By SABINE POUX • FEB 26, 2021 Alaska’s unforgiving climate once kept invasive species at bay. Katherine Schake, of the Homer Soil and Water Conservation District, said that isn’t the case anymore. The Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area is actively working to eradicate invasive elodea from the Kenai Peninsula. The plant was first found locally in Stormy Lake (near Kenai) in 2012. (Photo: …

February 24, 2021 by Tyler Thompson, KDLG – Dillingham Aerial view of braided wetlands and tundra that is typical of the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska. Upper Talarik Creek flows into Lake Iliamna and then the Kvichak River before emptying into Bristol Bay (Photo from the United States Environmental Protection Agency) The United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Bristol Bay Native Association and …

By Nathaniel Herz, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage – February 23, 2021 Andy Teuber, the president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, has resigned, the organization said Tuesday. “The chairman and president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium resigned this morning. The consortium’s board of directors is taking immediate and swift action, calling a special meeting for this afternoon …

By HOPE MCKENNEY • KUCB Dutch Harbor 115 workers who have been quarantined in Sand Point and Anchorage arrived back in Akutan over the past several days to help with crab and cod processing, the company said. It’s preparing to resume pollock processing this week.CREDIT LAURA KRAEGEL/KUCB Trident Seafoods’ huge processing plant on the remote Aleutian island of Akutan reopened Friday after a …

By ISABELLE ROSS & HOPE MCKENNEY • KDLG Dillingham The 233-foot Aleutian Falcon caught fire shortly before midnight Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard. It was one of two floating processors Trident operates during the herring and salmon seasons in Alaska. A 233-foot floating processor owned by Trident Seafoods caught fire shortly before midnight Wednesday. The processor, Aleutian Falcon, was docked at the …

February 19, 2021 by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska The NTSB says a review of the radar data revealed that the plan was on a southerly track, reaching the edge of the northly land mass at 4:34 p.m. local time. The radar hits continued south at an altitude of about 1,200 ft. About four minutes later, the plane reversed course and heading north-northeast. (Image …

February 14, 2021 by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska Kodiak resident Jayson Vinberg was fatally shot last summer by a naval special forces guard at the Naval Special Warfare Detachment Kodiak. It’s known locally as the “SEAL base” because it trains the U.S. Navy’s elite commandos. The facility is at the end of a wooded peninsula just outside of town. In the 1990s, before the facility …

February 10, 2021 by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska The ferry LeConte docks at Juneau’s Auke Bay terminal. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News) An Alaska ferry in Juneau was evacuated early Wednesday after a man drove aboard the vessel claiming he had a bomb. The LeConte was loading around 6:30 a.m. at the Auke Bay terminal for a round-trip sailing to Pelican. That’s when …

By Andrew Kitchenman, Alaska Public Media & KTOO – Juneau – February 10, 2021 Members of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee hear details about a bill to extend the state’s COVID-19 disaster declaration on Feb. 2 in the Capitol. Members, from left, are Sen. Tom Begich, D-Anchorage, behind the plexiglass; Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage; Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla; …

February 9, 2021 by Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media Ron Thiessen, CEO of Pebble’s parent company, was secretly recorded talking to men he thought were investors. (Still from EIA video) The parent company of the proposed Pebble Mine said it’s cooperating with a federal grand jury investigation. The company said the case relates to conversations about the mine that were secretly recorded. …