Changing a federal rule isn’t simple, but the Trump administration is on the verge of doing it . Last month it started a 30-day clock to completely exempt Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule. The rule restricts — but does not prohibit — road building and resource development on some national forestlands. Critics say it locks up natural resources. To change it, the federal government is required to consult with Tribal governments. And it did — nine Southeast Alaska Tribes in all,

Pebble is now less than a month away from its deadline to submit a new mitigation plan to show how it's going to make up for the wetlands damage expected from construction of the mine. The plan is key to obtaining a federal permit, and Pebble says it will meet that deadline, but the secretly recorded "Pebble Tapes" have triggered additional scrutiny about the state’s apparent assistance with the plan . The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told the company at the end of August that its plan has to

The group tasked with reshaping the future of the state-run ferry system is recommending the creation of an executive board, fewer vessels, and at least two years of forward funding for the cash-strapped ferries. The Alaska Marine Highway Reshaping Work Group wrapped up eight months of work this month and has forwarded its ideas to the governor’s office. The report has not yet been released to the public. Tom Barrett, a retired Coast Guard admiral and pipelines services executive, chaired the

Gambell is having the region’s largest outbreak of Covid-19. On October 4, the community had 29 cases being reported. Residents in Gambell are living in lockdown with limited resources. ( Editor’s note: This story was originally published by KNOM in Nome on October 4. Some data may be out out of date as of this re-publishing) Melanie Campbell is finishing up work for the day at the Gambell IRA office. It’s nearly 5pm and she hasn’t had a chance to call in her groceries to the Native store. “I

When the power went out in Newtok for a month, some families lost all of the subsistence harvest that they had stored in their freezers . Now, the village is banding together to help those families stock up again for the winter. Plus, donations are arriving from outside the community. After power was restored in Newtok, Tribal Administrator Andrew John went door to door to assess how much food had been lost. “My initial estimates are minimum 5,000 pounds of food lost,” John said. “We have 10

For subsistence hunters in the northern parts of Alaska, the bowhead whale has been a part of their diet for generations. However, scientists have found that as sea ice has dwindled in Arctic waters, a new predator has moved in to feed on the marine mammals: killer whales. It’s not unheard of for killer whales to feed on bowhead whales in subarctic waters . Amy Willoughby is a researcher with the University of Washington specializing in aerial surveys of Arctic marine mammals. “Killer whale

A Tribe in Southeast Alaska has won permanent protection for the site of a historic Tlingit village whose descendants claim centuries-old ties to Glacier Bay. Complex negotiation secured 150 acres that had been eyed by commercial developers. Berg Bay lies on the western shores of Glacier Bay, made famous to the outside world by the writings of 19th-century naturalist John Muir . But centuries earlier it had been a major Tlingit population center. Then, huge ice sheets forced its inhabitants to

Mushers on the Yukon River are struggling to feed their dogs because of weak king and chum salmon runs this year. Pat Moore is one of nine mushers that live in the Yukon River village of Tanana. He has about 20 dogs in his yard, and was trying to sell most of them when the coronavirus pandemic shut intrastate travel down in March. “I've got no market in the lower 48, and nobody in Alaska wants to take a chance on them because they don't know when the next race is going to be,” Moore said. It

Sitka’s urban Native corporation has a new look — and a new outlook — following annual board elections in September . Lifelong Sitkan Rob Allen has been named to chair the board, and he’s hoping to steer Shee Atiká Incorporated toward sustainability and profitability. Rob Allen has been regularly appearing in the news since he was tapped in 2015 to take over management of Sitka Community Hospital, which was edging close to insolvency. He was just starting a cruise charter business at the time,

A mistake prevented residents of a Y-K Delta community from being able to vote in Alaska's primary election . The Alaska Division of Elections said that it didn’t know people were living in Mertarvik until a week before the election. About 130 people have been living there for the past year. On top of that, Newtok never received supplies for its election, resulting in only 17 people there voting in the primary. The trouble with Newtok’s primary started with election officials who backed out of