Tourism

Four fishing guides at a Petersburg lodge are being charged by the State of Alaska with over 50 violations. The four men were working for Rocky Point Resort in 2019 and 2020.

All of the charges are misdemeanors involving illegal fishing for halibut. Halibut is strictly regulated with a limited quota for commercial and sports fishermen, and the harvests must be documented.

State and federal officers were involved in the investigations, including undercover officers posing as fishing clients. The officers say they saw 62-year-old Gregory Wasik and 59-year-old Kristopher Thomas break several laws — taking too many customers, too many halibut, using too many fishing lines, throwing out small halibut to keep larger ones, and throwing out halibut that had been gaffed or hooked for bringing the fish onboard. The state also says the guides did not accurately document the halibut their clients caught.

Wasik is being charged with 17 counts for violations in June of 2019.Thomas faces 25 counts for violations in June and August of 2020.

The state is charging 43-year-old Charles King, known as “Nik,” with 10 counts for underreporting halibut caught by his clients in the summer of 2020. John Robert Snyder is being charged with two similar counts for violations in August of 2020. Snyder’s age was not listed in the court documents.

Some of the halibut involved were what’s known as guided angler fish. That’s a halibut quota sold by commercial fishermen to guided sports fishermen through a federal catch-sharing program.

Even though federal investigators were involved, there are no federal charges at this time. NOAA fisheries spokesperson Dominic Andrews said in an email that they are currently investigating and cannot comment.

Rocky Point Resort has been owned by a Petersburg family since 1984 and offers guided and unguided fishing. The person who answered the phone at the resort Monday said she didn’t know about the charges and said no one else was there to comment.

The arraignment for all four guides is set for May 31 at 10 a.m. at the Petersburg Courthouse.

The state’s prosecuting attorney is Ronald Dupuis with the Office of Special Prosecutions in Anchorage. He was unavailable for comment.

The Juneau Assembly voted down a motion on Monday to reconsider leasing the West Douglas Pioneer Road to iRide Alaska for guided electric bike tours.

The Assembly voted against leasing the road to the company at last month’s meeting. But in a rare move, member Wade Bryson gave notice of reconsideration. That required the Assembly to vote on whether to take it up again.

iRide Alaska hoped to offer e-bike tours during the tourist season for up to 10 people each, three times per day on Mondays through Saturdays. Bryson had voiced support for the tours, citing the company’s local ownership and willingness not to offer tours on Sundays.

Some North Douglas residents had spoken against the tours, saying the road was one of the few spots left for locals in the summer.

On Monday, Assembly member Christine Woll said they’d already discussed the pros and cons enough.

“I think reconsideration is a useful tool when new information has become available, or Assembly members were confused about an issue and have now gotten clarity,” she said. “I don’t think that applies to this situation.”

The motion to reconsider the lease failed in a 3-5 vote, with Bryson, Michelle Hale and ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak voting in favor.

On a misty Monday afternoon in Juneau, a small welcoming committee gathered at the Alaska Steam dock, in front of the towering Norwegian Bliss. The 4,000 passenger ship was the first of the 2023 season. 

A steady stream of people made their way up the ship’s ramp and onto shore, where they were greeted with applause, maps, tour advertisements and a smiling whale mascot ready for photo ops. 

“Welcome to Juneau everybody,” said longtime resident Tom Sullivan, who stood at the top of the ramp. “Have a great time. Glad you’re here.”

Not everyone is glad. Just before the Norwegian Bliss docked, major cruise lines finalized an agreement with the City and Borough of Juneau to observe a five-ship daily limit, starting in 2024. Some community members say that doesn’t go far enough. 

Sue Schrader was among a small group of protesters at the dock. They stood with picket signs and one massive banner that was made to be visible from the cruise decks. It read, “Communities Against Cruise Pollution.”

“Cruising has consequences,” Schrader said. “We don’t like to annoy the passengers, but they need to know.”

The protesters worry that the five-ship limit is too little, too late. They feel Juneau’s visitor volume has grown too much already. And the 2023 season is expected to break records, with 30% more cruise passengers than in 2019. 

“There still seems to be unlimited growth,” Schrader said. “And we’re asking our elected officials or city leaders to get serious about the issue.”

Five ships is a busy day — but it’s possible that stopping at five is the most Juneau can do. The limit is the result of a long-negotiated agreement between the city and Cruise Lines International Association, a trade group that represents most of the world’s major cruise lines. It’s one of only a few such agreements worldwide.

The daily limit is not enforceable — it’s a good faith agreement. And it doesn’t limit passenger numbers, as ship capacity is increasing across the industry. 

During the course of negotiations, some community members called for an even stricter cap on ships — between three and four ships per day. But Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski recently said the city “would be in litigation immediately” after such a move. In 2016, the cruise industry filed a lawsuit against the city for its use of marine passenger fees, and some city officials have raised concerns about further litigation. 

