Southeast

Future assessments of U.S. landslide hazards could include the study of risks posed by atmospheric rivers, which caused extreme precipitation that was linked to recent deadly slides in Southeast Alaska.

The added focus on atmospheric rivers is one of the main updates in a bill that would reauthorize the National Landslide Preparedness Act. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, passed the U.S. Senate on Monday and is now to be considered by the U.S. House.

The initial National Landslide Preparedness Act was signed into law five years ago. That bill broadened the National Landslide Hazards Program led by the U.S. Geological Survey and established a multiagency system to coordinate landslide preparedness and response.

Atmospheric rivers are long and transitory bands of moisture and heat, likened to rivers in the sky. They carry that moisture northward from more southern latitudes, and they can dump vast amounts of rain for several hours or even days.

“You can very rapidly saturate soils in the right conditions,” said Rick Thoman, a scientist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

When such large amounts of warm southern moisture hit the steep mountainous regions of Southeast Alaska, they can cause sudden downhill flows, Thoman said.

“It’s really that intense amount of rain that atmospheric rivers deliver that’s the link to landslides,” he said.

Numerous landslides in the United States have been triggered by atmospheric rivers’ extreme precipitation. Those events include the 2023 slide in Wrangell that killed six people, the 2020 slide in Haines that killed two people and the 2015 slide in Sitka that killed three people.

The National Landslide Preparedness Act Reauthorization Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent. It is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, whose state was the site of the 2014 Oso landslide that killed 43 people.

Extreme precipitation events from atmospheric rivers are tied to shallow-seated landslides such as the deadly events that struck Southeast Alaska in recent years. Other types of Alaska landslides are caused by more deep-seated slope failures triggered by glacial retreat, permafrost thaw or a combination of those forces.

Also passed on Monday by unanimous consent in the Senate was another Murkowski-sponsored and disaster-focused bill, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act. That bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, supports the federal program that maintains earthquake measurement resources and equipment and equipment and early warning systems.

“Earthquakes and landslides are active threats that have taken lives and damaged property across Alaska in recent years,” Murkowski said in a statement issued Tuesday. “Our passage of these bills puts us on track to ensure that federal agencies have the resources they need to help keep communities safe both back home and around the country. I thank my colleagues for working cooperatively to pass these measures and urge the House to take them up and send them to the President as soon as possible.”

Boxes of food, mail and late Christmas presents arrived by plane to the small Southeast Alaska fishing town of Pelican on New Year’s Day. The goods came after the isolated town went more than a month without access to outside services. 

From late November till New Year’s Day, the Chichigof Island town of Pelican relied completely on itself. Extreme weather this winter prevented any seaplanes and or ferries from visiting during that period, leaving its roughly 90 residents cut off from the rest of the region and the services many rely on. 

However, that all changed on New Year’s Day last week when Alaska Seaplanes sent five planes loaded with goods. 

 

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“We have kind of like a shot in our arm, just like to make it,” said Heather Bryant, a Pelican resident and cowner of the Pelican General Store, the town’s only grocery store. 

Bryant said the flights on New Year’s Day were a lifeline.

“But definitely more and more people have been just coming into the store, just because they’re mining their pantries, and I think are running out of stuff,” she said. 

Pelican is off the road system, and relies exclusively on planes and boats visiting from Juneau and other parts of Southeast to bring outside resources and services. But in recent weeks, Southeast Alaska has been pummeled with record-breaking snow and cold temperatures.

An Allen Marine catamaran that was supposed to head from Juneau to Pelican on Tuesday was cancelled due to hazardous conditions. Another flight from Alaska Seaplanes made the trip instead. Bryant said the deliveries — which included milk and eggs, produce and mail — will help them make it by for the time being.

“We’ll be okay for a little bit, and hopefully long enough to make it to the next plane or the next catamaran I hope – I’m just trying to stay positive,” she said. 

In the meantime, Bryant said the town is resilient despite all the cancellations. 

“The one thing I really like about out here is just people are just, they just keep going,” she said. 

Carl Ramseth is the general manager of Alaska Seaplanes. He said the recent weather has prevented many flights from visiting Pelican and other float plane destinations in Southeast Alaska like Angoon, Elfin Cove and Tenakee Springs. But pilots and operators fly when they can, like on New Years Day, when the company typically doesn’t operate.

“As long as we have the minimum temperature that we need to do that with float planes and good visibility, we’ll be operating,” he said. “We’re just kind of at the mercy of Mother Nature at this point.”

Another Allen Marine vessel is slated to arrive at the end of the month.

