KCAW

The Alaska House of Representatives is working on a resolution that would develop a task force to look at entry practices in Southeast Alaska’s sportfishing. On September 15th there will be a roundtable event at Centennial Hall (as well as on Zoom), where experts from sportsfishing and other fishing communities will discuss ideas on the topic based on current research. Alaska State Representative Rebecca Himschoot joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss more of the specific presentation topics, as well as how community members can get involved.

Alaska has the highest suicide rate of any state in the U.S., with Alaska Native and Indigenous peoples having the highest suicide rates of any ethnic group in the country. Kyleah Garroutte from Outer Coast and Maddie Gillissie from Brave Heart Volunteers join KCAW for the Morning Interview to speak on bringing the Suicide Prevention and Awareness walk to Sitka and what people can expect from this year’s iteration of the event.

Over a hundred people are spread out over a wide patch of muskeg, bright and early on a Saturday morning. Locals and tourists stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a single-file line across a gravel trail, buzzing with anticipation for the beginning of one of Sitka’s biggest biannual traditions: the release of rehabilitated birds of prey back into the wild.

“We have put so many months and sometimes years into the care of these rehabilitated birds that have come in to us with varying degrees of injuries, and it’s us up to us to get them back out in the wild.”

That’s Sophie Nilles, an avian care specialist and education coordinator at the Alaska Raptor Center. Having worked here for about three years, she has been involved in over five raptor releases. Yet for Nilles, the excitement that comes with a release never falters.

“This is exactly why we do it…  it’s an indescribable feeling, and one that will never get old,” says Nilles.

As Nilles introduces the event to the eager spectators out on the muskeg, they stand in quiet awe as they see for the first time the stars of the show: four bald eagles carried onto the field by four of the center’s wildlife interpreters wearing protective jackets and gloves. All four eagles are wearing leather blindfolds known as falconry hoods, which helps prevent sensory overload and keeps them calm as they’re perched on their interpreters’ arms, waiting for their time to take off. 

After the audience is lead in a countdown by Nilles, a interpreter removes their eagle’s hood. After tentatively stepping onto a wooden landing box, the newly released and de-hooded bald eagle powerfully flaps its wings up into the sky, much to the delight of the audience in the muskeg below.

One such spectator was Mo Muñoz. She has been working seasonally in Sitka for the past two years, and has been wanting to attend a raptor release ever since. However, this is the first time Munoz had time off work to go see the event, and it surpassed every expectation. 

“I don’t really have words to describe it,” said Munoz. “It was really amazing to get to see such a majestic, beautiful creature that had been rehabilitated and given another chance to see them be able to be released and fly off into the wild. It was pretty amazing.”

All four bald eagles came to the Raptor Center from all over Southeast Alaska with a wide array of medical conditions. Having only worked at the center for four months, this event was the first time Wildlife Interpreter Sean Felter ever got to hold a bald eagle. 

“It was a great honor. I heard that she had a very, very strong personality, but she was very, very cooperative,” said Felter. 

Felter was in charge of releasing the eagle named Agnes. Agnes was originally brought to the Center this past May after being found in a backyard in downtown Sitka, unable to fly. She suffered punctured wings and legs, likely a result of fighting with other eagles. Flash forward to the event, and Agnes bursts out of Felter’s arms, taking off like a rocket into the Sitka sky.

After Agnes, the third and fourth eagles are released, and the show concludes. The audience slowly files out of the field, but Felter lingers on the trail. He stands like a proud parent, tears streaming down his face as he watches Agnes, perched atop a nearby tree. He walks down the trail to take closer pictures of her from below, making sure she is ok until she confidently takes off into the mountains of her native home.

“I’m feeling so many different emotions,” said Felter. “A lot of joy right now. I will say I’m so glad that Agnes can be out there back in the wild where she belongs…. Also a sense of pride, pride in what we do here… Because it’s important that we take care of our wildlife here, because it’s part of what makes this place great, part of what makes the earth great.” 

This fall, Raptor Center staff will be hard at work caring for their current raptors in preparation for the spring raptor release, which is scheduled to occur when plentiful herring will be swimming down the river. There, the raptors wait for the day they’ll spread their wings to rapturous applause.

Editor’s Note (9-11-25): An earlier version of this story combined wildlife interpreter Sean Felter’s middle name and surname. This story was updated to properly address Felter.

