Commentary: The Alaskans who keep our national parks running are needed
By Fran Ulmer
Like many other Alaskans, I love our national parks. Their beauty, wildlife and opportunities for adventures are a great gift to current and future Alaskans, as well as our many visitors. From Denali to Katmai to Glacier Bay, these special places help drive a thriving tourism economy and support reliable, made-in-Alaska jobs. Unfortunately, Alaska’s national parks and the economic benefits they bring are threatened by drastic staffing and budget cuts to the National Park Service. It was recently reported that the National Park Service Alaska Regional Office in Anchorage has lost an estimated one-third of its staff — more than 60 knowledgeable Alaskans — a result of downsizing the Department of Interior through pressured buyout tactics. And the federal administration has threatened additional cuts through mass firings.
Roughly 2 million people visited Alaska national parks in 2023, and more are expected this year. They spent $1.5 billion dollars and supported 23,000 jobs, according to the National Park Service. In Anchorage alone, 1 in 9 jobs is in tourism, Visit Anchorage has found. Across the country, one tax dollar invested in the Park Service returns $10 to the economy.
But national parks don’t run themselves. People are needed to keep parks running, from park rangers to contracting experts, from educators who design the visitor center exhibits to biologists who make sure that park wildlife survive and thrive.
The Alaska Regional Office provides oversight and expertise to 24 national park sites across Alaska, covering more than 50 million acres of federal land. The scale and landscape of Alaska makes the Alaska Regional Office essential. Most Alaska national park sites only have one or two resource staff and limited capacity. It doesn’t make financial sense for every park to have its own pilot and plane, geologist, or subsistence expert. The Regional Office provides support and expertise that serve all our parks.
At the Alaska Regional Office, cuts and consolidation programs have eliminated crucial positions, including the regional chief ranger overseeing law enforcement. Now there is only one staff member leading archaeology and cultural resource protection for all of Alaska’s national park sites, and just a handful of staff remain to work with Alaska Native tribes, whose culture, food security, and traditional ways of life should be respected by those parks.
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Restraining order on Alaska bear cull to be in place until state fixes identified legal flaws
By Yereth Rosen
Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin, in an order issued late Monday, said the department’s decision to shoot bears earlier this month in violation of a previous court ruling justified her decision to keep the temporary restraining order in place beyond the 10 days that is standard in Alaska law.
The department will be prohibited from conducting its planned bear cull in the Mulchatna caribou herd range until it corrects the legal flaws identified in a March 14 ruling issued by a different judge, Rankin said.
She rejected the state’s request to lift the restraining order and its argument that the prohibition was no longer needed.
“Despite the State’s stated intention of discontinuing its bear predator control measures this season, due to its prior position that it would continue bear abatement unless specifically enjoined, this Court thinks it is prudent to specifically state that the TRO will not expire after ten days and extends the TRO until further order of the Court or until the State obtains proper legal authority, consistent with the March 14 Order, and the May 7, 2025 Order,” she said in her order.
It is the latest development in a lawsuit filed in 2023 by the Alaska Wildlife Alliance that challenged the predator control program.
State officials say the program is needed to boost Mulchatna caribou herd numbers, and it must be conducted in spring and early summer, when newborn caribou calves are vulnerable to bear predation. But the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and other critics say the program lacks scientific validity and was put into place without proper public input.
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Annual Parade Honors 14 Graduates
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
Thirteen high school graduates and one UAA grad paraded from the Girdwood Post Office to the fire station Thursday night receiving cheers, honks, bubbles and roses.
About 100 well-wishers lined the route, including family members, former teachers, and yellow-clad Lion's Club members.
Graduates paused before emcee Salita Rios who told memories over a bullhorn of each gowned teenager before they moved to the Lion's table for more gifts. Then, the group took a moment for photos and to toss their square hats aloft.
Later, outside Jack Sprat Restaurant, Jared Moore said he enjoyed being a part of the local tradition. Standing next to him, Asher Cubit smiled in agreement.
Read the story and more pictures at the below link:
https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/annual-parade-honors-14-graduates
Alaska senators vote to end daylight saving time in America’s farthest-north state
By James Brooks
Alaska would be on the same time zone as Seattle for four months of the year, if a bill passed Monday by the Alaska Senate becomes law.