Haines and Skagway have suffered through weeks of bitterly cold temperatures and several feet of snow.

Snowfall in Haines has been so heavy that residents are worried about roof loads. Community members are caring for each other in these extreme conditions with shovels and the Internet.

When the National Weather Service reported snow depth of 36 inches over the weekend, Haines resident Sheri Loomis started making a list on Facebook.

She said people were returning from travel to find their vehicles buried.

“There’s not a shovel in their car,” she said. “It wasn’t that way when they left. And so requests started being put on social media, ‘Can someone help dig my rig out at the ferry terminal parking lot?’ And pretty soon, these other requests started coming on social media.”

Those requests vary from shoveling off roofs to clearing paths for heating fuel deliveries. Loomis organizes the list items and marks them when they are complete. Community members are rallying to tick off items, but as of Monday afternoon, 19 structures are requesting a service and Loomis expects the number to grow with more incoming bad weather.

“I just had the daughter of a 91-year–old woman contact me with a house right downtown that the roof needs clearing, and they’re very concerned of structural failure,” Loomis said. “Another one out at Lutak … The carport is in danger of collapsing on two vehicles. It just goes on and on.”

Haines Mayor Tom Morphet said that while this isn’t the most snowfall Haines has ever received, the timing has been brutal. It’s on top of the five feet of snow that fell last month.

“I think what we’re seeing is people who are exhausted, people who are burning up their fuel supplies or their budget for oil, now having to get out and shovel till they’re eating a lot of ibuprofen,” he said. “And just a lot of sustained stress. And that’s understandable completely, considering that this cold snap is one of the longer cold snaps I remember in my 40 years in Haines. It’s gone on now more than a month.”

And while everyone is hoping for a warm up, too much melting snow carries the risk of an avalanche.

“We’re kind of standing by and hoping and praying that when the thaw comes, it’s a gradual one and not a rapid one,” Morphet said.

While Skagway’s snow depth on Jan. 3 was 13 inches, nearly two feet less than Haines, residents have been having their own issues. The intense cold has caused numerous frozen pipes and broken furnaces. Skagway has no plumber, so residents reach out to whoever is available to help.

Fuel is burning faster than normal, so Skagwegians are reminded to frequently check their heating oil levels, even if they recently had a refill. On Sunday morning, shortly after midnight, the Petro Marine Services truck was out making emergency deliveries.

Morphet cautions residents to keep their heating vents clear. And the Haines Fire Department asks residents to find their closest hydrant and shovel it out.

“We understand, I think, in the north, that weather can be fatal,” Morphet said. “And it’s a serious thing.”

But so far, he said, the Upper Lynn Canal is doing okay.

Sheri Loomis asks that other Haines residents continue to keep her abreast on what tasks are completed so she can update the request list.

“I’m just really overwhelmed with and have so much gratitude for the people that are helping others right now,” Loomis said. “It could be a matter of saving someone’s house. And it’s wonderful how people get together in times like this and put everything else aside.”

The forecast calls for snow continuing through Thursday and then turning to a mix of rain and snow next weekend.

The state ferry Lituya went aground on Tuesday at about 2:50 p.m. near Annette Bay in Southeast Alaska. The small ferry runs a daily shuttle service between Ketchikan and Metlakatla.

The brief grounding happened when the ferry left Annette Bay dock. It lasted less than a minute, according to Shannon McCarthy, a spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Transportation. She says the grounding is “a rare event” in Alaska’s fleet.

But the Lituya was out of service until Friday while inspections were conducted. Officials found damage to the ship’s hull, but not enough to keep it tied up. It is sailing on a limited schedule in daylight hours until it can be dry-docked in early February.

The U.S. Coast Guard led the investigation into the grounding.

Like many people during the holiday season, Sitkan Gaylen Needham was planning on spending Christmas with her adult children, who planned to fly in from Pelican.

However, due to record snowfall, low visibility and cold temperatures, Pelican has been without seaplane access since Nov. 28, cutting the Southeast community of 91 people off from the rest of the region.

“We lived out there full time in the 70s, and we had hard winters out there then, and the seaplanes landed, and they would often ice up,” said Needham. “I think now they’re just more cautious.”

With transportation to and from Pelican limited to Coast Guard and law enforcement helicopters in medical emergencies, not only was Needham unable to celebrate Christmas with her family, she also has had difficulty bringing the Christmas spirit to them.

“I was thinking of a Christmas package I was getting ready to mail out there, and knowing that the planes weren’t flying if you send it, then it ends up going into (the) Alaska Seaplane office and just sitting there. And in this case, the Christmas cookies would have been moldy, right?,” said Needham. “So we’ve just kind of been waiting to hear that they’ve gotten a plane.”