The agreement does represent the city taking a more active role in managing visitor numbers than ever before, which could give them more breathing room to establish new attractions and infrastructure for a growing number of visitors. 

“This agreement provides our community with the assurance we need to plan for the future,” city Tourism Manager Alexandra Pierce wrote in the press release. “It’s essential we preserve the things that make Juneau an incredible place to live and to visit.”

Juneau has long been divided on whether cruise ship tourism benefits or harms the community. Most people fall somewhere in between. But Sullivan, who came out to meet the Norwegian Bliss, said he was honored to welcome so many visitors to the place he’s called home for 40 years. 

“It’s a very important economic driver in our community,” he said. “But more importantly, I think it’s really special that a million and a half people want to come to the little town of 30,000 that I live in because of its beauty.”

In the season ahead, Tuesday’s visit will seem quiet by comparison. On some days, Juneau’s port will welcome as many as six ships.

The Juneau Assembly narrowly voted against leasing the West Douglas Pioneer Road to iRide Alaska for guided electric bike tours on Monday. But they may reconsider the vote at their next regular meeting, thanks to a rare move by one member.

Some North Douglas residents spoke against the tours, saying the road is one of the last spots left for locals during tourist season. Wayne Carnes asked the Assembly to prioritize local users of the road.

“While my property taxes are skyrocketing, somehow the tourists seem to be more important,” he said. “Over the past several years, I’ve had to give up areas in the summer to avoid the masses.”

iRide Alaska hopes to offer e-bike tours Monday through Saturday, three times per day, from May 1 to Oct. 1. Each tour would have 10 people. 

Company representatives said they picked that location because of its distance from Juneau residents’ homes. They said the road’s width made it possible for ten people to ride e-bikes without interfering with other cyclists, runners or walkers. 

Assembly member Wade Bryson voiced strong support for the tours. He said the size of the tours, local ownership of the company and their willingness to not offer tours on Sundays made it a good addition to Juneau tourism.

“I don’t think we could have had better applicants and a better tour at a better time,” he said. “They’ve done everything we’ve asked, including taking a day away.”

Assembly member Michelle Hale said she supported iRide Alaska’s idea, just not right now. 

“I think we have a responsibility as an Assembly to weigh this in a much larger context,” she said. “We are facing 1.6 million possible tourists this year, and we are facing a community that is worried and very exasperated with the amount of tourism everywhere in the community.” 

The Assembly passed amendments that would officially limit tours to 10 people and require iRide Alaska to notify the city manager of any accidents or injuries to people or pets.

Ultimately, the ordinance to lease the road to iRide Alaska failed, with four members voting in favor and five voting against it.

But in a rare move, Assembly member Bryson gave notice of reconsideration. That means the Assembly will have the opportunity to vote on the lease again at its next meeting on May 8.

During the meeting, Bryson said he is a partner with Juneau Bike Doctor, but Assistant Municipal Attorney Sherri Layne did not think there was a conflict of interest.

The headline and story have been updated. The Assembly will have the opportunity to vote on the lease again at its next meeting, but only if at least five members vote in favor of reconsidering it.

Trails are places for people to relax, exercise and have fun outdoors. Now their advocates in Alaska are increasingly promoting another aspect of trails: their contributions to the economy.

“When you talk about outdoor recreation. People are, like, ‘That’s just the fun stuff we do every day,’” Lee Hart, executive director of the Alaska Outdoor Alliance, told the audience on Thursday at the annual Alaska Trails Conference held in Anchorage. “But, no, we are a plank of an economic development strategy. And we are part of it. And we deserve to be taken more seriously.”

The economic argument is articulated in the state’s latest outdoor recreation plan, said Ricky Gease, director of the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation.

At the trails conference on Thursday, Gease gave a sneak preview of the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, also known as SCORP, which he said will be released publicly in about a month after the National Park Service completes its review of it.

The SCORP is a document issued every five years to help guide grants that are distributed from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund, established by Congress in 1964, uses revenues from offshore oil and gas development to support projects in places ranging from remote national parks and wildlife refuges to neighborhood playgrounds. Every state must produce its own five-year SCORP to qualify for grants from the fund.

The last SCORP released by the state put a focus on youth needs. This time, the 2023-2027 plan includes some explicit economic goals: making outdoor recreation a “cornerstone” of the state economy, expanding the outdoor recreation workforce and using outdoor recreation to attract and retain residents and businesses. The latter goal addresses Alaska’s demographic situation. The state has had 10 straight years of net outmigration, and since 2013 its working-age population has declined at a higher rate than all but two other states.

The new plan holds hard data to show that investments in outdoor recreation have economic payoffs, Gease said in an interview on Friday.

“We intentionally tried to move away from anecdotal information,” he said.

Trails and the outdoor recreation they support comprise a bright spot in Alaska’s otherwise clouded economic picture, he said.

“If you look at our overall economic performance over the last decade, it has kind of flatlined. But one of the things that has shown growth is the outdoor recreation sector,” he said. “Investing in things that have done well, people need to think about it.”