Following a series of successful rock shows at the Sitka Fine Arts camp, Sitka musicians will band together for two nights only (9/12 and 9/13) to put their spin on the hits of Led Zeppelin and The Who under the moniker “Black Dog.” Black Dog members Drew Sherman, Casey Tyler, and Tyler Kloewer join KCAW for the Morning Interview to speak on their individual music journeys, and what audiences can expect in the upcoming shows.

For the first time ever, the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival will be making its Alaska debut in Sitka from October 10-12. Coordinator Debbie Miller joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to share on what films and activities Sitkans expect from this historic weekend.

This Thursday (9-11-25), the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society invites Sitkans to witness the premiere of an oral history video which documents the lives of those who grew up on waterfront neighborhoods in the 20th century. Keith Nyitray and Rebecca Paulson from the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society join KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the program.

With the sun shining and no-see-ums buzzing around, excavation contractor Troy Bayne cuts out pieces of tarp over a patch of muskeg.

“This is a barrier to keep the rock from sinking into the muskeg. It just adds stability to the rock,” Bayne explains.

Bayne has been hired by the Sitka Community Garden for the past few weeks to prepare the land for the next phase of construction. One of the main things he is working on today is building a layer of gravel that will serve as an area for street parking, as mandated by the city government. 

“So this will all be gravel for the timebeing, possibly a concrete slab underneath the shed roof. This will be the access from the parking lot to the garden beds right through here,” says Bayne. “We’ll have a dump truck here in a minute, and you can see the process of actually putting the rock on the fabric.”

This construction is being funded by a $345,000 grant awarded to the community garden by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Joel Hanson, the project manager for the community garden, is assisting Bayne in preparing the land for excavation. He found out the week prior that he won the grant he applied for. He says he’s been collaborating with Transition Sitka and the Sitka Local Food Network on this project for the past two years.

“It’s pretty exciting. I didn’t think we’d get this far along,” says Hanson. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but at least some number of community members will be able to start growing gardens in their rented plots next year.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Indian River, a 40,000 square foot area of muskeg has recently been approved to be the home of a new community garden in Sitka.

“We’re at the very end of Rudolph Walton [Circle], and the garden will be off to the right here, off the little cul-de-sac.” 

That’s Jeff Feldpausch, the resource protection department director for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The organization recently won a $385,000 grant from the Native American Agricultural Fund to develop a community garden to support their current traditional foods program, as well as to provide tribal members with accessible food, even potentially encouraging them to grow their own, much to the delight of Feldpausch. 

“I’m jazzed! As soon as we got the funding, it’s like my mind started racing about all the things we need to do,” says Feldpausch.

The Native American Agricultural Fund previously funded a collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service in developing raised beds for Tlingit potatoes and 100 raspberry plants, which inspired the development of a community garden. The Tribe is partnering with the Baranof Island Housing Authority, known as BIHA for short, which helped them scout and finalize the plot of land the garden will eventually be built on. The two organizations found themselves working with the same people. 

“BIHA plays into this a lot too, because they have renters who don’t have property, the ability to have gardens of their own at the same time,” Feldpausch says. “A lot of their clients are tribal citizens. So we felt it was a good match there.” 

The grant will be used to fund garden development, as well as the salary of three Sitka Tribe staff who will be supporting garden programming.

As they begin executing this project, their staff have researched what other community gardens across Southeast Alaska have done. Hanson, from the current community garden, also reached out to the Tribe shortly after hearing of their grant. What both groups have in common is their resolute belief in the importance of community gardens given the current state of the economy.

“I think home kitchen gardens are going to become more and more important to people in Sitka in order to get by with rising prices and wages stagnating,” says Hanson.

Additionally, BIHA executive director Cliff Richter argues that community gardens create an opportunity for residents to explore gardening when they wouldn’t have the space to do it at their home. 

“When you’re in apartment living or higher density, there’s usually not a lot of room to do this sort of thing on your own property,” says Richter. “And so this is going to provide an opportunity for people to spread out and do some things they may not be able to do, and get creative with it too.”

While there are still development logistics to work through, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska hopes to begin construction on their garden next spring. 

If you are looking to get involved in either community garden, you can reach out to Joel Hanson at [email protected] or call at 907-747-9834. For Sitka Tribe of Alaska, contact Sienna Reid at [email protected] or call at 907-747-7111.

The Southeast Emerging Leader’s Summit returns for its second year from Sept. 14-15, inviting young professionals between the ages of 21 and 40 to attend a variety of professional development workshops and network with other professionals across Southeast Alaska. Michael Mausbach with Spruce Root and Rachel Roy with Sitka Chamber of Commerce join KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss what prospective participants can expect from the summit, as well as how to get involved.

Looking to provide feedback on how public lands and amenities in Sitka are used? Looking to improve your swimming skills or get involved in various community events? Kevin Knox, Rachel Fox, and Elle Campbell from Parks and Recreation join KCAW for the Morning Interview to speak on their upcoming fall programming.

Contractors broke ground in Sitka Friday on the final piece of a two-decade project seeking more affordable housing. The new units will be rented at a reduced rate, and aim to help young families stay in the community.

It’s a sunny, windy day in Sitka, as a concrete truck pulls into the Sitka Community Land Trust’s lot on Halibut Point Road and starts to pour grey concrete into a 25 by 34 foot foundation. 

Contractors are breaking ground on three duplex apartment buildings that, once completed, will be rented to Sitkans at below-market rates. The six units in the works are part of the S’us’ Héeni Sháak cottage neighborhood, a land trust community where Sitkans can purchase a house, but not the land beneath the house, which saves substantial money for the buyer. 

“We’re able to provide these homes, as we envision, to young families and first time home buyers entirely,” says Randy Hughey, executive director of the Sitka Community Land Trust, which bought this land from the City of Sitka in 2015 for one dollar.

The project is part of a decades-long push for affordable housing in Sitka — which, like many communities throughout Southeast Alaska, has struggled to keep up with housing demands, particularly during the busy summer season which sees an influx of both workers and visitors. 

“Sitka has a housing problem,” Hughey said. “It has a housing crisis. It needs every kind of housing, ownership and rental.”

The cottage neighborhood will ultimately have 14 owned homes and six rentals. The rental income, says Hughey, will hopefully help the land trust — which relies heavily on the work of volunteers and semi-retired staff like himself — build more affordable houses in the future. 

“Our mission is home ownership,” he said. “But we have the opportunity with this little piece of land that we’re now standing on here at the far western end of the site. We saw the potential for creating some apartments in these that we will provide at below-market value, and it’ll create an income stream that will help sustain our work in creating home ownership opportunities.” 

Hughey says the crisis in Sitka is as much a demographic crisis as it is a housing crisis. Sitka has lost 800 people in the last 10 years, ringing in at just about 8,200 residents. The last time the population was that low was in 1987 — nearly 40 years ago. 

In the past decade, the population of those 65 and older has grown by 43%. Meanwhile, the population of residents of prime working age (19-65) has decreased by about 15%, and the population of minors has shrunk by nearly 24%, according to a 2024 report on Sitka’s economy. 

“That’s a demographic crisis,” Hughey says. “So if Sitka wants to be a vibrant, healthy, living community, and not just some vacation, getaway home or second home for people my age, then we got to change something, and the first thing to change is housing. We need more of it, and it has to be less expensive. And it is my belief that home ownership is the way that you get young families to stay here.”

Hughey says it comes down to the availability of land. Geographically, Sitka has the ocean in front, mountains behind, and a lot of muskeg in between. And a lot of that land is owned by the federal government, further limiting buildable space. 

“If Sitka were a community in Southeast Alaska where young families could buy a home, we would be flooded with them. It’s not about jobs, it’s about housing,” he says.

The beauty of the community land trust model, Hughey says, is that it addresses the fundamental economic problem in housing in America, where property values have escalated vastly beyond incomes.

And while these two and three bedroom houses and apartments are compact — between 800 and 1,200 square feet — he says both the owned homes and rentals will help young families get a foot in the door, and encourage them to stay in Sitka. Hughey says they estimate construction will be complete by end of summer 2026.

“These are the size of homes that I grew up in, and all my cousins grew up in,” Hughey says. “Everybody had small homes back then. And when they sold them, nobody made a ton of money. They all made some money and were able to maybe buy a little bit bigger home or a little nicer, some land, whatever. But nobody was getting rich in home sales. Now, those days are past.”

The City of Sitka is currently working on a land study to determine the feasibility of land for future housing development. Thus far, consultants have identified nine possible sites.