ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Salmon are synonymous with the state. To many Alaskans, they are more of a lifestyle than a species of fish.

They are woven into the fabric of the state through rivers, streams, and oceans. They have filled freezers and underground ice cellars for generations and have provided thousands of jobs and billions of dollars per year for the fishing industry.

All of these reasons and more are why former Gov. Bill Walker signed House Bill 128 into law in 2016, establishing Aug. 10 of each year as Alaska Wild Salmon Day.

”It’s hard not to think about salmon when you think about Alaska,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said. “I am surprised it is not on our state flag. We’ve got eight stars of gold, but one of those stars could definitely be salmon.”

From colossal kings to chromochrome cohos, to pinks, chunky chum, and scrumptious sockeyes, there are many reasons why they deserve their own day.

“Given the importance of salmon to our culture, to our food security, to our enjoyment in getting outside, and really to our commercial fisheries which are really the fabric of many of our coastal communities, it’s really a great day to celebrate the legacy of salmon in Alaska.”

Alaska will celebrate its ninth of hopefully many Wild Salmon Days to come on Saturday.

”Wild Salmon Day should not only be celebrating what we’re doing today, but should be an opportunity for us to make sure we’re passing on these heritages and traditions that are so important to Alaska,” Vincent-Lang said.

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The good news of help on the way for the child care sector, reported July 29, is worth celebrating. We have seen considerable progress in child care policy and local, state and federal funding. Thank you to our policy leaders for making a change in the right direction for child care.

On the local level in Anchorage, Prop. 14 was approved by voters and will create a $5 million boost to early education and child care in the Municipality of Anchorage. While work is still being done to set up the program, it is heartening that an identified priority is to address the low wages of child care professionals.

On the state level, the Legislature and governor approved two budget items and one major piece of legislation that will provide operational support for child care programs, make child care more affordable for families, and ensure that Head Start programs receive more of their federal funding match.

$7.5 million in one-time child care grants: This represents a critical investment in child care programs with grants that can be used for operational and wage support. We hope to see this as an annual appropriation next year.

$2.6 million Head Start appropriation: This helps the state receive more of its allocated federal funding and can be used to increase wages and expand capacity for dozens of programs around the state.

$9.6 million child care assistance increase and business tax credits: Senate Bill 189, which includes elements of House Bill 89, marks the first-ever child care legislation passed in Alaska. This bill allows the state to help programs get reimbursed based on the actual cost of care of delivering services, not a preset market rate that is artificially low, especially for infants and toddlers. This bill also makes child care more affordable for thousands of Alaska families by expanding eligibility to the Child Care Assistance Program and offers tax credits to businesses that spend money on child care for their employees.

On the federal level, Congress’ most recent budget, supported by all three Alaska congressional members, increased funding for the child care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). This annual increase means a $1.3 million increase to Alaska to help administer the child care Grants and child care Assistance programs.

While we are celebrating progress in policy and funding, the child care crisis in Alaska continues. Child care programs continue to close faster than new programs open, and workforce shortages and high turnover remain, creating a growing supply gap. Despite stopgap funding, child care needs more long-term solutions for a sustainable and thriving sector.

All in all, to offer child care stability to Alaska families, we need to give child care programs the fiscal stability they need. One-time funding from federal COVID-19 relief and the state has been an important Band-Aid for the child care system, but the adhesive has worn off. We must continue working toward long-term funding relief that reflects the importance of child care to Alaska families and our economy.

Even though our state has made historic investments in child care this year, programs will not see the benefit until next year, and more needs to be done to build on this success and stabilize our child care system. Let’s keep up the momentum of new policy and funding for child care.

Alana Humphrey is the public policy committee chair on the board of Thread, Alaska’s child care resource and referral organization. She was formerly the chief executive officer at Boy and Girls Club-Alaska.

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Updated: 1 hour ago Published: 2 hours ago

A scorching hot day in Alaska’s Arctic set multiple records Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

At Deadhorse, the industrial camp community next to the Prudhoe Bay oil field, the temperature hit 89 degrees. It was not only an all-time high for Deadhorse but appears to be the highest temperature ever recorded at any site above 70 degrees latitude in North America, said Brian Brettschneider, an Alaska climatologist.

The 89-degree reading beat the previous Deadhorse record of 85 degrees, set on July 13, 2016. And it beats the previous Deadhorse August record of 84 degrees, set almost exactly a year ago.

It is possible that areas at similar latitudes in Russia have had higher temperatures than 89 degrees, but Russian information is not reliable, Brettschneider said.

The heat was the product of a combination of factors, including chinook winds from the south, winds that prevented cooler air from seeping in from the sides and a variety of upper-atmospheric conditions, Brettschneider said. “If you would have asked me two weeks ago, ‘What would it take for Deadhorse to hit 90 degrees?’, I would have described what happened,” he said.

While extreme weather can emerge on any individual day, more such events can be expected on the North Slope and elsewhere because of climate change, Brettschneider said.

“In a warming world, you can now set records when the conditions aren’t so extreme, and it’s easier to achieve extreme events,” he said.

Across the North Slope, average annual temperatures rose by 5.8 degrees Fahrenheit from 1969 to 2018, according to researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. While all of Alaska has warmed, the North Slope had the biggest increase in average temperature over that period, according to the UAF scientists.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, other high-temperature records were set elsewhere on the North Slope, according to the National Weather Service.

At Barter Island, which lies east of Deadhorse and is near the Canadian border, Tuesday’s temperature of 74 degrees was a new record for August, the service said. The temperature at Utqiagvik, the nation’s northernmost community, also hit 74 degrees, setting a similar record, according to the National Weather Service.

For people doing physical labor in that part of the state, especially those wearing heavy safety gear, the unusually warm conditions could be bothersome, Brettschneider noted.

ConocoPhillips, one of the main operators in the North Slope oil fields, has worker-safety procedures that include water supplies and regular water breaks that can be adjusted as needed, said Rebecca Boys, a company spokesperson. There also are medical services available and communications systems to relay information about any medical need, she said.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.