Ajax Eggleston is Needham’s son who has been living in Pelican off-and-on for about five decades, and says he thinks this is the longest period of time Pelican has gone without plane access.

He says it doesn’t help that Pelican’s December ferry was also canceled due to rough winter conditions in the region. Living in remote Alaska, Eggleston is used to the occasional mail delay, but dealing with decreased ferry capacity at the same time has not made things easy.

“That’s kind of a big part of this, is that we just don’t have reliable ferry service anymore, because we only have (the) LeConte that can tie up to our ferry terminal, and when the LaConte is laid up, we don’t have a big enough ferry to run in foul weather,” said Eggleston.

As a result, Eggleston is still waiting to receive the replacement parts he needs to repair his broken furnace and pipes. As for other residents in Pelican, he knows some who have rescheduled their medical appointments. Others are waiting on Costco orders of fresh produce that are stuck in Juneau.

“Everybody’s kind of hunkered down just watching their vegetables disappear,” said Eggleston. “We’re fine. We’re a subsistence-based community, so we’re not going to starve. But there’s no vegetables and no produce of any kind. So we’re overdue for a mail plane!”

Eggleston says Pelican residents have saved up enough frozen vegetables to get by. There is a Allen Marine catamaran expected to arrive on Jan. 6, as well as a state ferry on Jan. 10. Until then, Eggleston says right now, Pelican residents are in a waiting game for better weather.

This story is co-published by the Wrangell Sentinel and Northern Journal.

An Indigenous community is locked in a debate about the pros and cons of a major new mine on their traditional lands — and a big cash payment promised by the developer.

There is strong support, and fierce opposition. A lot of money to be made, and a wild river to protect. The community faces a pivotal choice.

Though this story sounds like it could be unfolding in rural Alaska, a version of it has actually been playing out just across the border with Canada, in northwest British Columbia. Still, it has implications for the Alaskans who live downstream from the proposed mine site.

In a referendum after weeks of heated debate, members of the Tahltan Nation earlier this month voted overwhelmingly to approve a deal with a Canadian mining company that hopes to revive a huge gold and silver mine, called Eskay Creek, which stopped producing in 2008. The project is located above the Unuk River, which flows into Alaska near Ketchikan.

The Tahltans’ backing is a major step forward for the project, and it comes as the Canada and B.C. governments intensify efforts to build more mines in the name of national security and economic growth. Several of the projects are near the border with Alaska, where state and federal elected officials are separately pushing mines that could help wean the U.S. off a foreign supply of minerals used in energy, electronics and weapons.

Just one day after the Tahltan vote, Canada’s federal government announced that it had approved a merger between two multinational mining firms with a condition that calls for advancing two other proposed mines in Tahltan territory. Both projects sit above tributaries of the Stikine River, a major, salmon-bearing waterway that straddles Canada and the U.S. and empties into the ocean near the small Southeast Alaska town of Wrangell.

Louie Wagner Jr., a Tsimshian and Tlingit resident of Metlakatla, a Native community at the southern tip of Alaska’s panhandle, said he’s concerned about the health of the Unuk River and its future with mines in its watershed.

Wagner and his family have fished and hunted moose along the Unuk for generations.

“That little river cannot handle it,” Wagner said in a recent phone interview. The Unuk is notable, he added, for its abundance of eulachon, a small, oily fish also known as hooligan that’s a staple for Indigenous communities in Southeast Alaska.

Though rarely discussed in Alaska circles, the Tahltan Nation’s approach to mining has major implications for the industry’s future in the transboundary region. A top U.S. Department of Interior official visited the region last year to learn more about models for how Indigenous nations can partner with mining companies.

There are more than a dozen early-stage mining projects in Tahltan territory, many above rivers that flow into Alaska. And the Eskay Creek vote could serve as a preview of future deals between the Tahltan government and the for-profit mining companies promoting development.

For months, members of the First Nation debated whether to approve a deal, known as an impact benefit agreement, that Tahltan elected leaders had negotiated with Vancouver-based Skeena Resources, the company pushing Eskay Creek.

The specifics of the agreement have not been made public. But Tahltan officials have said it guarantees benefits worth more than $1 billion over the life of the mine, mostly in cash but also in contracts and wages.

The deal also calls for an upfront payment from Skeena, intended to be distributed to individual Tahltan members — to the tune of $7,250 each, according to Tahltan officials. And the agreement reportedly gives the First Nation government some environmental oversight over the mine.