The Senate voted 18-2 to pass Senate Bill 26, which would eliminate daylight saving time in Alaska and ask the federal government to put Alaska on Pacific Standard Time.
(Photo by James Brooks, Alaska Beacon. Kelly Merrick, R-Eagle River, speaks in favor of a bill that would eliminate daylight saving time, on Monday, May 12, 2025, in Juneau. Story reprinted courtesy Alaska Beacon under Creative Commons)
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Alaska to resume bear-killing program, despite court order finding it to be void
By Yereth Rosen
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said Friday it will resume its predator control this weekend in Western Alaska, despite a court ruling two days earlier that determined the program remains in violation of the state constitution.
The program, which is using aircraft to kill bears in the area used by the ailing Mulchatna Caribou Herd, will resume on Saturday, the department said in a statement.
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Alaska House urges local and state agencies to prepare for a bad wildfire season
By James Brooks (Story and Photo)
Alaska’s wildfire season is shaping up to be especially dangerous this year, and the Alaska House of Representatives is asking local, state and federal officials to prepare ahead of time.
On April 25, the House voted 37-0 to approve a resolution calling for readiness.
House Joint Resolution 15, by Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, is slated for a hearing on Friday in the Senate Resources Committee.
“House Joint Resolution 15 came about from an early awareness this winter about the very dry conditions that we were witnessing in Southcentral Alaska,” said Holland, speaking to the House.
“A really key part of this resolution is a recognition of how important it is that we do the outreach and we encourage the preparation by residents to be able to be more aware of what they can do to protect their own homes through the Firewise program,” he said.
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7th Annual Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation Natural History Symposium
By Charla Hughes
PWSSF News Release
The Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation invites you to their seventh annual Prince William Sound Natural History Symposium Monday and Tuesday, May 12-13, at the Public Safety Building in Whittier and online via Zoom. The Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova and the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward will host watch parties.
What started as a training opportunity for outdoor educators and guides has grown into a highly anticipated free community event. Monday sessions (1-5pm) are designed with the guiding community in mind, featuring topics like Alaskan plants, land management, and geology. Coffee with the Scientists at Lazy Otter and a Social at Oceanfront Cafe to follow. Tuesday sessions (9am-5pm) bring together the latest news and research from around the Sound with topics ranging from sea cucumbers and bats to the Whittier Tourism Best Management Practices (TBMP) program. All sessions are free and open to the public.
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Local Skiing Sensation Sees Her Line and Gets It
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
Girdwood ski racer Katie Rowekamp was finishing a day of slalom training with her team in Kitzbuhel, Austria when, instead of riding a gondola down the mountain, she and a friend decided to ski back.
A side trail led to a CAT track, which led to a snow path, then a long traverse, shallower and shallower, to patches of concrete and a field and nothing.
"We look across the field to the other side of the canyon and see the gondola we were supposed to take down," she said during an interview in a Girdwood coffeehouse last week.
Rowekamp and her teammate took off their skis and began walking, worried. They were always told to stay on the tracks because ski resorts in Europe don't flag off out-of-bounds perimeters. The mountains are yours.
"All of sudden we found this little tiny cabin out in the middle of nowhere and we were crossing our fingers hoping somebody lived there and not some crazy Euro serial killer. And I walk around and there is this big golden retriever basking in the sunlight on their deck, and this cute old Austrian lady and her husband were there and were, like, AH!"
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/local-skiing-sensation-sees-her-line-and-gets-it
Locals Gather for Second Weekend in Conjunction With Nationwide Protest
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
Girdwood residents joined with protestors in Anchorage and across 50 states in a local rally under a warm sun Saturday. It's the second demonstration, on the corner of Alyeska Highway and Hightower Road this month.
The protest was in keeping with a "50-50-1" movement—50 States, 50 Protests, One Day—against policies of the Trump Administration.
"We need to use what voice we have," said Susan Carse, a 32-year-resident and retired attorney, who held a sign reading, "No Kings. Save Democracy."
She said she had concerns about a weakened role of the jucidiciary branch of government under the Trump Administration.
