Author: Sage Saunders

With the help of seventh-grade science students in Brenda Papoi’s class at Blatchley middle school, resource specialists in the Sitka Ranger District are beginning to study ways to rebuild the Starrigavan watershed, to once again allow fish and other species to thrive. The students spent a morning last week (Wed 5-14-08) gathering baseline data on the insects, stream bed, water quality, and forest in the valley – information that will benefit resource managers for decades to come. An audio postcard by student reporter Sage Saunders.

The Takatz Lake hydro project is back on the table for Sitka. The Sitka assembly met Wednesday evening (5-21-08) to discuss next year’s budget for the electrical department, but it may as well have been the first meeting of a local, sustainable energy task force. The discussion of the day-to-day costs of operating the electric utility took a back seat to planning for the day when Sitka is almost completely powered by electricity.

The declared candidates for the House District 2 seat currently held by Peggy Wilson met for the first time together in an on-air forum last week in Petersburg. The forum, hosted by public radio station KFSK, was part of the community’s Little Norway Festival. Robert Woolsey prepared this look at some of the issues the candidates addressed during the program.

Two of Southeast Alaska’s leading cultural historians, Richard and Nora Marks Dauenhauer, have published a new book about the battle for Sitka. The book documents the events leading up to the battles of 1802 and 1804, which took place at sites now known as “Old Sitka” (in Starrigavan Bay) and Sitka National Historical Park. The little-understood episode was last major conflict between North American Natives and a colonizing European power.

Scientists in the lower 48 say they’ve found a way to help increase the survival of released rockfish. It’s called re-compression, and it could mean the difference between life and death for innumerable fish. Two researchers recently presented their findings to sport and charter fishermen in Sitka. They, and at least one Sitka scientist, hope the technique will catch on in Alaska. The presentation was co-sponsored by the Alaska Conservation Foundation, the Sitka Conservation Society, and the Sitka Marine Stewardship Roundtable.

Representatives from Sitka went into a full-court press to try and win better ferry service for the community next winter, but received little in the way of assurances from state marine transportation officials. The department of transportation held a one-and-a-half hour teleconference this morning (Thu 5-15-08) on the proposed 2008 fall/winter schedule for Southeast Alaska. Testimony from Sitka dominated the proceedings.

The Sitka assembly took a first look at some innovative options for development on the benchlands at its regular meeting last night (Tue 5-13-08), but struggled with how to fund them.

The fast ferry Fairweather pulled into port at 12:30 PM Monday (5/12), and Sitka dignitaries were there to meet it. They turned out to celebrate the Alaska Marine Highway’s summer schedule – being hailed as the best the city has seen in years. And the star of the schedule is the Fairweather, which will sail between Sitka and Juneau 5 days a week.

The City of Sitka is hoping the Alaska Marine Highway will re-think its draft fall-winter-spring schedule. Officials are calling the schedule “a new low in service to Sitka”. As it now stands, travel to and from Sitka will require layovers of up to a week. Sitka will see four vessels a week until March. The fast ferry Fairweather will connect Sitka to Juneau on Mondays and Fridays, the mainliners Taku and Columbia will make stops on Tuesdays, the Taku traveling northbound and the Columbia southbound. Beginning in March, the Fairweather will be put into drydock and Sitka service will be down to the two mainliners once a week.

The Forest Service is opening up a number of small and large timber sales in the Iyouktug (eye-YOU-tug) area on northeast Chichagof Island – about 12 miles east-southeast of the small village of Hoonah. Over the course of about ten years, the agency expects to log close to 42-million board feet of timber, or about 33-hundred acres. The agency released the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Iyouktug (eye-YOU-tug) timber sales on May 3rd. As Melissa Marconi Wentzel reports, the controversial project is one of the largest the region has seen in recent years,