base student allocation, is essential to help maintain class sizes, hire and retain teachers, and create stability for students.
“We’re extremely excited. A lot of our administrators were texting and very excited about getting it overturned today, so that made Valdez very happy,” said that city’s school superintendent, Jason Weber, in August after the veto override vote.
The Trump administration froze millions in funding for Alaska schools, later releasing some funds. But Alaska is also embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the U.S. Department of Education around impact aid, which could cost the state $80 million
Over the summer, as school districts grappled with uncertainty around a state funding increase, the Trump administration announced a freeze of over $46 million in funds for Alaska schools, including for instruction and migrant education programs, which support students who miss class due to seasonal work like fishing. The Anchorage, Fairbanks North Star Borough, and the Kuspuk school districts joined a nationwide lawsuit challenging the withholding of congressionally approved funds as unlawful.
“These are not extras. These are the programs that give our students a chance,” said Kuspuk School Superintendent Madeline Aguillard. “When the federal government walks away from its obligation, it is not a delay. It is denial. Denial of access. Denial of progress. Denial of the futures our students have a right to pursue.”
The empty playground at Pearl Creek Elementary School is seen on June 3, 2025. The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District decided to close the school at the end of the academic year. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
In late July, the federal government released $5 billion of the $6.8 billion in K-12 funding.
The state is involved in an ongoing dispute with the U.S. Department of Education, which claims the state has failed a disparity test – allowing no more than a 25% gap between the highest and lowest funded schools. The state has appealed the finding, with over $80 million in federal impact aid at stake. A decision is expected in 2026.
The Trump administration also froze more than $6 billion in congressionally-approved funding for adult education and workforce development funding in July. In Alaska, it prompted immediate cuts to programs and staff layoffs. The state had been awarded over $1.1 million in grants last year, and the frozen funds in July were a shock to programs and students that included GED classes, literacy and civic education, English language classes and workforce development.
Hundreds of students, as well as teachers, were displaced by the devastation of Typhoon Halong from Western Alaska and relocated to schools around the state.
The devastation of Typhoon Halong forced an estimated 2,000 residents to evacuate Western Alaska communities in the largest mass evacuation in state history, and education officials across districts worked quickly to re-enroll students and provide support services at schools across the state.
More than one hundred students relocated to Bethel, remaining in the regional hub of Western Alaska and the Lower Kuskokwim School District. An estimated 140 students enrolled in the Anchorage School District, which worked to keep storm displaced students together, including enrolling a number of students at the Yup’ik immersion program at College Gate Elementary School. ASD also provided transportation from emergency shelters, health services, meals and translation services for Yup’ik speaking families.
“They’re going through trauma and it’s going to take a lot of work. But we’re going to put that in, because these kids are worth it,” said Anchorage Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt at an Oct. 21 school board meeting. “And they deserve a wonderful education that we want to offer them, in ASD, for as long as they’d like to be here.”
Other students re-enrolled in schools where they relocated across the state, including in Nenana and Fairbanks areas, the Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna Valley Borough, as well as boarding schools like Mt Edgecumbe High School. Teachers and staff displaced by the storm also were re-assigned, with the majority staying in the Lower Kuskokwim School District, according to the superintendent.
Many of the district’s 22 village schools also served emergency shelter to residents as Typhoon Halong hit, and as relief centers in the days and weeks after the storm as the recovery effort got underway.
An Alaska Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster III, assigned to the 176th Wing, arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, with approximately 300 evacuated residents from western Alaska, Oct. 15, 2025. (Alaska National Guard photo by Alejandro Peña)
A certified medical assistant holds a syringe for a flu vaccine at a clinic in Seattle, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
AP-Flu is rising rapidly across the U.S., driven by a new variant of the virus — and cases are expected to keep growing with holiday travel.
That variant, known as “subclade K,” led to early outbreaks in the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada. In the U.S., flu typically begins its winter march in December. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported high or very high levels of illness in more than half the states.
The CDC estimated there have been at least 7.5 million illnesses, 81,000 hospitalizations and 3,100 deaths from flu so far this season. That includes at least eight child deaths — and is based on data as of Dec. 20, before major holiday gatherings.
