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Wigeon Ponds is one of the areas adjacent to the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge purchased by the Southeast Alaska Land Trust, which is producing an updated digital map of the entire wetlands area. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

News

Mendenhall wetlands area to get first new full map since 1979

Change in vegetation, tidal areas, land “rebound” after glacial retreat shown — along with area’s name.

Emma Pokon, commissioner-designee of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, discusses wood stove pollution regulations affecting the Fairbanks-North Star Borough during a Nov. 26 forum. (Screenshot from video by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

News

Newly designated state DEC commissioner strong supporter of Dunleavy’s challenge to federal authority

Emma Pokon, as state attorney, wrote legislation eliminating independent cruise monitoring program.

From left to right, Robert Hughes (KKCFP), Eric Castro (USFS), Kelsey Dean (SAWC) and Angelo Lerma (KKCFP) pause to assess the placement of a log into Shorty Creek on Kuiu Island. Adding wood to streams helps build salmon habitat, and adds flood-resilient structure to the stream and banks. (Photo by Lee House)

News

Resilient Peoples and Place: Healing the land together

Collaboration in full swing by tribes, federal and state agencies, local and environmental interests

Meredith Jordan/ Juneau Empire A manager at Alaska Glacier Seafood shows a filleted sea cucumber ready for further processing.

News

Sea cucumber season off to a good start

Divers seeing much better prices than last year to start

An Earth Day message posted on Facebook this spring by the University of Alaska Southeast refers to environmental stewardship and climate change activities, including these kayaks used for an oceanography course during the summer of 2019. (Courtesy of the University of Alaska Southeast)

Neighbors

Sustainable Alaska: Connecting to nature is vital to sustainable well-being and behavior

I have spent my career studying the aesthetic experience in an art-viewing context. My work has shown that…

Participants in the 38th Annual International Coastal Cleanup carry a fishnet to a boat on a coast near Sitka in August. (Ryan Morse / Sitka Conservation Society)

News

Resilient Peoples and Place: Coastal cleanup removes 1,400 lbs. of trash from Sitka’s beaches

Effort by wide range of groups part of global project that has collected 350 million lbs. of waste.

Thunder Mountain High School receives a five-year banner marking its successful participation in NOAA’s Ocean Guardian School Program on Wednesday, the first school in the state to reach the milestone. Teacher Kristen Wells, far left, and students Lucy Bennett and Steffanie Reynoso were presented with the banner by Kim Raum-Suryan, who coordinates the Ocean Guardian School Program in Alaska, Anne Marie Eich, assistant regional administrator of NOAA’s Protected Resources Division, and Michelle Trifari, an Alaska Sea Grant Fellow. (Meredith Jordan/ Juneau Empire)

News

Thunder Mountain High School gets NOAA Ocean Guardian 5-year banner

First school in the state to achieve conservation group milestone.

Environmental Protection Administrator Michael Regan speaks at a news conference on Thursday at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. Behind him are Bailey Richards, contamination support program coordinator for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium; Natalie Cale, chief operating officer for the Ounalashka Corp.; and Aaron Leggett, president of the Native Village of Eklutna. Regan made a five-day tour of Alaska as part of the EPA’s national Journey to Justice program, which focuses on the ways minority, Indigenous and low-income communities are disproportionately burdened by pollution and climate change. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

News

Alaska trip highlights challenges facing Indigenous communities, EPA leader says

Travels to the to the tiny Yup’ik village of Igiugig in the Bristol Bay region, to Utqiagvik at…

Foam floats trails alongside an entangled humpback whale calf near Juneau on July 17. (John Moran/NOAA Fisheries)

News

Whale woes continue with entanglements, boat strikes

Third whale snared in fishing gear this month freed; two whales also reportedly injured by vessels

Pine needles on a tree in the Mendenhall Valley show aftermath of western blackheaded budworms damage Thursday. U.S. Forest officials said an outbreak that started a few ago in Southeast Alaska is declining in most places, but Juneau still has a high infestation rate that is expected to drop off next year. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

It’s not easy being evergreen in Juneau, as infestation of budworms lingers

Outbreak in Southeast Alaska since 2020 mostly tapering off elsewhere, officials say.

