As a longtime salmon, halibut and sablefish fisherman, I begin this year with some hope and gratitude. With admirable bipartisan effort, Congress and federal agencies have taken important steps to make seafood more sustainable and to ensure the hardworking men and women who harvest it can earn a fair living. Here is why I appreciate […]
The Trump administration announced Monday it is seeking suggestions for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sites to auction off for oil development, a key step toward a new lease sale in a place that has been the subject of a decades-long environmental debate. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released the official call for nominations, which […]
The frigid weather gripping much of America is not unprecedented, but it feels that way. The 21st century has been unusually warm, likely due to climate change. Data from 240 weather stations across …
A small independent oil and gas company on the North Slope is making a bet on construction of the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline, a new regulatory filing reveals. According to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Strong Energy Resources of Texas has asked the state to designate a new oil and gas unit on […]
Alaska’s state ferry system is at risk of a partial or total shutdown this summer due to the failure of the federal government to issue a key annual grant. “Currently right now, we have a shortfall in our budget,” said Dom Pannone, director of program administration and management for the Alaska Department of Transportation and […]
Representatives of Nuiqsut, an Inupiat village on the North Slope, have sued the Trump administration over the abrupt cancellation of a program that gave protections to the Teshekpuk Lake area and the caribou herd that uses it. Teshekpuk Lake is the largest lake in the Arctic region and known as a diverse and sensitive wetland […]
Alaska children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing would be guaranteed a local education under a proposal passed unanimously by the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday. The House passed a different version of House Bill 39, by Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, during the 33rd Alaska State Legislature, but that bill never received a Senate […]
Over the last week, Alaskans joined dozens of states protesting the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota and nationwide. The walk outs, demonstrations and business closures in Alaska come after ICE agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. In the last few weeks, Alaskans have rallied in freezing temperatures to protest the […]
Researchers at Washington State University and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are using collar cams to study a remote population of grizzly bears on Alaska's North Slope. Twelve bears have …
A $300 million project to build a new Coast Guard base in Juneau for the icebreaker Storis likely will not be complete until at least 2029, the service’s top admiral said in a U.S. Senate hearing last week. The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Kevin Lunday, testified Thursday in front of the U.S. Senate’s […]
Alaskans seeking to get resident hunting, fishing and trapping licenses may soon need to meet most of the same standards needed to get a Permanent Fund dividend. In a 27-12 vote Friday, the Alaska House of Representatives approved House Bill 93, which would apply PFD-like residency restrictions to hunting, trapping and fishing license requirements. The […]
Whether you call him groundhog, woodchuck, whistle-pig or use the full genus and species name, Marmota monax, the nation’s premiere animal weather forecaster has been making headlines as Punxsutawney Phil for decades. The largest ground squirrel in its range, groundhogs like Phil are found throughout the midwestern United States, most of Canada and into southern […]
After more than a decade of planning, design and false starts, the state of Alaska is once more attempting to build its first new mainline ferry in decades. On Jan. 23, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities began advertising for shipyards interested in building a replacement for the Tustumena, which sails between Homer, […]
Nearly six years after it approved permits for the Donlin Gold mine, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is launching a new study of a possible large waste spill at the site. The agency is working on a supplement to its environmental impact statement to comply with a federal court order that found the original […]
As Alaska embarks on its implementation of $272 million in funding for the Rural Health Transformation Program, I want to offer a vision for transformation in Alaska. Alaska’s healthcare system has experienced tumultuous challenges this decade, and it should not be lost on any of us that the very definition of “transformation” is more change. […]
Alaska has some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in the nation — state data shows that more than 44,000 students were considered chronically absent from public schools last year. Lawmakers with the joint bipartisan task force on education funding are considering how to support districts in tackling Alaska’s chronic absenteeism. Research shows missing […]
A new nonpartisan report by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage has concluded that raising oil and corporate taxes to balance Alaska’s budget likely has the lowest negative side effects for Alaskans’ jobs and income. The report, eagerly anticipated by state lawmakers and experts, comes as legislators consider […]
An Alaska Native corporation is seeking permission from the Trump administration to build seasonal roads that would cross through part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the next two decades. The Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation has applied for a 20-year right-of-way that would allow construction of ice and snow roads connecting the village to Deadhorse, […]
A federal judge in Alaska declined on Tuesday to stop oil exploration efforts by ConocoPhillips in the federally controlled National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the North Slope. In a 17-page order, Judge Sharon Gleason concluded that a group of environmental and tribal groups did not show that they were likely to succeed in a lawsuit seeking […]
Alaska’s population rose slightly between 2024 and 2025 and is now at its highest level since 2017, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced Wednesday. Alaska had an estimated 738,737 people as of July 1, 2025, the department said in its annual state population estimate. The rise comes despite a revision that erased […]