Author: Ed Ronco

Barth Hamberg’s trails are known for their scenic meanderings, natural contours and forward-thinking sustainability.The Forest Service landscape architect is known throughout Alaska, and he says his work represents a new way of thinking about trail building as a window into the natural world.

Three people from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka died Wednesday (7-7-10) after their helicopter crashed in waters off Washington. A fourth was injured.

The trial of state Senator Albert Kookesh and three other men accused of overfishing has been postponed until September.

Sitka’s Fourth of July was wet, and cold, but that didn’t stop the small town from coming out in force to celebrate Independence Day.

A Sitka Mountain Rescue team is returning to town this afternoon (7-2-10) with four hikers who had been stranded on Mt. Bassie overnight. The four had been traversing the island on a common route, but became stranded on a 56-degree slope Thursday and could not descend further. They notified Sitka Mountain Rescue of their predicament via marine radio. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka assisted in the rescue. A Jayhawk helicopter crew on a routine training mission evaluated weather conditions at Mt. Bassie, and then returned to Sitka to load the Sitka Mountain Rescue team. Five team members were taken in two flights to Camp Lake, which is about 10 miles east of Sitka, at the foot of Mt. Bassie. The lake is at an elevation of about fifteen-hundred feet. The rescuers located the hikers Thursday evening and assisted them down the slope with ropes to Camp Lake. The hikers were in good condition, with a two-day supply of food and radio communication. This morning, the entire party was reportedly en route from Camp Lake to Green Lake Road, which can take around a half-day. Everyone was expected back in town by 3 PM this afternoon.

This summer, as part of an ongoing project to document and preserve wilderness, the Forest Service is sending staff, biologists, and volunteers into the field to collect data.In the first part of this series KCAW’s Lily Mihalik ventured into the West Chicagof-Yakobi Wilderness to better understand how it’s managed.Although solitude surveyors on the trip were primarily interested in what’s not found in wilderness, the botanists on the expedition had a different idea.

Southeast salmon trollers headed out Thursday (7-1-10) for the first major king opener of the summer. The fleet is expected to target just over 78,000 kings in roughly one week of fishing.