A Craig resident was arrested on Jan. 19 and charged with DUI, misconduct involving weapons, and multiple counts of assault. The charges against 64-year-old John James stem from a collision on a road outside of Klawock in November. 

According to Prince of Wales Alaska State Troopers, James’ car crossed the center line and ran head-on into a car containing a 25-year-old mother and her 1-year-old daughter. 

When troopers arrived at the scene of the crash, James’ blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit. Both drivers sustained serious injuries with the victim being airlifted off-island. The victim’s infant daughter only sustained minor injuries. 

As of Tuesday evening, the woman James hit remains in intensive care. James was remanded to the jail in Craig where he remains without bail.

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Clearcuts and old-growth forests are part of the view on Prince of Wales Island. (Nick Bonzey, Flick Creative Commons)

The federal government has agreed to pay $210,000 in legal fees to Alaska environmentalists that last year sued to halt a massive timber sale on the Tongass National Forest.

A coalition of eight conservation groups — including the Juneau-based Southeast Alaska Conservation Council — took the U.S. Forest Service to court in 2019 over its controversial plan to clear cut about 23,000 acres of old growth forest on Prince of Wales Island.

Industry groups and the federal agency argued that the project was key to keeping Southeast’s last mills running over the next decade.

But a federal judge agreed with the plaintiffs who argued that the federal agency didn’t follow the law when it approved the timber sales. That’s because it hadn’t provided site-specific information over areas that could be logged.

The court found that the Prince of Wales Landscape Level Analysis was flawed and ordered the agency to restart its review before bringing the timber to market.

The Department of Justice agreed this week to pay the funds into an account held by Earthjustice’s Alaska office. That’s the environmental law firm that litigated the case. Lead attorney Tom Waldo says the actual costs were about $301,000 in fees and other costs. But the parties settled to avoid bringing the matter back to the judge.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify that the plaintiffs in the case are a coalition of state and national conservation groups.

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An undated photo of an Alexander Archipelago wolf in Southeast Alaska. (Photo by Robin Silver/Center for Biological Diversity)

State wildlife officials have reported that 68 wolves were taken by trappers on and around Prince of Wales Island.

Conservationists had unsuccessfully sued to block the 21-day trapping season. They argued that the state and federal officials are allowing wolves to be killed unsustainably.

But regional wildlife supervisor Tom Schumacher says the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s managers are confident the island’s Alexander Archipelago wolf population is healthy.

“If you can catch 68 wolves in three weeks,” Schumacher told CoastAlaska, “I think that means you still have a pretty robust population of wolves.”

The state agency estimated around 316 wolves in the fall of 2019. But that number doesn’t include the record 165 wolves  reportedly killed by hunters and trappers over four weeks later that year.

State biologists won’t have the fall 2020 population estimate until later this year to assess the impact of the latest harvest.

“We’re pretty confident that we’ll have a fall population right within our population objective range of 150 to 200 wolves,” Schumacher said.

Conservationists argue that the wolf population is threatened and that some hunters and trappers don’t report their kills. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with federal authorities to list the grey wolf subspecies.

“This level of carnage shows that wolves in Southeast Alaska desperately need the protections of the Endangered Species Act or they’ll become another statistic in the wildlife extinction crisis,” Shaye Wolfe, a staff scientist in Oakland, California wrote in a statement for the organization.

Prince of Wales residents have testified in hearings that the true wolf population is higher than official estimates. Many blame the canine predators for the falling deer population where venison is an affordable alternative to expensive store-bought meat.

Conservationists counter that decades of commercial clear cuts on Prince of Wales Island forests are to blame for thin deer herds. A legal challenge  filed by the Anchorage-based Alaska Wildlife Alliance is headed for trial. A date is expected to be set in February.

Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that the trapping season was 21 days long.

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An undated photo of an Alexander Archipelago wolf in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy photo by Robin Silver/Center for Biological Diversity)

Monday afternoon update: Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally rejected filings for an injunction that would block the three-week trapping season that opens on November 15.

Original story: Federal and state wildlife managers announced on Friday they would extend the wolf harvest on Prince of Wales Island. That’s following a contentious  hearing in which island resident hunters said too many wolves were preying on deer.

This comes as conservationists have filed a lawsuit to stop the controversial harvest following an unprecedented number of wolves legally killed last season.

Tongass National Forest Supervisor Earl Stewart opened an October 29 telephone hearing with about 100 people on the line.

“It’s really important that we hear from rural users on the importance of wolf to game management unit 2 and to those users that rely on that resource,” Stewart said.

He got an earful. One by one resident hunters and trappers told wildlife managers were under-counting wolves: state and federal officials recently released their fall 2019 estimate of 316 wolves in and around Prince of Wales.