"We have three branchs and he's taken over the judicial. He seems to do what he wants," Carse said. She also said Trump seems to be getting away insider trading, an accusation levelled at the Administration following a sudden reversal in stocks and bonds prices.
"He's not honest. He doesn't follow the laws and, the big thing, he blatant ignored a unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. You just don't do that. It scares the shit out me.
"I think we've crossed over the line," Carse said. "What can we do? We can do this (protesting)."
Andrew Gates, 14, stood with his dog, Cozy, and held a sign, "Hands Off Canada," he'd just made beneath a small canopy.
"There's been an erosion of checks and balances and, if we do nothing, that'll be our undoing," Gates said as cars drove by on Alyeska Highway and honked.
Girdwood demonstrators were joined by a cutout of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders recent swing through western states, on a "Fighting Oligarchy Tour", brought crowds in the tens of thousands.
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Federal employment and budget turmoil affects monitoring of Alaska’s Barry Arm landslide
By Yereth Rosen
The Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers and funding restrictions has affected the monitoring of a landslide-prone slope that could create a dangerous tsunami in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
The Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, in a recent update, alerted the public about the problems affecting the multiagency team monitoring Barry Arm. The site is a fjord where an unstable rocky slope could collapse into the water, potentially creating a tsunami affecting the community of Whittier and a variety of Prince William Sound mariners and visitors.
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Girdwood Residents join Nationwide ‘Hands-Off’ Protest
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
More than two dozen rain-gear clad Girdwoodians poked signs into a stormy afternoon sky Saturday in a local demonstation against policies of Donald Trump's administration.
Residents turned out after being notified via a local Facebook post only the night before.
Organizer Emma Kramer said protesters received many waves and honks from passing cars along with one middle finger and a person who shoved a red MAGA hat from a crack in the window.
Photo: A protester in downtown Anchorage displays her sentiments on the actions of the Trump Administration. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/girdwood-residents-join-nationwide-hands-off-protest
Girdwood Food Pantry delivers in Uncertain Times
By Allison Sayer
TNews Staffwriter
The Girdwood Food Pantry’s volunteers provide meals for area residents facing food insecurity, working to find every corner where someone might be doing without. Food distribution days occur three days per month: the first Sunday and second and fourth Wednesday.
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ttps://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/girdwood-food-pantry-delivers-in-uncertain-times
Avalanche Mitigation enters the Future
By Allison Sayer
Copper River Record
Most of us are familiar with the role of artillery in avalanche risk mitigation. Artillery is fired into avalanche start zones when the runout area is closed to the public, preventing future avalanches that could cause harm. According to Statewide Avalanche and Artillery Program Manager Timothy Glassett, these methods are set to change dramatically over the next two years.
(The story reprinted from the Copper River Record with permission)
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/avalanche-mitigation-enters-the-future
GBOS Candidates offer to serve Community
By Brooks Chandler
TNews Contributor
Brett Wilbanks and Kellie Okenek are both offering to serve Girdwood as members of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors. TNews chatted with both in separate interviews recently. Their comments below have been edited for length and clarity.
How did you come to live in Girdwood?
BW- Out of college I ended up with the State of Alaska as an engineer working hydroelectric projects. I found myself wanting more out of skiing and I got interested in ski patrol. I started with National Ski patrol as a volunteer and I ended up doing 27 years here at Alyeska as an early volunteer and then as a part time pro patroller.
KO- I always knew I wanted to live in Alaska and live in a ski town. So I took a job in Prudhoe in 2005 and moved to Girdwood.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/gbos-candidates-offer-to-serve-community
Mount Spurr: Preparation Can Ease the Pain
By Allison Sayer
TNews Staffwriter
On March 12, The Alaska Volcano Observatory announced “an eruption [of Mount Spurr] is likely, but not certain, to occur within the next few weeks or months. The most likely outcome of the current unrest is an explosive eruption (or eruptions) like those that occurred in 1953 and 1992. Those eruptions each lasted a few hours and produced ash clouds that were carried downwind for hundreds of miles and minor ashfall (up to about ¼ inch) on southcentral Alaska communities.”
Many simple, low cost preparedness tips are available from the Municipality of Anchorage Emergency Operations Center and ready.alaska.gov. The common advice from these and other sources is to have a mask handy, stock up on relevant air filters, and put some forethought into what would happen if you must shelter in place somewhere.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/mount-spurr-preparation-can-ease-the-pain
Ski to Sea: Mountain Magic in Clay
By Allison Sayer
TNews Staffwriter
The Girdwood Center for Visual Arts (GCVA) is currently featuring “Ski to Sea,” an installation by ceramic artist and Girdwood local Barbara Lydon.
Large ceramic serving platters decorated with ocean and mountain scenes are interspersed with freeform sea stars and other animals. Lydon explained it was her intention to have the repeated shapes and symmetry of the platters bring “cohesiveness” to the viewer, but also have the creatures bring an element of “chaos.”
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/ski-to-sea-montain-magic-in-clay
Assembly Changes Girdwood Plan to Allow Housing in Upper Meadows
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
For the Anchorage Assembly, a plan that could shape Girdwood's destiny faced two competing visions.
One, shaped by years of community consensus, favors keeping the valley's beloved rainforest, trails and areas like Stumpy's Trail protected as open space.
The other vision, promoted by the owners of Alyeska Resort, is to acquire more land for housing developments, to meet, as one Assembly member put it, the town's "dire need for housing."
(Photo: Equipment clears land for a new parking lot near Alyeska Hotel last fall. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)
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Neighbors fear helicopters in backyards
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
When Camilla and Dave Seifert moved into their newly built Girdwood home in 1981, there was only one hangar alongside an airstrip, they could hear chum salmon spashing in the creek and there were no trees behind her house.
"Between 1980 and 1983 everything seemed to be built at the same time," Camilla said recently, referring to the neighborhood by her log home on Lake Tahoe Street.
Seifert pointed to a photo in a gallery of pictures lining a stair case.
"This one shows my daughter and Rosie Fletcher (who would become an Olympic snowboarder). They were best friends."
Two parka-clad children stand on an unfinished top floor of the Seifert cabin.
Beyond lies nothing but snowy mountains, Glacier Creek and a shed.
"The cottonwoods weren't even there," she said, looking out a back toward a stand of trees up to 70 feet high.
And the airport has since expanded.
Helicopter chatter is so loud, "when we're talking on the back deck, we need to stop talking," Seifert said.
Now, the Sieferts have learned the state transportation has leased a parcel behind her and her neighbor's houses Silverton Mountain Guides for its heliski operation.
The 55-year lease could mean "helicopter operations will be quite literally ten feet from our back doors," Seifert told the Girdwood Board of Superviors at its recent meeting.
According to the Seiferts and others, Parcel H was never meant to be developed.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/neighbors-fear-helicopters-in-backyards
Timberline Road and Drainage Improvement, Bond Proposition on Ballot
Commentary from Girdwood Board of Supervisors Briana Sullivan and Mike Edgington
Voters in Girdwood and across Anchorage will be receiving a Municipal ballot in the mail this week. This is an opportunity to elect members to the Assembly, School Board and Girdwood Board of Supervisors, but it also contains several propositions including approval to issue bonds for capital projects. One of these, Proposition 8, is for a bond to fund safety improvements to Timberline Road here in Girdwood.
What exactly is the Timberline Road Safety Project?
The Timberline Road project aims to enhance both the safety and accessibility for all road users in Girdwood, including pedestrians and cyclists. The initial section of Timberline Road to the junction with Vail Drive is one of the busiest sections of gravel road in South Central Alaska, and has to be frequently maintained due to traffic volume and road conditions.
The project will narrow and mark the vehicle lanes and broaden the shoulders, better accommodating pedestrians, cyclists, and other users, while still providing critical space for snow storage. Wider shoulders and clearer separation from vehicles will encourage alternative transportation and help promote a healthier community. Paving the vehicle lanes will control water runoff, improve drainage, and decrease potholes. This will reduce maintenance costs in the future by providing a stable foundation, making the road more durable.
The speed limit of 20mph will remain, but the project will examine enhancements to keep vehicles to safe speeds through this residential area such as additional signage, speed bumps, or other traffic calming measures.
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(Girdwood Town Manager for the Municipality of Anchorage Kyle Kelley contributed information for this commentary)