Some states are particularly hard-hit. New York’s health department said the week ending Dec. 20 marked the most flu cases the state had recorded in a single week since 2004: 71,000.
It’s far too soon to know if this flu season will be as severe as last winter’s.
But it’s not too late to get a flu shot, which health experts say can still prevent severe illness even if someone gets infected. While this year’s vaccine isn’t a perfect match to the subclade K strain, a preliminary analysis from the U.K. found it offered at least partial protection, lowering people’s risk of hospitalization.
According to the CDC, only about 42% of adults and children have gotten a flu vaccination so far this year.
What is subclade K flu?
The flu virus is a shape-shifter, constantly mutating, and it comes in multiple forms. There are two subtypes of Type A flu, and subclade K is a mutated version of one of them, named H3N2. That H3N2 strain is always harsh, especially for older adults.
Subclade K’s mutations aren’t enough of a change to be considered an entirely new kind of flu.
But they’re different enough to evade some of the protection from this year’s vaccine, said Andrew Pekosz, a virus expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Will subclade K make people sicker?
The CDC said it’s too soon to know how severe this season will be.
Flu seasons dominated by any version of H3N2 tend to be bad, with more infections overall and more people becoming seriously ill. But Hopkins’ Pekosz cautioned it will take time to tease apart whether this subclade K version simply spreads more easily or also is more dangerous.
That question aside, the CDC notes there are some prescription medicines to treat flu — usually recommended for people at high risk of complications. But they generally need to be started a day or two after symptoms begin.
Who needs a flu vaccine?
The CDC and major medical societies all recommend a flu vaccine for just about everyone age 6 months and older. Despite lots of recent misinformation and confusion about vaccines, the flu recommendations haven’t changed.
Flu is particularly dangerous for people 65 and older, pregnant women, young children and people of any age who have chronic health problems, including asthma, diabetes, heart disease and weak immune systems.
The vaccines are brewed to protect against three influenza strains. Despite concern over that new H3N2 variant, they appear to be a good match against H1N1 and Type B flu that may also circulate this year, Pekosz said.
There are shots for all ages, as well as the nasal spray FluMist for ages 2 to 49. For the first time this year, some people may be eligible to vaccinate themselves with FluMist at home.
Screenshot courtesy of the National Weather Service Juneau
NOTN- City and Borough of Juneau facilities are closed today as hazardous road conditions followed a record-breaking overnight snowfall.
According to the National Weather Service in Juneau, 16.4 inches of snow fell Tuesday at Juneau International Airport, pushing the city’s December total to 79.8 inches.
The all-time record for snowfall in a single month in Juneau remains 86.3 inches, recorded in February 1965.
The heavy snowfall has prompted CBJ officials to close most city facilities and offices for the day, citing unsafe travel conditions.
There was even an avalanche advisory for Thane road on Tuesday afternoon, the road will remain closed until noon today when Alaska Department of Transportation will provide an updated status.
Juneau is set to experience more winter weather today with an extended winter storm advisory also until noon, before precipitation will become appreciably lighter through the latter half of the week, according to the National Weather Service.
City staff will continue providing services remotely where possible.
Facilities closed today include all Juneau Public Libraries, the Juneau-Douglas City Museum and all Juneau Parks and Recreation facilities, including the Dimond Park Field House, Dimond Park Aquatic Center, Augustus G. Brown Pool, Treadwell Arena and the Zach Gordon Youth Center.
City Hall, the CBJ Permit Center and all other CBJ offices are closed to the public but remain accessible by phone or email. The Juneau Recycling Center is also closed.
Capital Transit continues to operate on winter routes.
In a statement, City Manager Katie Koester thanked residents for limiting travel and allowing plow crews time to clear roads.
“This winter storm has been relentless, but Juneau always pulls together when confronted with adversity,” Koester said. “We ask, once again, that everyone limit driving today where possible for your safety and the safety of others.”
Residents are urged to continue monitoring conditions and exercise caution as cleanup efforts continue across the city.
