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Vol. 49, Issue 213
In the news Wildlife officials say tularemia is showing up in hares FAIRBANKS— Wildlife authorities are warning Interior Alaska residents to beware of hares. Alaska Department of Fish and Game veterinarian Kimberlee Beckmen says tularemia is showing up in hares. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports tularemia can be transmitted to dogs and cats that mouth or catch sick hares. The disease is spread by bacteria through hare and vole ticks. It’s most often seen in summer when ticks are most active. Late stages of the disease can make hares slow and easy to catch by pets. People can become infected by handling hares or coming into contact with an infected pet’s saliva. The most common symptoms in people and pets are lethargy, high fever and swollen lymph nodes. The disease can be fatal if untreated but cured with antibiotics if diagnosed quickly.
Municipal trapping restrictions expand in Anchorage ANCHORAGE — New trapping restrictions approved by the Anchorage Assembly are now in effect. The Anchorage Daily News reports the assembly last month restricted areas where traps can be placed out of concern that traps targeting fox and coyotes are instead catching pet dogs. Trapping will be banned within a quartermile of trailheads, campgrounds and homes and within 50 yards of developed trails. Offshoot trails are excluded. A trap or snare set within the municipality must be marked with a trapper identification number and the owner’s contact information. Under state law, trapping is banned already across much of Anchorage including parts of Chugach State Park. The new city law will mostly affect areas near Bird Creek, Girdwood and Chugiak. The Alaska Trappers Association opposes the new law. — Associated Press
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Celebrating life on the river Crowds enjoy games, music and eco-education at River Festival By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
Saturday at the Kenai River Festival was all about the kids. Aside from the 55 artisan booths and 17 food vendors who set up in Soldotna Creek Park for the threeday festival, 20 additional booths and activities made up a specially designated Kid Zone — where the little ones could get their face painted, fish for trash, play a round of cornhole and learn how to dissect salmon. To tie all the different activities together, the kids were given a “passport” by the Kenai Watershed Forum — which organizes the River Festival every year — and were tasked to collect stamps from 12 of the different Kid Zone booths in order to potentially win a new iPad mini courtesy of the city of Kenai and the Watershed Forum. Matti’s Farm — which is a part of the Diamond M
sunny spot all day while the children came and went. Hospice of the Central
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard is expected to take possession of a new heavy icebreaker within five years and Alaska’s junior U.S. senator would like to see it spend time in U.S. waters. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said Antarctic policy likely will shift the future icebreaker away from the Arctic missions it should be used for, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. “I think we’re too focused on Antarctica and not focused on our own sovereign interests here,” Sullivan said. The country’s only heavy icebreaker, the 43-year-old Polar Star, does much of its work on the other end of the world. It breaks ice and escorts supply vessels to the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station
See FEST, page A2
See ICE, page A3
A juvenile bald eagle that was rehabilitated by the Bird Treatment and Learning Center is released into the wild during the Kenai River Festival at Soldotna Creek Park on Saturday. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Ranch Resort in Kenai and focuses on teaching children farm-related skills — had a petting zoo featuring
several of their farm animals, including a two-day old llama and a particularly lazy pig that lay in the same
Sullivan wants new icebreaker to spend time in Arctic
District resignations and retirements highest recorded By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Facing potential state, local and district budget reductions, many non-tenured teachers are considering employment elsewhere. To date, 86 certified staff and administrators resigned
or retired, the highest number in the years the district has been tracking the data, Pegge Erkeneff, communications liaison for the district, said in an email. Thirty seven out of those 86 have served the district for 15 years or more, 24 have served 20 or more
years. “A disturbing development we noticed this year is a rise in the number of resignations from our staff, in part due to the fiscal uncertainty state budgeting caused to the school district this year,” Erkeneff said. For the last four years,
an average of 72 teachers resigned or retired from the district annually. At the beginning of the new semester Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed deep cuts to education, worrying some residents, especially school districts, across the state. This spring, borough
Winging it Pilots take to the skies, show off on the ground By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
On Saturday, the Kenai and Soldotna Airports hosted the 19th annual Kenai Peninsula Air Fair. The event started in the morning with breakfast at the MARC hangar of the Soldotna Airport and registration for the Poker Run, where pilots flew to at least five different airports on the peninsula, picking up tickets at each location, and which were exchanged for a set of playing cards. The pilot with the best poker hand from their playing cards was given first pick out of a number of prizes given away at the Kenai Airport that afternoon. The Air Fair also featured static displays of aircraft from several military branches and private owners, a performance from the 9th Army Band and a military appreciation event.
From right, Wes Jones, Jake Pritchett, Austin Robinson and Jay Kircher pose for a photo in front of a Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphin at the 19th annual Kenai Peninsula Air Fair on Saturday. The four are part of a U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Team based out of Kodiak. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
assembly and school board meetings were dominated by residents, teachers, principals, school board members and even students who pleaded for education funding support to give non-tenured teachers more certainty. See HIGH, page A2
Anchorage mayor defends city response to illegal homeless camps ANCHORAGE (AP) — The mayor of Anchorage is defending the city after some state lawmakers said it hasn’t done enough to deal with illegal homeless camps. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz says the city’s trails are safe even though Anchorage is fending for itself on complicated problems without help the state usually provides, the Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday. Nine Alaska lawmakers sent a letter to Berkowitz on Monday saying Anchorage could more aggressively clear public land. City officials said
See CITY, page A3
Southeast in drought after 2 years of dry weather By Ben Hohenstatt Juneau Empire
Essentially the entirety of Southeast Alaska is in some state of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That’s the result of less precipitation over the better part of the past two years in what is normally one of the wettest parts of the state. Things are most severe in the southernmost portion of Southeast, including Prince
of Wales Island and the Ketchikan area, but even Juneau and Yakutat are considered abnormally dry, according to the monitor. “This is unusual for us, not unheard of, but unusual,” said Wayne Owen, director of wildlife for the Alaska Region for the USDA Forest Service, in a phone interview with the Empire. What makes it even more unusual is that big-picture predictions expect Southeast Alaska to be getting
wetter in the future. “The climate models are in good agreement that across Southeast Alaska, over the long term, precipitation overall will increase,” Rick Thoman, Alaska Climate Specialist for Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, said. “We’re actually seeing that over the last 50 years, but what the ongoing event shows is that even in a wetting world, where precipitation is increasing, there’s
going to be these drying times.” Despite about two years worth of increased dryness so far, Owen said Alaskans shouldn’t expect Tongass National Forest or other areas to suddenly look like barren deserts — even in places under the extreme drought designation. “Extreme drought to us would be plenty of water to plenty of other people,” Owen said. “It’s kind of a sliding scale. It’s a departure
from the normal expected amount of precipitation. It’s not an absolute amount.” Those “normal” amounts are based on 30-year averages calculated by the National Weather Service, Owen said. In light of the drought, Owen said Forest Service employees are extra-aware of the risk of forest fires and the possibility that trees may be more susceptible to pests because of dryness, but so far plants and animals are doing OK.