Loons swim near a pipeline and other oil field infrastructure at the Greater Prudhoe Bay Unit on Alaska’s North Slope in this undated photo. A new study finds that nest survival is lower for birds closer to high-use infrastructure. (Photo by Kayla Scheimreif/Wildlife Conservation Society)

News

Study: The closer that birds’ nests are to Prudhoe oil infrastructure, the lower the survival rates

A long-term study of birds that summer around the Prudhoe Bay oil complex found that nest survival for…

Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Dawson, a Coast Guard Marine Safety Task Force member from Coast Guard Sector Anchorage, chats with a representative at a fuel facility in St. Michael, Alaska, during an inspection July 28, 2022. Teams comprised of six Coast Guard marine inspectors visited a total of 15 communities and inspected approximately 55 bulk fuel storage facilities in the Bering Strait Region July 25-Aug. 2, 2022. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Nate Littlejohn)

News

Alaska environmental department plans to repeal regulation of some fuel-storage tanks

Thousands of aboveground tanks that store diesel fuel and other petroleum products would no longer be regulated by…

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire A crowd of visitors tours the Mendenhall Glacier on Friday. Officials announced Friday limits on commercial tours are being imposed as capacity limits are being rapidly reached, which will impact the second half of the summer tourism season. A plan by the U.S. Forest Service to overhaul the facilities of the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area is now in the final stages, which would replace the existing capacity limits with newly defined management practices.

News

Objectors ask for more environmental protections as Mendenhall Glacier plan nears finish

Final OK of multiyear process may occur this fall, replace existing capacity limits with new policy

Afternoon traffic is seen in downtown Fairbanks on March 1. Significant air-quality improvements have been achieved since 2010, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

News

Alaska and 9 other states threaten to sue EPA over wood-burning stove standards

State says EPA should focus on wood-stove certifications; agency also wants policy for power plants

The Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding area is seen under an overcast sky on May 12. A federal order published Friday bans mineral extraction activities such as mining in an expanded area of land surrounding the glacier for the next 20 years. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)

News

Feds expand ban on mineral extraction near Mendenhall Glacier

20-year prohibition on mining, oil drilling applies to newly exposed land as ice continues retreat

A liquid carbon dioxide containment unit stands outside the fabrication building of Glenwood Mason Supply Company, April 18, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The Biden administration announced on Wednesday, May 17, $251 million for carbon capture and storage projects in seven states. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)

News

Biden administration invests in carbon capture

Move ups pressure on industry to show results.

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, left, addresses constituents during a town hall event on Saturday, April 15, 2023 in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Nikiski senator’s bill ‘lumbers’ toward governor’s desk

Senate Bill 87 aims to make locally milled lumber more widely available for the construction of housing in…

Waterways in Southeast Alaska are seen from the air in this 2021 photo by a member of the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The Native tribe is among many in the U.S. and Canada seeking faster and more definitive action by the two countries to cleanup polluted mining sites and safeguard areas against harm from future industrial activity. Complaints about contaminated sites in some border areas, including the Tulsequah Chief mine in British Columbia about 20 miles from Alaska near Juneau, have gone largely unaddressed for many years. (Courtesy Photo / CCTHITA)

News

U.S.-Canada summit leads to renewed calls for transboundary mining cleanups

Indigenous leaders — including Rep. Peltola, U.S. and Canadian tribes — seek joint oversight of areas

Old growth Douglas fir trees stand along the Salmon river Trail on the Mt. Hood National Forest outside Zigzag, Ore. The Biden administration has identified more than 175,000 square miles of old growth and mature forests on U.S. government lands. The Associated Press obtained details on the government’s first-ever national inventory of older forests in advance of their expected public release on Thursday, April 20, 2023. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)

News

U.S. plans new forest protections, issues old-growth inventory

BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration has identified more than 175,000 square miles of old growth and mature…

Southeast Alaska’s Chilkat River is seen on May, 30, 2013. The Chilkat and its main tributary, the Klehini River, are listed among the nation’s most at-risk rivers because of the planned Palmer Project copper and zinc mine being developed upstream from the village of Klukwan. (U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center)

News

Looming mine development puts Southeast’s Chilkat-Klehini system on list of endangered rivers

A pair of connected Southeast Alaska waterways are on the 2023 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers issued…