AP- When turbulent weather with whipping winds and heavy snow is in the forecast, meteorologists sometimes warn that a storm could “bomb out” or become a bomb cyclone. But what exactly does this mean?
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, certain storms undergo bombogenesis, which happens when a storm’s central pressure drops at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. These storms are sometimes called bomb cyclones. Storm intensity is measured by central pressure, so the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.
Such rapidly strengthening storms are capable of producing heavy rain, blizzard conditions and intense winds that can create dangerous conditions such as downed trees and power outages.
“If you’re watching TV at night and the weather report comes on and you’re hearing ‘bomb cyclone’ being used, that usually means there’s quite a bit of active weather going on,” said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
Bomb cyclones can happen in any season, but mainly occur during fall and winter when frigid air from the Arctic can creep south and clash with warmer air masses.
“It’s really the clash of those air masses that really kind of helps to generate the areas of low pressure in the first place,” said Orrison.
Regions in North America that are prone to seeing bomb cyclones include Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region.
“It’s not common to get bomb cyclones at lower latitudes. So generally speaking, you wouldn’t see a bomb cyclone across, let’s say, the southern United States,” said Orrison.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
Alaska was awarded more federal money than any state besides Texas for a federal rural health initiative, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on Monday.
The money will come from the Rural Health Transformation Fund, a $50 billion program set up as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and intended to counteract the effects of its sweeping Medicaid cuts in rural areas.
Alaska’s congressional delegation and state officials lauded the federal investment, which will be upwards of $272 million in Alaska in 2026.
At a Wednesday news conference in Anchorage, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the $1.36 billion the state is slated to receive over the next five years is the biggest investment from the federal government to Alaska’s health care system in state history.
“This is a generational opportunity for our state,” he said.
Heidi Hedberg, commissioner of the state’s health department said a major goal is to rework the state’s “fragmented” health system.
She said the agency will release more information about its plan for the money in the coming days, but pointed to the state’s application to the program, which outlines six priorities: maternal and child health, access to services, preventative care, a strengthened workforce, financial sustainability and updated technology and data systems.
Emily Ricci, the agency’s deputy commissioner, said that core to the state’s application was the question of how to support services that already exist in the state.
“Part of our focus was making sure that the tribal communities could see some of the ways that they want to sustain their programs and evolve or build their programs out further into something that provides more access and sustainable costs,” she said. “So I would say that those opportunities are written in each one of the initiatives.”
She did not immediately supply specific examples.
The state’s application also commits to adherence to several policies favored by the Trump administration, including a pledge to join licensure compacts and prohibit the use of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds to buy soda pop by 2027.
Several of those commitments require the approval of the state’s legislature or medical board.
Hedberg said her agency will work with those decision makers to follow through on the commitments the state made in its application.
In a virtual meeting with reporters after the state’s news conference, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, challenged the state administration and legislators to take on the question of rebuilding the state’s health care system as a major issue.
In response to a reporter’s question, she said she was worried about the reliability of the funding because the state could fail to make the most of the opportunity or because the federal government could pause or cancel the funding.
“I know that we’re going into an election year next year. I know that the Permanent Fund always takes up space. I know we’re going to be talking about the gas line,” she said. “But we must, we must absolutely be talking about this health care opportunity that we have in front of us now.”
NOTN- Upwards of 3 feet of snow has fallen since the winter storm began Friday night, with more expected today.
Winter storm warnings have been extended until 6 am tomorrow.
The National Weather Service said significant precipitation amounts will persist through the weekend, with hazardous travel conditions possible due to snow accumulation.
Looking ahead, precipitation is expected to become lighter during the latter half of the week. Temperatures are forecast to drop again as colder air moves in from the north.
Flood watches and advisories remain in effect for parts of central and southern Southeast Alaska, where heavy rain and runoff may lead to localized flooding, particularly in low-lying and poor drainage areas. Forecasters urge residents use caution when travelling and stay updated on the latest advisories and warnings.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy greets a child during the governor’s annual holiday open house on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2022 at the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks / Alaska Beacon)
Framed by the fireplace in Alaska’s governor’s mansion earlier this month, Gov. Mike Dunleavy shook hands and posed for pictures in the final holiday open house of his two terms as Alaska’s top elected official.