The ability to use hard data in the SCORP is thanks in part to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which in 2018 began tracking the outdoor recreation sector’s contribution to the nation’s and to individual states’ economies, Gease said. The latest BEA report shows that the sector in 2021 accounted for 3.6% of Alaska’s gross domestic product, one of the highest percentages in the nation.

Emphasizing economic aspects of trails can help attract funding from new sources, Gease and others said at the three-day conference. That makes organizations with economic-development missions – like the federal Denali Commission – suitable sources for needed money to match Land and Water Conservation Fund grants.

It is an argument that resonates with state lawmakers, too, Gease said. The Legislature has made important investments in state parks, he said, such as the replacement of “iron ranger” fee-collection canisters with a system enabling electronic payments, freeing up state employees from the time-consuming task of collecting and counting crumpled bills and loose coins. This year, he said, the division is seeking funding to build more public use cabins, and next year plans to ask for funding to upgrade existing cabins. A big funding priority is to improve parking lots, which often overflow, he said.

But the needs are great, he told attendees at the trail conference. The state parks division has an $85 million deferred maintenance backlog, a total that has grown over the years, he said.

Alaska Long Trail economic vision

Also making an economic pitch to state lawmakers are advocates of the Alaska Long Trail.

The long-term project would ultimately connect existing state and municipal parks, the Chugach National Forest and other land units that already have trails into an unbroken 500-mile corridor running from the Resurrection Bay shoreline in Seward to Fairbanks.

The concept has gotten a positive reception in the Legislature so far, advocates said at the conference. Last year lawmakers approved $14.7 million in spending on Alaska Long Trail-related projects, though vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy reduced the approved spending to $4.2 million.

Requests for this session total nearly $9.5 million and comprise 14 projects, including some that were vetoed last year.

Much of the ongoing work and work planned in the near future focuses on relatively short connections between existing trails.

One desired connection on the wish list presented to legislators would link the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail with the Ship Creek Trail in downtown Anchorage.

The project envisions an intersection at the city’s small boat launch, with the area to be developed in a way that honors Indigenous culture, said Beth Nordlund, executive director of the Anchorage Park Foundation. That would include Indigenous language signage, among other features, Nordlund told conference attendees. The Anchorage Park Foundation hopes to combine multiple sources of money, including foundation grants, to make the project a reality. The site already has a statue and other displays honoring Olga Nikolai Ezi, a Dena’ina woman prominent in local history.

Generally, there is local support for these types of trail projects, said Nordlund, who pointed to voters’ approval of park bonds in the recent Anchorage municipal election. “Anchorage definitely loves its trails and we keep voting for our local bonds,” she said.

Beyond state and local funding, Alaska Long Trail advocates have turned to the federal government for support.

Trail-related investments and improvements along the corridor already secured about $11 million in congressional appropriations over the past two years, and there are requests for another $7.55 million in funding for the coming fiscal year, said Mariyam Medovaya, project coordinator with the Alaska Trails Initiative, the nonprofit that is guiding the planning for the Alaska Long Trail.

One of the items already funded through the omnibus spending bill passed in December is a $1 million Bureau of Land Management feasibility study of whether the Alaska Long Trail could qualify as one of the designated National Scenic Trails. That work is expected to take two or three years, Medovaya said.

There are only 11 trails currently on the list, she said.

“It would be wonderful if the Alaska Long Trial joined those ranks,” she said. “It opens the doors to more federal funding. This is a big plus.”

This story originally appeared in the Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.

It’ll be at least another year before the first large cruise ships visit Prince of Wales Island. A consortium of Native corporations working to transform a former logging dock in Klawock into a destination for tourists has delayed the cruise port’s opening until 2024.

The Oceania Cruises ship Regatta was originally scheduled to tie up at the dock owned by the village corporation Klawock Heenya next month. The roughly 650-passenger vessel was originally slated to visit Klawock four times this summer. 

But getting the former logging dock ready for visitors is a big undertaking. Nick Nickerson, Klawock’s mayor and a member of Klawock Heenya’s board of directors, said the port just isn’t ready yet.

“We felt it would be better to wait a year, you know, that way we have everything lined up, all our ducks are in line, and we would have a better port to present to the tourism industry,” Nickerson explained.

According to Klawock Heenya, the port will include a welcome center, retail, a cafe, walking trails, historical displays, buses and bathrooms once it’s open.

“It’s going to be done in stages,” Nickerson said. “We’re looking at a port reception, we’re building reception. Of course we have to develop the, you know, the port facility, you know, so the ship can come in and we’re looking at transportation.”

The port is a collaboration between Klawock Heenya and Na-Dena, a partnership between Doyon Limited and Huna Totem Corporation. The project is modeled after Huna Totem’s Icy Strait Point port in Hoonah. It’s expected to be the first port to host large cruise ships on Prince of Wales Island.