“These wolves definitely are far from endangered on this island — far from it,” Joshua Peavey testified. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s worse anybody’s ever seen. I just want to know how you guys come up with the numbers. Because it’s all B.S.”

Other wolf trappers were more tactful.

“I don’t want you guys to think that we all want them all to die because we don’t you know, they’re really cool animals,” said Samuel Sawyer, who identified himself as lifelong island resident. But he says hunters like him are finding venison scarce — and it’s not for sport.

“I can’t go to the grocery store and pay $8.99 for a pound of hamburger — it’s just unrealistic,” Sawyer said. “And then we have to worry about the wolf killing all the deer then what are we supposed to do?”

Federal and state officials apparently listened. On November 6, they announced they’d extend the trapping season by five days for a full three-week opportunity.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s regional wildlife supervisor Tom Schumacher said on Friday that managers took another look at their data. And they feel trapping could be safely allowed from November 15 to December 5.

“It’ll allow a little bit more opportunity,” Schumacher told CoastAlaska. “But we think that that will also result in a sustainable harvest. And we’ll be able to keep our wolf population within our harvest or a management objective of 150 to 200 wolves in the fall population.”

The state is also agreeing to open up a five day hunting period: with a five wolf bag limit.

Trapping is more controversial because the season has no bag limits and it’s more efficient. That’s a key piece of context in the wolf debate. Last year wildlife managers dropped its season quotas. And after eliminating the hard limits, residents took a record 165 wolves in the area — mostly by trapping.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang told residents on the October 29 call that level of killing is unsustainable. But no cause for alarm.

“We remain convinced that the Southeast left the wolf population remains healthy,” the commissioner said, “and that the population is not threatened with extinction now or in the foreseeable future on our management approach.”

Conservationists have already filed a lawsuit accusing the state of violating its constitutional mandate to keep wildlife sustainable.

“Adding season length to the intended two weeks makes matters worse in our view,” said former Board of Game member Joel Bennett of Juneau, a  plaintiff in the lawsuit. “They are playing Russian roulette with Prince of Wales wolves. How can they control the harvest to prevent what happened last season.”

But on Monday, Judge Schally denied a preliminary injunction that would’ve halted the season just six days before it’s slated to open. His ruling did not dismiss the lawsuit, which is still active and will require an answer from state attorneys.

Separately, The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a petition — the third since the 1990s — seeking federal protections for Southeast’s subspecies of grey wolves.

The center’s Oakland, California-based biologist Shaye Wolf testified that commercial logging’s destruction of habitat,  not wolves are to blame for the scarcity of deer.

“The key reason why deer are declining on Prince of Wales is because of the past like legacy and ongoing legacy of clear cut logging of old growth forest,” she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already blown past a 90-day deadline to respond to the petition. But state officials say they expect it to formally respond early next year.

If the feds add protections for wolves, it’ll greatly change how they’re managed. Hunting and trapping would be greatly restricted. And almost all development on federal lands would have to take into account potential impacts to the wolves critical habitat.

This article has been update to add Monday’s court decision, correct a transcription error and add the updated audio version of the story.

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Last year’s record hunting and trapping season eliminated more than half of Prince of Wales Island’s wolf population. That’s according to the 2019 population estimate released on Monday that proposes a 16-day trapping season next month.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s estimate of the wolf population last year is 316. But that number doesn’t factor in the 165 wolves reported taken last winter — more than half the island’s population estimate.

The agency says it considers a 30% harvest to be sustainable. But over half is not. Southeast Regional Wildlife Supervisor Tom Schumacher said as much to the Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council which met last week.

“There’s no reason that the population couldn’t stand the harvest that it did in 2019,” Schumacher said on October 20. “Is that harvest sustainable through time? I don’t think so.”

Under Monday’s proposal, rural residents eligible for federal subsistence will be able to hunt wolves from October 31 until the end of November. The state’s hunt for non-rural residents wouldn’t open. Trappers will be limited from November 15 to November 30 under both state and federal seasons. There wouldn’t be a limit.

Schumacher told CoastAlaska on Monday that the 16-day trapping season was based on a number of factors.

“We took into account population level information that we had this year — it’s anecdotal — fall 2019 estimate, fall 2019 harvest,” he said. “And they want to ensure given all the controversy surrounding the population, that we had a relatively conservative harvest this year.”

Wolves are targeted because they prey on the island’s deer. But critics say commercial logging on Prince of Wales Island destroyed deer habitat impacting the herds.

A lawsuit filed early Monday asks a state judge to intervene. It was filed on behalf of the Anchorage-based Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Joel Bennett, a former member of the Board of Game who lives in Juneau.

“Let’s be clear here, what this is, I think, is a wolf control program for Prince of Wales,” Bennett said.

The lawsuit lays the groundwork for the court to block the state season from reopening in mid-November.

Bennett’s lawsuit calls out the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Commissioner by name.