Dunleavy is prohibited from running for another term, and 14 candidates have already signed up to run for his office in the 2026 elections. One of those candidates, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, stood next to Dunleavy at the open house, smiling alongside her husband.
“It started what I think is going to be a real pipeline,” Dunleavy said. “It’s something that the state has dreamed about for decades, ever since the trans-Alaska oil pipeline came into being.”
Since January, when Glenfarne announced it was buying into the long-pursued Alaska LNG pipeline project, it’s announced a series of preliminary agreements from international companies interested in buying gas.
To date, it doesn’t have firm deals for either buying or selling, and it is expected to make a go/no-go decision on the first phase of the project — a pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska for in-state use — within the next month.
“I think in January there’s going to be some major announcements that will solidify that this pipeline as a go,” Dunleavy said.
Dunleavy said he’s also been pleased with rising forecasts for Alaska North Slope oil. In November, the federal Energy Information Administration predicted that North Slope production would grow 13% in 2026, reaching levels that haven’t been seen since 2018.
“That’s good for Alaska as well,” Dunleavy said, “because of the renaissance on the Slope.”
The state’s unemployment rate is holding below 5%, he noted.
“When you look at the turmoil across the country and you look at the turmoil across the world, I think Alaska is in pretty good shape. … We have a lot of resources here, and I think we have a lot of great people,” he said.
Asked for the lowest point of the year on a statewide basis, Dunleavy said: “You’re always dealing with disasters. Under my tenure, there’s been 73 declared disasters … we had the issue out in Western Alaska, and so we have to add now a typhoon to our mix of volcanoes, earthquakes and so forth.”
Dunleavy himself was affected by the recent Matanuska-Susitna Borough windstorm disaster, and his wife couldn’t attend the holiday open house as a result.
“We lost some of our roofing on a building or two out there, and the heat went out,” he said.
While disasters are part of living in Alaska, he said Typhoon Halong was something extra.
“I would say that whenever a disaster impacts people at the visceral level, at the local level, at their household level — we got hit hard with that typhoon,” he said.
For much of the year, as in his conversation with reporters, the governor preferred to focus on the positives.
Earlier this year, Dunleavy said the arrival of the Trump administration was “like Christmas every morning” for Alaska.
Since Trump was sworn into office, his administration has relaxed restrictions on oil and gas drilling on the North Slope. It has advanced the Ambler Access Project, which promises to open a large mining area in Northwest Alaska.
The Interior Department has also pushed forward the road between Cold Bay and King Cove and proposals to explore for oil in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Dunleavy administration has been enthusiastic in its support of those actions, but most have been tied up in federal court and will be for months or years.
The ANWR drilling issue, for example, won’t even come before a federal judge until late 2026, according to a status update published this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.
The Trump-backed Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress this year will deliver millions of dollars in construction projects to the state, and other legislation will provide millions more, but other projects — particularly those involving renewable energy and projects intended to deal with climate change — were eliminated.
“Christmas every morning” entailed other metaphorical bits of coal for Alaska this year: The extended government shutdown left thousands of Alaskans unpaid for over a month, and the cuts instituted by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency caused significant amounts of uncertainty.
In the long run, DOGE doesn’t appear to have significantly affected the number of federal jobs here: The latest available figures show more federal employees in the state than there were at the start of the year.
While some federal grants targeted by DOGE have since been restored, many were not. Public radio stations and arts organizations laid off staff and curtailed their work.
Tariffs, visa issues and a prolonged dispute with Canada threatened the summer tourist season, but a feared Yukon boycott never appeared, and the number of cruise ship passengers traveling to Alaska increased slightly, to a new record high of more than 1.7 million.
At the holiday open house, Dunleavy said there’s plenty to look forward to in the coming year and in the years once he leaves office.
“There’s just a whole host of things — the possibility of data farms, artificial intelligence, and how that’s gonna revolutionize not just the world, but here in Alaska, I think we could become a data transportation center because of our proximity on the globe. So I think you’re going to see a number of announcements throughout the year that I think will set the stage for a great several decades going forward,” he said.
