Alaska

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a buck?

Published

8 months ago

July 15, 2025

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a buck?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The Trump Administration’s announcement to rescind the National Forest’s ‘Roadless Rule’ in June has sparked outrage from some, and support from others. With the two largest National forests in the country, the announcement has caught the attention of Alaska businesses.

The rule, adopted in 2001, essentially prevents new roads from being built in a little over 58 million acres of National Forest, including the Tongass and Chugach National forests in Alaska. In an area that relies heavily on tourism, some fear its natural beauty could be compromised.

“Those magical places could become few and far between, and that’s a major problem,” said Hunter McIntosh, president of the Boat Company, a southeast Alaska non-profit that gives boat tours throughout the region.

Fewer roads means less timber harvest, and that reason, alongside wildfire prevention and others, was given by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who announced the USDA would be rescinding the Roadless Rule last month.

Greater access to the forests by roads has local environmental advocates and business owners like McIntosh concerned that logging and mining interests will be renewed.

“All these things potentially have a significant environmental impact on the fisheries and the wildlife, the hunting, subsistence and whatnot,” McIntosh said. “But then along with that also major impact on the largest economic driver of Southeast Alaska being tourism.”

Not only does McIntosh believe rescinding the rule will damage the environment, but he believes that the timber industry in Southeast Alaska is not economically feasible.

“The economics and what we do are really intertwined, in that — the timber industry is a heavily subsidized industry — and the tourism industry is not subsidized at all,” McIntosh said.

According to a report by the Southeast Conference, timber made up 4% of jobs and employment earnings in 2024.

For those who rely on timber for income, like Viking Lumber Mill in Klawock on Prince of Wales Island, they’d like to see growth in the industry. While the repeal of the roadless rule is a “step forward,” they say the forest service needs to better meet market demand.

“What the timber industry needs in order to survive is for the Forest Service to provide a continuous and ample supply,” said Sarah Dahlstrom, spokesperson for Viking Lumber.

“It is their obligation to do that. They are the largest landowner, and our industry relies on the largest landowner to supply our mill and all of the other micro mills, or mom-and-pop mills on our island.”

”State land is very limited and so we are relying on the Forest Service and the federal government to put timber sales out and it’s been a major struggle.”

Viking Lumber is Alaska’s largest mill, and nearly all of the finished lumber gets shipped to the Lower 48, or internationally.

Dahlstrom’s father, Kirk, bought the bankrupt mill in 1994, returning it to a profitable operation, but says they’re not quite out of the woods yet.

“For decades the Forest Service has failed to provide a sufficient timber supply to the entire industry,” Dahlstrom said.

Dahlstrom said that Viking is largely open because of a legislated land exchange between the Alaska Mental Health Trust and the U.S. Forest Service. For about a decade, the Forest Service has harvested off the land they received, but Dahlstrom said their sale agreement with them will be complete by August of this year.

In a local economy that Dahlstrom said benefits from roads built for timber harvest and wood by-products used to heat schools and public buildings, they hope to stay in business.

“We don’t want to take more than what we need,” Dahlstrom said.

“We want what we’ve been doing. It is a sustainable and renewable business.”

Meanwhile, McIntosh said the Boat Company generally avoids Prince of Wales Island on their tours because of the large swathes of clear-cut forest.

“People from the lower 48, guests and clients, they don’t want to see clear-cut,” McIntosh said. “They want to see wilderness. They want to see, you know, old growth trees. They want to be able to fish for salmon. They want to see bears and whales, and seeing huge swaths of sides of mountains completely clear-cut and then left is not something that that most tourists expect or want to see.”

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

6 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

18 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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