Alix Soliman

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A small crowd of about 20 protesters clad in raincoats raised their voices in front of the marble pillars of Juneau’s Capitol Building on Friday. 

The Juneau residents joined thousands of protesters in more than 30 cities as part of a nationwide rally calling for an end to President Trump’s cuts to scientific research and institutions.

They waved homemade signs in the drizzly afternoon to support scientists and their role in society. Chants included “defend science, not defund,” and “NOAA’s not here to build an ark.” It is the latest local protest against Trump’s motions to shrink the federal workforce and cut funding for scientific research.

Droplets of rain collected on Makenna Lovejoy’s nose as she chanted. She says science saved her life.

“I have a chronic condition, and without the insane work that doctors put in to protect people and save people, I wouldn’t be here,” she said. “Alongside that, I spent so much time in nature, and it’s what I enjoy, and if we don’t protect that, then future generations won’t get it too.”

Lovejoy is calling for Alaska’s delegation in Congress to defend their constituents against Trump’s attacks on science, instead of supporting him.  

She arranged the protest — and that’s something she’s never done before. But Lovejoy said she felt called to action when she saw national organizers asking volunteers to host ‘Stand Up for Science’ demonstrations in their communities. The activists demand the nation’s leaders end the political censorship of science, secure scientific funding and reinstate DEI initiatives.

Kristy Kissinger-Totten is involved with the Democratic Caucus for Alaska. She attended to oppose Trump’s efforts to defund scientific research.  

“This is what saves people. I had a brother that had polio, so it’s close to our family, and we need to, you know, promote vaccination and promote the facts of science,” she said. “Keep it funded, keep it in our schools.”

Jill Dumesnil toted a sign that read “Stand up For Science.” She’s the president of the University of Alaska faculty union and showed up in support of her colleagues, some of whom have had research grants canceled. 

“They are working to solve real-world problems, and big problems that people have, so targeting them is ridiculous,” Dumesnil said. 

Ray Chester Imel III was there to champion the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  He’s an avid skier and former teacher, and says that Alaskans count on NOAA’s accurate and timely weather reports. 

“You need an infrastructure of science data recording and reporting,” he said. “Is there an earthquake and a tsunami? You need to move to higher ground. Who’s going to tell you to do that? Those warnings are no good a few hours too late.”

After chants and a personal testimony, protesters chatted amongst themselves until some of them had to go back to work.

Flood barriers meant to protect Mendenhall Valley homes from glacial outburst floods are on their way to Juneau. This week, city contractors started doing site assessments at homes where the barriers will be installed.

Contractors walked through Dan Wayne’s backyard on Tuesday morning to plot the location of the temporary levee. It will be made of steel cages filled with sandbags, called HESCO barriers. Each one is 3 feet wide, 3 feet long and 4 feet tall.

Wayne’s small backyard, which extends 20 feet out from his house, is expected to shrink by half. He also won’t be able to see or access an adjacent lot he purchased next to the river.

“It has a pond on it with wildlife and birds and so forth,” he said. “We have a dinghy that we row out there.” 

Instead, all he’ll see is a wall. 

Although water has crept right up to his property line, Wayne says his home has never flooded in the 28 years he’s lived there. He has mixed feelings about the barriers.

“I want my neighbors to be flood-free,” he said. “I’m happy to be part of it, but I feel like it should have been handled better.”

He’s among the 466 landowners who will pay about $6,300 over the next 10 years to foot the bill for 40% of the installation cost. Juneau taxpayers will cover the other 60%. 

Wayne says he wishes the city would better compensate landowners who will be hosting the hulking barriers for an unknown length of time — potentially years — while city planners consider longer-term solutions. 

“We, of course, would like these barriers to be up for as short of a time as possible, but we just don’t know how long that will be,” said City Manager Katie Koester at an assembly meeting on Monday. 

She highlighted that landowners will be able to make specific requests to limit the impact of construction on their lives, like having contractors work when babies aren’t sleeping and moving fences for dogs. 

Dan Allard, an Emergency Management Specialist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says the agency is paying roughly $4 million for the materials. 

“So what is coming is 37,800 linear feet of HESCO barrier, 112,000 regular size sandbags, 400 super sacks — which are very large sandbags,” Allard said. 

Although the Army Corps won’t be responsible for installation, since the city is managing that, Allard says it won’t be pretty when the heavy machinery rolls in. 

“I know it’s going to be a muddy mess in everybody’s yard,” he said.

Property assessments are ongoing and the barriers are due to arrive in the next few weeks. But the installation date is still unknown. 

Protestors took to the streets of Gustavus on Saturday, joining hundreds of demonstrations around the country in response to staffing cuts at National Parks and other public lands.

Glacier Bay National Park is headquartered in the small town of around 600 people — many of them current or former park employees. The workers said they’ve lost one biologist as a result of the cuts and that their demonstration was a show of solidarity.

Roughly 40 people held up homemade signs. One said “I speak for the trees,” referencing the  children’s book “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss, which warns against wrecking the environment for profit. Another sign read “Elon sucks,” referring to the unelected billionaire who’s leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in slashing federal agency jobs.

Katy Dighton, a current park staff member, organized the demonstration as a private citizen. She said that protesting in a small, rural place matters, even if it doesn’t seem productive. 

“We’re just standing up for what we care about. I refuse to act like everything is okay at this point,” Dighton said.

The park covers 3.3 million acres and brought in over 700,000 visitors in 2023. Dighton says that number is growing. 

Sven Hooson maintains facilities at Glacier Bay. He attended the protest wearing a shirt that read ‘protect our national parks.’ 

“There was no rally cry in particular, but we were just there to support the parks and support our employees across the nation,” Hooson said.

He says that Gustavus depends on park employment, and that staff there work like an “intricate machine” to make the landscape accessible. 

“When you start taking pieces out of the machine, the service to the public starts to go down,” he said.

The National Park Service did not confirm the number of employees fired from Glacier Bay, or comment on the demonstration. 

 

More federal workers were fired in Alaska Thursday, this time at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.  

Agency staff could not confirm how many people were fired from NOAA offices in the Juneau area.

Aaron Lambert, a fisheries management specialist, says he was one of at least four people who cleared out their desks at NOAA’s Alaska Regional Office in the Federal Building downtown.

Lambert says he saw it coming – he was a ‘probationary employee’ who was with the agency for six months. But that didn’t buoy the “sinking feeling” when he received the email at 11:35 a.m. Thursday officially firing him because his “ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs,” according to the email.

“This is a little ridiculous, as I received multiple positive performance reviews from two different managers,” Lambert said, adding that he even received an award recognizing his work there.  

His job was to estimate how many salmon are in Southcentral’s Cook Inlet, and how many need to return and reproduce each year to support a sustainable fishery. 

“It’s really important for making sure you harvest enough of the fish, but also allow for conservation to have a future fishery essentially,” Lambert said.

It’s the only federally managed coastal salmon fishery in Alaska, and funnels millions of dollars into the state each year.  

Lambert said NOAA’s sustainable fisheries department at the regional office in Juneau was already a lean operation. 

“There’s a good chance that next year the stock assessment won’t be conducted, and if someone does end up doing it, they’ll be pulled off a different project,” he said. “Work is already spread amongst pretty sparse staff there.”  

Staff at NOAA’s National Weather Service office in Juneau put out free forecasts and are developing community warning systems for landslides and glacial outburst floods in Southeast Alaska. Agency staff could not confirm Friday whether NWS staff were included in the cuts. 

The Southeast Alaska Landslide Information and Preparedness Partnership sent an email to its subscribers in support of the agency: “Here in Southeast Alaska we depend on weather forecasts for our livelihoods and our life blood,” it read. “Fishermen, hunters, hikers, boaters, subsistence food gatherers and people who enjoy the natural world make decisions based on NWS forecasts. It’s a critical life safety service. And we are saddened this administration cut forecasters in our regional office.” 

Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE and headed by billionaire Elon Musk, says public servants were let go to slash government spending. The directive is receiving significant public pushback. Wages and benefits for public servants make up just 4% of the federal budget. 

The federal government is the second largest employer in Juneau. The most recent city data shows 709 federal employees worked here in 2024. The terminations come after the U.S. Forest Service lost dozens of Juneau-based employees this month. Layoffs are expected to strike more agencies soon.