The Stikine River Flats area in the Tongass National Forest is viewed from a helicopter on July 19, 2021. The Stikine River flows from British Columbia to Southeast Alaska. It is one of the major transboundary rivers impacted by mines in British Columbia. Alaska tribes and communities are seeking some new protection to avoid downstream impacts. (Photo by Alicia Stearns/U.S. Forest Service)
By: Max Graham, Northern Journal
This story is co-published by the Wrangell Sentinel and Northern Journal.
An Indigenous community is locked in a debate about the pros and cons of a major new mine on their traditional lands — and a big cash payment promised by the developer.
There is strong support, and fierce opposition. A lot of money to be made, and a wild river to protect. The community faces a pivotal choice.
Though this story sounds like it could be unfolding in rural Alaska, a version of it has actually been playing out just across the border with Canada, in northwest British Columbia. Still, it has implications for the Alaskans who live downstream from the proposed mine site.
In a referendum after weeks of heated debate, members of the Tahltan Nation earlier this month voted overwhelmingly to approve a deal with a Canadian mining company that hopes to revive a huge gold and silver mine, called Eskay Creek, which stopped producing in 2008. The project is located above the Unuk River, which flows into Alaska near Ketchikan.
The Tahltans’ backing is a major step forward for the project, and it comes as the Canada and B.C. governments intensify efforts to build more mines in the name of national security and economic growth. Several of the projects are near the border with Alaska, where state and federal elected officials are separately pushing mines that could help wean the U.S. off a foreign supply of minerals used in energy, electronics and weapons.
Just one day after the Tahltan vote, Canada’s federal government announced that it had approved a merger between two multinational mining firms with a condition that calls for advancing two other proposed mines in Tahltan territory. Both projects sit above tributaries of the Stikine River, a major, salmon-bearing waterway that straddles Canada and the U.S. and empties into the ocean near the small Southeast Alaska town of Wrangell.
Louie Wagner Jr., a Tsimshian and Tlingit resident of Metlakatla, a Native community at the southern tip of Alaska’s panhandle, said he’s concerned about the health of the Unuk River and its future with mines in its watershed.
Wagner and his family have fished and hunted moose along the Unuk for generations.
“That little river cannot handle it,” Wagner said in a recent phone interview. The Unuk is notable, he added, for its abundance of eulachon, a small, oily fish also known as hooligan that’s a staple for Indigenous communities in Southeast Alaska.
Though rarely discussed in Alaska circles, the Tahltan Nation’s approach to mining has major implications for the industry’s future in the transboundary region. A top U.S. Department of Interior official visited the region last year to learn more about models for how Indigenous nations can partner with mining companies.
There are more than a dozen early-stage mining projects in Tahltan territory, many above rivers that flow into Alaska. And the Eskay Creek vote could serve as a preview of future deals between the Tahltan government and the for-profit mining companies promoting development.
For months, members of the First Nation debated whether to approve a deal, known as an impact benefit agreement, that Tahltan elected leaders had negotiated with Vancouver-based Skeena Resources, the company pushing Eskay Creek.
The Eskay Creek mine is accessible off British Columbia’s Stewart-Cassiar Highway. (Photo by Max Graham/Northern Journal)
The specifics of the agreement have not been made public. But Tahltan officials have said it guarantees benefits worth more than $1 billion over the life of the mine, mostly in cash but also in contracts and wages.
The deal also calls for an upfront payment from Skeena, intended to be distributed to individual Tahltan members — to the tune of $7,250 each, according to Tahltan officials. And the agreement reportedly gives the First Nation government some environmental oversight over the mine.
The nation backed the deal with support from more than 77% of the roughly 1,750 Tahltans who voted, according to the Tahltan Central Government. Payments are expected to go out to members in 2026.
“Tahltan Central Government is not standing on the sidelines,” Tahltan president Kerry Carlick said in a statement after the vote. “We are embedding ourselves directly into the governance of environmental protection.”
Tahltan leaders have long worked to navigate political tensions between an expanding mining industry and efforts to protect traditional lands and wildlife.
