Associated Press

More Alaska firefighters have gone to the Lower 48, as wildfires in western states there intensify.

State and federal firefighting agencies in Alaska report that five, 20-person crews were flown south Wednesday. They’re joining over 15 hundred people battling the Pioneer Fire in Idaho.

The agencies report that 2 dozen Alaska smoke jumpers and four crews, were earlier deployed to the lower 48. Alaska firefighting aircraft have also been going south, including helicopters, water and retardant dropping planes.

ANCHORAGE — A Valdez man reported missing last week has been found dead along the Richardson Highway.

Alaska State Troopers say the body of Christian Cumbie, 39, was found about 300 feet from a ditch near Mile 51 where his motorcycle left the roadway.

Family members reported Cumbie missing July 27. He was last seen the day before leaving The Hub convenience store in Glennallen.

Volunteer searchers found him early Sunday night.

Troopers said Cumbie was driving south and was unable to negotiate a sweeping left-hand curve.

His motorcycle ran off the road into a wooded area.

Troopers said speed likely was a factor in the crash.

An autopsy has been scheduled.

ANCHORAGE — Soldiers from the U.S. and Canada have spent the last few weeks participating in war games in expansive interior Alaska, with about 800 Iowa National Guard personnel playing the role of the enemy.

About 5,000 soldiers and support personnel have just concluded the exercise, called Arctic Anvil. It was coordinated by the Hawaii-based Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Capability from the 196th Infantry Brigade.

It was the largest training exercise held in Alaska in the last 15 years.

It tested the soldiers against two kinds of opponents, insurgents similar to what the forces faced in Iraq and Afghanistan and more traditional foes that have the same military might, like tanks and aircraft.

ANCHORAGE — A federal government attorney says Alaska’s bearded seals deserve to be listed as a threatened species because of climate warming’s effect on their sea ice habitat.

Robert Stockman of the National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday in Anchorage urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court ruling that said bearded seals do not merit the listing.

Bearded seals are the largest of the Arctic seals. They use sea ice to give birth, molt and dive for food.

The National Marine Fisheries Service listed bearded seals as threatened in 2012.

U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline in 2014 ruled the listing was improper.

He said the agency had not demonstrated that bearded seals faced a serious threat of extinction before the end of the century.

JUNEAU — Gov. Bill Walker has appointed his Arctic policy adviser to lead the state’s Washington, D.C., office.

Craig Fleener will continue advising Walker on Arctic issues.

Walker spokeswoman Grace Jang says the move makes sense since Arctic policy is made in Washington. She says Fleener will make $210,000 annually. His current salary is about $128,000.

Fleener had been Walker’s running mate in 2014 before Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott joined forces for their successful run.

Jang says the Washington office had five staff members under the previous administration and now has two. She couldn’t say for sure if it would stay at that level.

Fleener replaces Kip Knudson, a hold-over from Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration booted by Walker last year.

Jang says the office’s associate director was filling in as director but is leaving to move to Wisconsin.

PETERSBURG — The southeast Alaska town of Petersburg is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a project to address a growing problem at one of its main harbors for commercial fishing operations.

Petersburg Borough Assembly has asked the federal agency to help it conduct a feasibility study to dredge the south harbor, where many of the larger boats have been going aground due to the rising basin. Assembly members have approved $325,000 for the dredging study.

The Corp, which installed Petersburg’s north harbor, would pay for about half the costs of the dredging and take over part of the permanent maintenance of the south harbor.

Officials predict the project will be complete by 2019.