“I don’t think Doug Vincent-Lang would shed a tear if the wolves on Prince of Wales went the way of the passenger pigeon,” he said.

But none of this is a done deal. Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest Service will answer questions and take public testimony by telephone on Thursday. The public meeting begins at 6 p.m. The hour-long public hearing follows at 7 p.m.

A petition by conservationists to add federal protections for Alexander Archipelago wolves in Southeast Alaska is also pending with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s the third such effort since the 1990s.

Anyone interesting in listening in on or participating in Thursday’s 6 p.m. telephonic meeting can call toll free 1-888-566-1030 and enter passcode 3344290 when prompted.

The post Lawsuit aims to block wolf trapping on Prince of Wales Island appeared first on KRBD.

The Roadless Rule generally prohibits new road construction in parts of the national forest. 

Alaska’s congressional delegation and state government has pushed for a full exemption for the Tongass National Forest. 

In mid-October, the Forest Service announced it would seek a full exemption for the Tongass. Proponents say that would bolster the state’s long-struggling timber industry and other resource industries. Opponents say it would allow logging in ecologically sensitive areas and damage animal and fish habitat.

Forest Service representatives are slated to give a presentation on the proposed rollback of the rule and discuss the draft environmental impact statement released last month. 

There will be a question-and-answer period after the presentation, but the Forest Service says it won’t officially take comments about the Roadless Rule at the meeting. Comments must either be mailed or submitted online.

But residents concerned about the Roadless Rule rollback’s effect on subsistence will have a chance to make comments at a subsistence-focused hearing after the public meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center in downtown Ketchikan.

The Forest Service will also hold meetings in several Prince of Wales Island communities. On Wednesday, officials have scheduled a similar meeting and subsistence hearing for 5 p.m. at Craig’s Tribal Association Hall. 

There will be Roadless Rule meetings in Kasaan, Thorne Bay and Hydaburg next week.

If you’d like to make a comment on the proposed rollback of the Roadless Rule, you can do so at the Forest Service’s website. You can also mail hard copies to the following address: 

Alaska Roadless Rule, USDA Forest Service, Alaska Region, Ecosystem Planning and Budget Staff, P.O. Box 21628, Juneau, Alaska 99802-1628

Here’s the full Roadless Rule public meeting schedule for KRBD’s listening area:

Ketchikan: 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, 50 Main St.

Craig: 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Craig Tribal Association Hall, 1330 Craig-Klawock Highway

Hydaburg: 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12 at Hydaburg City Hall, 101 8th St. Extension

Kasaan: 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12 at Totem Trail Café, 4th and Young St.

Thorne Bay: 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13 at the Forest Service’s Thorne Bay Ranger District office, 1312 Federal Way

The post Forest Service to hold meetings on Tongass Roadless Rule rollback in southern Southeast appeared first on KRBD.

The Inter-Island Ferry Authority ship Stikine sails to its Ketchikan terminal in 2008. It and its sister ship, the Prince of Wales, are carrying more passengers following a drop in ridership. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/ CoastAlaska News)

Southeast Alaska’s independent ferry system is working its way out of a ridership slump.

The Inter-Island Ferry Authority sails a daily round-trip route linking Hollis, on central Prince of Wales Island, and Ketchikan. The authority is separate from the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The service, which began 15 years ago, carried more than 50,000 passengers for its first nine years. Then the numbers started dropping by as much as 20 percent.

Dennis Watson is general manager of the Inter-Island Ferry Authority. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)

General Manager Dennis Watson said they’re coming back up.

“Last year, we actually had a pretty good bump because we’d been kind of going downhill since the economic crisis a couple years ago. And things seem to be turning around,” he said.

He said predictions of good salmon runs make him optimistic for this year. The route is popular with commercial, sport and subsistence fishermen.

The ferry authority is a non-profit organization run by representatives of five Prince of Wales Island communities, plus Wrangell.

The authority’s $3.9 million budget for this fiscal year is funded largely by ticket sales, which provide about 85 percent of revenue. But it also gets money from the state and federal governments. Gov. Bill Walker’s capital budget includes $250,000 for the next fiscal year.

The authority has two nearly identical ferries, the Prince of Wales and the Stikine. They trade off on the route, allowing time for each to undergo maintenance and repairs without interrupting service.

Watson said that doesn’t always work. Earlier this month, a container van struck and damaged a door near water level. It wouldn’t close, which is required.

“We couldn’t go grab the other boat because we had just taken the safety gear off of it and sent it south. So, it didn’t do us any good to have two boats at that point. But we got past it and we’re back in full operation again,” he said.

The ferry authority sailed a second route for about two years linking the island’s Coffman Cove with Wrangell and Petersburg. It ended because it attracted too few riders.

Read a report on the economic impacts of the Inter-Island Ferry Authority.

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