The Tahltan government has entered into a number of agreements with mining companies. But it also has opposed efforts to mine coal and drill for natural gas near the headwaters of major rivers in the region.
And some Tahltan members have been outspoken critics of the Eskay Creek project and the company promoting it.
In the leadup to the recent vote, arguments erupted on social media, and relationships among community members grew strained, some Eskay Creek opponents said in interviews.
“This is causing internal conflicts,” said Tamara Quock, a Tahltan member who lives in northern B.C. some 350 miles east of the mine site.
Quock said she thinks the promise of the direct payments “enticed” some people to vote in favor of the agreement. Debate over the project, she added, grew more intense after that condition was added to the deal.
Quock said she feels Skeena is “using the Tahltan people” to generate its own profits.
She and other critics have voiced concerns about a perceived lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest within the First Nation’s government. They also say they are worried about possible environmental impacts from the project, which would involve digging two open pits and storing millions of tons of mining waste above the Unuk River.
Skeena didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Alaska Native leaders, fishermen and environmental advocates who live downstream, in Southeast Alaska, for years have expressed concerns about Eskay Creek and other proposed mines in the region, saying they don’t trust Canadian regulators to safeguard Alaskan interests.
“You can’t cut these watersheds in half and expect to adequately protect them,” said Guy Archibald, executive director of the tribally led Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission. “Right now they’re cutting the baby in half and ignoring the effects on the Alaska side of the border.”
The commission last month filed a legal challenge in B.C. court, asserting that regulators had failed to consult Alaska tribes on several proposed mines in the region, including Eskay Creek.
Meanwhile, after a major spill last year at a Canadian gold mine in the Yukon River watershed, Alaska’s congressional delegation called for more oversight of Canadian mines near transboundary rivers like the Unuk and Stikine. The statement from the delegation — which has strongly supported mine development in Alaska — called for “binding protections, financial assurances, and strong transboundary governance.”
“As British Columbia seeks to advance numerous mines just upstream from Alaska, we are still asking them to fully remediate legacy sites and firmly commit to binding protections for Alaska interests,” Joe Plesha, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said in a recent statement. “Senator Murkowski is actively considering new ways to make our B.C. neighbors take Alaskans’ concerns seriously.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office says she’s pushing the British Columbia provincial government on protections for Alaska interests as Canada advances mining projects in transboundary watersheds. (Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal)
Ottawa and B.C.’s provincial government, meanwhile, are funding new infrastructure projects and prioritizing permitting for energy and resource development projects, including Eskay Creek and the expansion of a huge copper and gold mine in the Stikine watershed, called Red Chris.
Canadian officials say existing regulations are geared to minimize impacts in the shared watersheds. Major projects undergo thorough environmental assessments before they’re approved, a spokesperson with the B.C. agency that leads those reviews, the Environmental Assessment Office, said in an email.
“Making sure large-scale projects are properly assessed is critical to making sure development is sustainable — to ensure good jobs and economic growth while also protecting the environment and wildlife, and keeping communities healthy and safe,” said the spokesperson, Sarah Plank.
Tahltan officials declined an interview request and did not respond to questions about Alaskans’ concerns or the First Nation’s agreement with Skeena.
Supporters of Eskay Creek say it could be transformational for the Tahltan Nation. Among proponents of the deal is Chad Norman Day, a former Tahltan president who has worked in the mining industry and now runs a consulting firm that does mining-related business.
“The benefits which flow to the Tahltan Nation from here will empower the people and territory unlike anything we have ever seen,” Day said in a statement after the vote.
Many Tahltan people work in mining, and the First Nation already generates revenue from Red Chris and another large operating mine, Brucejack, which started producing gold in 2017.
In 2019, Tahltan citizens voted in favor of an agreement with a different mining company pushing another, much bigger proposed mine partially in the Unuk watershed, called KSM. The outcome of that vote was nearly identical to the recent Eskay one, with about the same percentage in favor.
The first nation also, in the past five years, has entered into two joint decisionmaking agreements with the B.C. government for regulatory reviews of mining projects, including Eskay Creek.
Before it can start producing, Eskay Creek needs an environmental approval from the provincial government. A decision is expected early next year.