The nation backed the deal with support from more than 77% of the roughly 1,750 Tahltans who voted, according to the Tahltan Central Government. Payments are expected to go out to members in 2026.

“Tahltan Central Government is not standing on the sidelines,” Tahltan president Kerry Carlick said in a statement after the vote.  “We are embedding ourselves directly into the governance of environmental protection.”

Tahltan leaders have long worked to navigate political tensions between an expanding mining industry and efforts to protect traditional lands and wildlife.

The Tahltan government has entered into a number of agreements with mining companies. But it also has opposed efforts to mine coal and drill for natural gas near the headwaters of major rivers in the region.

And some Tahltan members have been outspoken critics of the Eskay Creek project and the company promoting it.

In the leadup to the recent vote, arguments erupted on social media, and relationships among community members grew strained, some Eskay Creek opponents said in interviews.

“This is causing internal conflicts,” said Tamara Quock, a Tahltan member who lives in northern B.C. some 350 miles east of the mine site.

Quock said she thinks the promise of the direct payments “enticed” some people to vote in favor of the agreement. Debate over the project, she added, grew more intense after that condition was added to the deal.

Quock said she feels Skeena is “using the Tahltan people” to generate its own profits.

She and other critics have voiced concerns about a perceived lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest within the First Nation’s government. They also say they are worried about possible environmental impacts from the project, which would involve digging two open pits and storing millions of tons of mining waste above the Unuk River.

Skeena didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Alaska Native leaders, fishermen and environmental advocates who live downstream, in Southeast Alaska, for years have expressed concerns about Eskay Creek and other proposed mines in the region, saying they don’t trust Canadian regulators to safeguard Alaskan interests.

“You can’t cut these watersheds in half and expect to adequately protect them,” said Guy Archibald, executive director of the tribally led Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission. “Right now they’re cutting the baby in half and ignoring the effects on the Alaska side of the border.”

The commission last month filed a legal challenge in B.C. court, asserting that regulators had failed to consult Alaska tribes on several proposed mines in the region, including Eskay Creek.

Meanwhile, after a major spill last year at a Canadian gold mine in the Yukon River watershed, Alaska’s congressional delegation called for more oversight of Canadian mines near transboundary rivers like the Unuk and Stikine. The statement from the delegation — which has strongly supported mine development in Alaska — called for “binding protections, financial assurances, and strong transboundary governance.”

“As British Columbia seeks to advance numerous mines just upstream from Alaska, we are still asking them to fully remediate legacy sites and firmly commit to binding protections for Alaska interests,” Joe Plesha, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said in a recent statement. “Senator Murkowski is actively considering new ways to make our B.C. neighbors take Alaskans’ concerns seriously.”

Ottawa and B.C.’s provincial government, meanwhile, are funding new infrastructure projects and prioritizing permitting for energy and resource development projects, including Eskay Creek and the expansion of a huge copper and gold mine in the Stikine watershed, called Red Chris.

Canadian officials say existing regulations are geared to minimize impacts in the shared watersheds. Major projects undergo thorough environmental assessments before they’re approved, a spokesperson with the B.C. agency that leads those reviews, the Environmental Assessment Office, said in an email.

“Making sure large-scale projects are properly assessed is critical to making sure development is sustainable — to ensure good jobs and economic growth while also protecting the environment and wildlife, and keeping communities healthy and safe,” said the spokesperson, Sarah Plank.

Tahltan officials declined an interview request and did not respond to questions about Alaskans’ concerns or the First Nation’s agreement with Skeena.

Supporters of Eskay Creek say it could be transformational for the Tahltan Nation. Among proponents of the deal is Chad Norman Day, a former Tahltan president who has worked in the mining industry and now runs a consulting firm that does mining-related business.

“The benefits which flow to the Tahltan Nation from here will empower the people and territory unlike anything we have ever seen,” Day said in a statement after the vote.

Many Tahltan people work in mining, and the First Nation already generates revenue from Red Chris and another large operating mine, Brucejack, which started producing gold in 2017.

In 2019, Tahltan citizens voted in favor of an agreement with a different mining company pushing another, much bigger proposed mine partially in the Unuk watershed, called KSM. The outcome of that vote was nearly identical to the recent Eskay one, with about the same percentage in favor.

The first nation also, in the past five years, has entered into two joint decisionmaking agreements with the B.C. government for regulatory reviews of mining projects, including Eskay Creek.

Before it can start producing, Eskay Creek needs an environmental approval from the provincial government. A decision is expected early next year.