33°

Sound off on the important issues at

Forest Service biologist Glenn Ith and co-plaintiff Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics alleges road repairs in Tongass National Forest violate requirements for environmental study and a public process under the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit was file in U.S. Court in Anchorage in March.

"Maintenance is necessary from time to time regardless of whether a timber sale is being planned in the vicinity," attorney Bruce Landon wrote.

Ith, a Forest Service employee for 25 years, has sued the agency before for inadequate environmental reviews. He helped block a proposed timber sale of 190 acres, pointing out that a logging road was built before the decision to sell timber.

Critics recently slapped Tongass logging roads with the "Roads to Nowhere" moniker, comparing them to two proposed Alaska bridges that have been mocked nationwide as examples of wasteful government spending.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to bar the Forest Service from spending federal funds on building new logging roads in the Tongass, citing the tens of millions of dollars the government loses every year running the timber program.

The Forest Service says clearing brush and maintaining old roads is routine upkeep that falls outside the requirements of NEPA.

Anchorage looks to cut pesticide use

ANCHORAGE - Wasps and sticky tape are replacing pesticides in the city's fight against tree-killing insect pests.

A growing concern from the public about the potential health dangers of pesticides in parks has led the city to search for alternatives, according to Monique Anderson, Anchorage parks superintendent.

To deter a leaf-roller moth infestation, more than 200 tree trunks downtown are ringed with gummy, black tape and nontoxic tree resins with a sticky, viscous texture.

The moth eggs are set to hatch around now and, if all goes well, at least some of the tiny larvae will get stuck in the traps as they crawl toward tender new leaves.

Over the summer, the city will experiment with other ways to thin the moth population without spraying chemicals on mountain ash, crab apple and other ornamental trees.

The city may also try other nontoxic pest management methods, such as a pheromone trap that attracts male moths.

And it will look at more effective watering methods, Anderson said, because healthy trees are better at staving off infestation.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service is unleashing tiny wasps in a few Anchorage parks in attempts to control another pest, the birch leaf miner.

The wasps lay their eggs inside leaf miner larvae and emerging wasp larvae destroy the leaf miners.

North Pole probe continues into summer

FAIRBANKS - The criminal investigation into a foiled student plot to kill classmates and teachers with guns and knives is continuing well after the halls of North Pole Middle School have quieted for the summer.

"We're still doing interviews," North Pole Police Chief Paul Lindhag said last week. "There's not much I can say now because it's a juvenile matter."

In all, 15 students were suspended for suspected involvement or knowledge of the plot.

School officials will spend the summer discussing responses to possible violence at school, and deciding how to improve conflict resolution programs.

A student sparked the investigation on April 17 after telling a parent about the plot.

The report led to the arrest of six seventh-graders, and media attention from around the world.

The six students, all in the 13-year-old range, are suspected of scheming to take guns and knives to the middle school and kill students they felt picked on them and teachers they didn't like. Police say the boys planned to knock out the school's power and telephone systems, giving them time for the slayings, then escape from the town of 1,600 about 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks. They were arrested April 22.

Army jury convicts soldier of murder

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - An Army jury during the weekend convicted a soldier of brutally murdering and mutilating his teenage wife after deliberating past midnight, a Fort Lewis spokesman said.

The jury found Spc. Brandon Bare, 20, of Wilkesboro, N.C., guilty of premeditated murder and two counts of indecent acts for chopping his wife to death with a meat cleaver and desecrating her corpse.

The jury deliberated about four hours Friday night before reaching the verdict shortly after midnight Saturday, said Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek.

The same jury of five officers and three noncommissioned officers sentenced Bare Saturday evening to life in prison with the possibility of parole, Piek said. His rank was downgraded to private and Bare was dishonorably discharged, as well as forfeiting all pay and allowances and being formally reprimanded.

The verdict followed a five-day court martial.

The machine gunner with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division was wounded in a March 24, 2005, grenade attack in Mosul. He was soon sent home to recover from internal ear injuries and later was enrolled in an intensive psychiatric group therapy program to cope with stress and his anger over his troubled marriage, witnesses said.

Prosecutors portrayed him as a satanic, would-be serial killer who carefully plotted the time and place to slaughter his 18-year-old wife.

His defense lawyer said he was an emotionally and physically damaged combat veteran, angry over his wife's infidelity and the pending breakup of their marriage, who killed in a moment of rage.