Author: Robert Woolsey

Tlingit elder Herman Kitka died in Sitka on Sunday (12-27-09). The Kogwaantaan leader and the first president of the Shee Atika corporation board of directors was 95 years old.

The Sitka Assembly approved its legislative priority list for the upcoming year. It maps out projects Sitka would like the state to help fund. One assembly member questioned whether the state would perceive the requests as being too ambitious.

An Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist was called to Tenakee Springs earlier this week to free a bear whose toes had become caught in an otter trap. The cub was caught in the trap on a rocky point in Long Bay, which is about 15 miles northwest of Tenakee Springs.

The initial reactions to next spring’s projected record herring harvest in Sitka Sound are mixed. The commercial sector is pleased with the continued high abundance of the fish; the Tribal government is worried that the Department of Fish & Game’s forecasting model may be flawed, and that the high harvest may jeopardize stocks.

A company planning to ship drinking water from Blue Lake to foreign countries is asking the City of Sitka for more time to get its operations underway. True Alaska Bottling Company wants to sell 3-billion gallons of Sitka water each year. The city would benefit from the deal, too, possibly to the tune of millions of dollars. But as Ed Ronco reports, city leaders are trying to strike a delicate balance, by courting a company’s business, while at the same time, staying firm about thousands of overdue dollars that company owes to Sitka.

The forecast for next spring’s record herring catch in Sitka Sound has as much to do with improved computer modeling as with high fish abundance. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game on Friday (12-11-09) announced a guideline harvest level for the March 2010 fishery of almost 19-thousand tons, about four thousand tons more than last year.

The Rural Community Hospital demonstration program will likely be extended for another five years. If approved by congress this session, it could amount to about $1-million dollars a year for Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. Alaska Senator Mark Begich introduced an amendment to the Medicare Prescription Drug Act this week that would reauthorize the demonstration program in hospitals in twenty states.

David Voluck discusses nature, free will, and the power of Hanukkah with KCAW's Robert Woolsey.

A proposed short-sea ferry initiative to link rural villages in Southeast Alaska received a lukewarm reception from a state board on Thursday. The initiative pairs Sitka-based Allen Marine with the Juneau-based Tlingit and Haida Central Council. But as Ed Ronco reports from the Marine Transportation Advisory Board meeting in Sitka, members had questions about the long-term viability of a new ferry service.

The Alaskans at the UN climate summit straddle an interesting divide: they’re citizens of one of the most heavily industrialized nations, yet their remote lifestyles more closely resemble those of the developing world. This contrast has caught the attention of organizations hoping to shape US climate policy. Among them is the Union of Concerned Scientists. Lisa Nurnberger is the press secretary for the Cambridge-based UCS. She’s also a former news director at KCAW. Robert Woolsey called her at the Copenhagen summit to catch up, and to find out what the UCS hopes to achieve at the conference: