KNBA - Anchorage

Alaska is set to receive around $120 million from the federal government for improving aviation safety through new weather stations and updates to telecommunication systems.

That’s according to U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who spoke at an aviation roundtable at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage this week. Rep. Nick Begich and officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration attended the event as well.

“These are historic investments that our state needs,” Sullivan said. “We have the highest by far of any state in the country – 2.3 times higher – crash rates.”

The funding comes from the federal budget reconciliation bill, or the Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed by President Trump last month. The bill includes more than $12 billion for aviation improvements across the country. In Alaska, some of the improvements will also be paid for by an investment from the Federal Aviation Administration that was announced back in April.

The funding is only one step toward addressing the state’s longstanding challenges, but people in Alaska’s aviation industry say they’re encouraged.

“We’ve been fighting for years and advocating for weather reporting stations,” said Dan Knesek, the vice president of commercial operations at Anchorage-based Grant Aviation

More reliable flights for villages off-the-road system 

Grant provides air service to communities across the state, delivers cargo and sends medevac planes. But Knesek said it is hard to make those flights between October and April.

Accurate weather information is crucial for pilots. When visibility is low, it helps them to decide whether they should fly. And carriers that fly relying on their instruments are required to have certified weather reports to take off.

But a lot of places in Alaska don’t have reliable – or any – weather reporting, which means that fewer planes make it in.

Knesek said there are times when flights can’t reach communities for a week.

“These communities are very dependent on our services,” he said. “They need to go to the doctor, or any of the basic services they need to fly to get.”

Alaska has about 160 aviation-specific weather stations. Adam White, with the Alaska Airmen’s Association, said that’s far from the density of weather stations in the lower 48. The Federal Aviation Administration is set to install an additional 174 weather observer systems for Alaska.

White said that still might not be enough, but any addition will help pilots and forecasters.

“We’ve got some parts of Alaska that there’s more than 100 miles to the nearest weather station in any direction. And that’s kind of crazy to think about,” White said. “So anything we can get is a huge increase in the information that we’ve got available to us.”

The FAA is now working with carriers and experts to prioritize places that need new stations most.

“We’re looking primarily at off-road system locations that (are) completely reliant on air service for the life and health and safety and well being of the community, and the typical weather patterns and the success rate of flights making it in and out of that community,” said White with the Airmen’s Association, one of the organizations advising on that process.

Questions remain about staffing and maintenance

Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, agrees that installing more weather stations is important for public safety and for weather and climate reporting. But he said it’s only one step.

“More stations are great, but they’ve got to work, and they got to report to the whole world reliably,” Thoman said.

Thoman said that on any given day, 10-15% of the aviation weather stations across Alaska are down or not fully reporting, He said the biggest issue is telecommunication infrastructure, which helps get information from the weather station out to the people who need it. Many Alaska villages still rely on copper wires for transmitting signals, and Thoman said sometimes people can’t even get parts to repair the antiquated systems.

The bill does include funding for improving telecommunications infrastructure.

At Tuesday’s conference, FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency is still mapping out the details, but they are leaning toward updating stations to satellite technology and are now testing Starlink units.

Staffing to maintain the stations is another requirement for them to operate successfully – and to get certified, Thoman said.

“People have to go there to do the maintenance. Even if the FAA is contracting with local people, a human being has to go and do stuff,” Thoman said. “If money to support that is not included in that bill, then this is a big problem.”

Bedford said maintenance and staffing are not included in the bill. He said the agency still needs significantly more funding to improve aviation facilities and to look for workforce solutions, for example, through scholarships for technicians.

Growing political tensions, a need for partnerships and the importance of including Indigenous leaders in policy decisions were some of the themes at the Arctic Encounter Summit in Anchorage last week.

More than 700 participants, including leaders from around the circumpolar North, gathered at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center for the conference.

Mike Sfraga is a former U.S. ambassador to the Arctic who recently stepped into the interim chancellor role at University of Alaska Fairbanks. He spoke about how national, personal and environmental security are interconnected, especially for people who live in the Arctic.

“We’re talking about water security, food security, community security, health security. So it’s all nested in there,” Sfraga said. “But it’s highlighted by, obviously, our homeland and national security.”

Ties and tensions with Russia

The geopolitical climate in the Arctic has undergone a major shift since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Margaret Williams, a senior fellow with the Arctic Initiative of the Harvard Kennedy School, said that it put an end to partnerships between Russia and the U.S. on wildlife research and planning for potential oil spills.

“Since that time, all of this important collaboration and communication has stopped,” Williams said.

Russia has also been strengthening its relationship with China while growing its shipping, fishing and military activities in the Arctic, Williams said — all of which have increased tensions with the U.S..

Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf is the executive director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission. She was born in Savoonga, a small village on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, which is closer to eastern Russia than it is to the rest of the U.S. Metcalf said Savoonga residents have a lot in common with their Russian neighbors.

“We have neighbors across the waters in Chukotka sharing the same concerns with Alaskans,” Metcalf said. “We know that we have the same issues that we’re dealing with, especially with marine mammal migration patterns changing because of climate change. Our coastlines are eroding, cliffs are crumbling, really challenging our community harvesters, affecting our food systems.”

Metcalf said she hopes that with time, Russian and American scientists and locals will collaborate again to protect marine subsistence resources and exchange cultural knowledge.

“As long as we focus on people-to-people, community-to-community ways — communicating with our neighbors,” Metcalf said.

Need for cooperation

The Arctic Encounter brought representatives from 27 nations to Anchorage. Some came from the European Union, Japan, Canada and Greenland.

During the final day of the conference, Sen. Lisa Murkowski acknowledged there is also friction between the U.S. and Western Arctic countries. Murkowski said the White House’s focus on tariffs and rhetoric around expansion hasn’t helped to build trust and diplomatic partnerships — President Donald Trump has talked about annexing Greenland and about Canada becoming the 51st state.

Murkowski said what can be helpful is having other officials who articulate the country’s priorities differently.

“It’s important to have elected representatives who can talk about the important relationships that we want to have with Canada, with Greenland, without suggesting that it has to be adversarial, confrontational or exploitative,” Murkowski said. “We cannot maintain a zone of peace if we erode the circle of trust and treat even our closest allies and friends like a common enemy.”

Murkowski said she sees examples of international collaboration in the Arctic in wildfire management. She said other examples are strengthening defense through military training and the inclusion of Sweden and Finland into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“We have now a new task on the U.S. side, and that is to work to rebuild trust and relations, not with Russia, which has shown that it deserves neither, but with our fellow Western Arctic nations, our closest allies and our long standing partners,” she said. “My commitment is to ensure that America is a reliable partner, will be a reliable partner, so that in the Arctic, we can all advance together.”

Listening to Indigenous people of the North

Several Arctic Encounter panels focused on sovereignty. Speakers agreed that policy decisions about the Arctic should go hand-in-hand with listening to local communities.

Sara Cohen is a deputy head of mission at the Canadian Embassy in the U.S., where she focuses on foreign policy and national security.

“You can’t have safe people without having a safe environment. You can’t have safe people without them having a safe and secure access to a future that is characterized by dignity in Canada,” Cohen said. “That’s very much also part of our reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”

Doreen Leavitt is the director of natural resources at the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, a tribal entity representing several communities on the North Slope. Leavitt said people living in the Arctic can represent themselves best.

“When decisions are made about us, we are diminished, and when we the tribes are ignored, it directly erodes our self determination and our sovereignty,” Leavitt said. “At the end of the day, no one else is going to know what is best for our people and our lands than we do.”

After the three-day conference in Anchorage, Arctic Encounter participants visited Fairbanks. The event repeats annually.

Copyright 2025 KNBA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture axed a program this week that was supporting farmers and food producers, including those in Alaska.

The department created the Regional Food Business Centers program in 2023 to strengthen local food economies. But on Tuesday, it abruptly ended that program, which was originally funded with pandemic relief money through the American Rescue Plan Act. USDA officials said in a press release there was no long-term way to finance it.

Robbi Mixon is the executive director of the Alaska Food Policy Council, which was in charge of the program locally. Mixon says this decision pulls back over $6 million in investment for Alaska, where the majority of food is imported and many villages are not on the road system.

“This was a chance for real economic investment into our food and farm businesses and fishers,” Mixon said. “It was a way to attract more investment as well, in terms of grants and loans and things like that. So it’s just really sad to see it all go down like this.”

A dozen business centers across the country were part of the program. Each one worked to allocate grants to food producers and farmers and help them with grant writing, marketing and business planning.

The Alaska Food Policy Council was working within one of those centers. Mixon says it was a strategic effort to build coordination and long-term infrastructure across Alaska’s food sectors.

“The program was tailored to address specific challenges in Alaska,” Mixon said. “So, our huge geography, our huge transportation and logistic costs, and our community size.”

The council planned to award grants to over 50 food and farm businesses across Alaska. But as they approached the time to award grants last winter, the Trump administration froze the funding, and they had to pause their grant program.

The Department of Agriculture stated in its release that it will honor existing commitments to farmers and food businesses. But in Alaska, Mixon says, almost none of the businesses had an official contract yet – they were only preparing for that collaboration to begin.

“We were working with an organization that was looking to set up more fresh produce markets in rural Alaska. We were working with an organization that wanted to provide technical assistance for home-based food businesses,” Mixon said. “And we did have tribal partners as well.”

Still, Mixon says the food council will use its volunteer board and statewide working groups to advocate for investments and build stronger food systems for all Alaskans.

The Eklutna Tribe has operated its new casino outside Anchorage under the shadow of two separate lawsuits. A federal judge has dismissed one of those, filed by a group of property owners near the tribe’s casino in Birchwood.

With approval from the U.S. Interior Department, the tribe opened its Chin’an Gaming Hall on a Native allotment in February.

The property owners argued that the casino harmed the rural character of their neighborhood and claimed it would increase traffic, noise and raise the risk for water pollution. Their attorney, Don Mitchell, also challenged the Native Village of Eklutna’s status as a federally recognized tribe.

“Congress has never allowed a middle-ranking employee of the Interior Department to just wave a magic wand and create 200 Indian tribes, either in Alaska or any other place,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell is referring to Ada Deer, who served as Assistant Secretary of Interior during the Clinton administration. In 1993, she included Eklutna in a list of Alaska tribes to eliminate any doubt that they have the same status as tribes in the Lower 48. Numerous court cases have tried and failed to invalidate this decision. In a ruling on Friday, June 27, U.S. District Judge James Robart said the Eklutna lawsuit should be dismissed in “equity and good conscience.”

In a statement, Aaron Leggett, the president of the Native Village of Eklutna called the ruling a significant step forward, because it affirmed an important principle to the tribe — that its rights are firmly rooted in the land.

Tribal legal experts like Michelle Demmert says even one challenge to an Alaska tribe’s legitimacy threatens them all. They also consume time, energy and precious dollars, she says.

“Time and time again, the law is clear in these areas that continue to be challenged,” said Demmert, an attorney in the Tribal Governance Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “If the argument was that the Eklutna tribe is not a tribe, there’s legal precedent. There’s federal law that says, ‘They are.'”

Mitchell disagrees that the federal law and courts have been clear on tribal jurisdiction in Alaska.

Depending on what the neighboring property owners decide, Mitchell says an appeal could be the next step, because the judge delivered a second blow to his case on Monday. Mitchell had asked the judge to reconsider his ruling, a motion he quickly rejected.

The tribe also faces another federal lawsuit, this one brought on by the Alaska Attorney general. It also aims to shut down the casino and contests the tribe’s authority over the land the gaming hall was built on land that was conveyed to the Ondola family under the Alaska Native Allotment Act of 1906.

The Chin’an Gaming Hall sits on about eight acres near the Birchwood Airport, which the tribe has leased from the heirs of the Ondola family. During the Biden administration, the Interior Department reversed course on an earlier decision that said Native allotments in Alaska could not be considered “Indian Country.” This step cleared the way for the casino’s approval.

Since the gaming establishment opened, it’s seen brisk business, sometimes with long lines waiting to enter. Chin’an means thank you in the Dena’ina language. For now, it’s a small gambling operation in a temporary building limited to electronic gaming. The Native Village of Eklutna hopes to build a permanent facility, so it can add restaurants and expand its operations. The tribe hopes to use the money to create jobs for its members and fund social and economic development programs.

Back in June, whaler Quincy Adams soared above a seal blanket at Simmonds Field in Utqiagvik, with a bag of candy in his hands. He leaped even higher and tossed the kaleidoscope of sweets, as the children around him whooped with joy and caught treats.

Quincy and his wife Bernadette Adams are the captains of the Aaluk whaling crew. They were among those who landed a bowhead whale this spring and threw a feast for the community – especially for elders and widows who can’t hunt for themselves.

“It’s all for the community, not just for us or our crew,” Quincy Adams said. “It’s to make sure everybody gets a bite to eat, to make sure that nobody goes hungry.”

Several coastal Arctic communities – including Utqiagvik, Point Hope, Wainwright, Nuiqsut and Kaktovik – hosted festivals throughout June to celebrate a successful whaling season. The event is often called Nalukataq, or blanket toss in Iñupiaq.

In Utqiagvik, the festival this year spanned four days and included feasts, prayers, dance and a traditional blanket toss. Each day, the whaling crews served several courses of subsistence dishes: caribou, duck and geese soup, doughnuts, boiled whale meat, muktuk, akutaq, and a delicacy – fermented whale meat and blubber, or mikigaq.

Everyone on the crew had a task, even teenagers and children who helped serve coffee and tea. Flossie Nageak celebrated her 70th birthday on one of the Nalukataq days and said that having children participate helps them learn Iñupiaq traditions.

“We work together, trying to teach them our tradition,” she said. “We need to let them get into subsistence. They’ll be next in the future.”

When the feast was over, the whalers stretched a sealskin blanket, inviting everyone to jump on it. Then, the crowd moved indoors and continued with Iñupiaq dancing and drumming throughout the night.

This year’s Nalukataq also had an emotional side for Adams. A young member of his crew died by suicide earlier this year, and the crew dedicated their whaling season to him. They also opened one of the days of Nalukataq with a prayer and a message of hope.

Adams said it is still hard for him to process the loss of the crew member who was hardworking and always eager to learn.

“He always liked to learn, always asking, ‘What’s next?'” Adams said. ” He was a young man just starting his life out.”

Adams said his sons were friends with the young man and are struggling too, so he is encouraging them to share their feelings.

Historically, suicide rates in the North Slope region have been high compared to more urban areas and Alaska as a whole, according to data from the borough. Adams said he is worried about young people who have a hard time seeking out help.

“It’s just something we wanted to get out to the other people and to the young people and the teens, tell them that there is hope, there is family that loves them,” Adams said. “If they need to talk to somebody, talk to somebody.”

Whaling captain Herman Ahsoak said that dedicating Nalukataqs to those who passed is not new. He said the event is about the community coming together.

“We put on the blanket and jump,” he said, “and let it all out on the blanket and just jump for joy.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline via call, text or chat.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration on Thursday for the Denali Borough after the Bear Creek Fire destroyed homes and hampered transportation in the area.

Wildfires have been burning across the Interior since late last week. The Bear Creek Fire north of Healy has burned 26,000 acres, destroying some homes and forcing residents to evacuate.

The disaster declaration will support the borough’s response to the fire and open up state relief funds for displaced residents, according to the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Bear Creek Fire

Evacuations for the Bear Creek fire remained in place and unchanged on Friday, with a shelter located at Tri-Valley School in Healy. Denali Borough Mayor Chris Noel said the fire had forced at least 75 people to leave their homes.

Borough officials say they are still assessing the damage, but the fire destroyed at least 17 structures, six of them residential.

Noel also said that a damaged fiber optic line was causing cell service interruptions.

The fire also caused power outages in the area. At least 24 homes were still without power on Thursday, according to the Golden Valley Electric Association.

About 225 firefighters and support personnel were still working the Bear Creek and other nearby fires, said Rita Henderson, spokeswoman with the Alaska Incident Management Team, which includes federal, state, local and tribal entities.

Henderson said the firefighters had put in a dozer line to keep the fire from going further north. She said firefighters were also working to protect homes and roads near the Bear Creek Fire as well as several other fires north of Healy.

Henderson said helicopters were dropping buckets on hot spots along the Parks Highway, and pilot cars might continue escorting drivers through the area for another week or longer.

“The public should be ready for wait times along the Parks Highway going north and south, but they’re doing their best to keep that moving,” she said.

Fairbanks fires

Fires north of Fairbanks, totaling around 6,530 acres, have not been contained and continued to grow as of Friday.

No structures have been damaged in those fires so far, said Jessica Ferracane, the spokeswoman for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

Ferracane said the responders continued to focus on the Himalaya Road Fire, surveying the terrain from above and installing sprinklers around residences and other structures.

“This one is very close to homes,” she said.

Fairbanks North Star Borough officials lowered evacuation levels around Himalaya Road and Aggie Creek on Thursday, allowing residents to return home.

Ferracane said firefighters would continue using heavy equipment along the Elliot Highway and other roads in the area.

“People should expect delays and possibly poor visibility due to smoke and also fire crews working alongside those roads,” she said.

Fire crews were also working on fires near Salcha, Tok and Delta Junction, as well as ones close to Rampart, Nelchina Glacier and Clear.

Drier weather and thunderstorms in the forecast 

The Interior started seeing warmer and dryer weather on Friday after a few days of cooler, wetter weather. The forecast showed warmer temperatures and light winds going forward, as well as potential for thunderstorms and lightning.

Fire managers warn that existing fires could grow and there could be new flareups.

“We’re coming back into sunny and warm days, and fires across the interior region are becoming more active,” said Sam Harrel, an information officer with the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection.