Alaska

Opinion: Don’t trade salmon wealth for timber pennies

Published

4 months ago

November 29, 2025

Opinion: Don’t trade salmon wealth for timber pennies

Pink salmon swim in the Tongass National Forest. (Joe Serio / U.S. Forest Service)

As the U.S. Forest Service considers the future management of the Tongass National Forest, I hope that Alaska’s congressional delegation will listen to what Southeast Alaskans already know: Wild salmon are one of the Tongass’ most valuable resources. If we leave the trees standing and protect the habitat that fish need, the Tongass will continue to generate billions of dollars in natural dividends, in turn supporting thousands of fishing jobs and providing millions of pounds of nutritious seafood year after year.

Southeast Alaska, where I live and fish, runs on seafood. Seafood is the bedrock of our local economy and supports our intergenerational way of life. The economic output of Southeast’s seafood industry exceeds $800 million annually, accounting for 15% of regional employment, with 4,400 resident commercial fishermen and 2,900 processing jobs across more than 30 coastal communities. Salmon are a key driver of our region’s fishing industry, accounting for more than half of Southeast’s total commercial catch most years while also supporting significant subsistence harvests, tourism and sport fisheries. Salmon keep Southeast’s fishermen employed year-round, which is critical in our rural communities where employment options are limited.

Southeast Alaska’s salmon abundance is not an accident — and it also cannot be taken for granted. Hundreds of intact and diverse watersheds around the region form a complex mosaic of prime salmon habitat. The Tongass’ watersheds, which are globally unique in their water quality and productive capacity, pump out 50 million salmon per year. With the largest tracts of undisturbed coastal temperate rainforest in the world, the Tongass is unmatched in its biological diversity and productivity.

For decades, Southeast Alaska’s communities and fishermen have fought industrial logging in the Tongass. Despite the recorded ecological degradation, dwindling economic return, and growing local opposition, there are a few decision-makers who remain committed to subsidizing industrial timber extraction. We know where that leads. In the Pacific Northwest, industrial logging and road construction have destroyed salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars trying to recover local salmon populations through hatcheries and habitat restoration — with limited success. Why would Alaska repeat that mistake, especially when timber, in recent sales, is going for less than the price of a Big Mac at $2 per thousand board feet? Alaska has the chance to get it right, to protect the natural capital that supports our fisheries and sustains our local economies. We can harvest the rewards of bountiful salmon runs and save money on habitat restoration — it’s a win/win.

The harmful impacts of industrial logging on Southeast Alaska’s salmon watersheds and our natural dividends are not hypothetical. The timber industry has caused extensive damage to some of Southeast’s most productive salmon watersheds through decades of old-growth logging and the construction of 5,000 miles of roads around the region. These activities have resulted in barriers to salmon passage, with failed culverts blocking over 240 miles of spawning streams and costing fishermen an estimated $2.5 million per year in forgone catch. Past logging has also driven changes in adjacent areas to stream flow and temperature, sedimentation, water quality, and the risk of landslides and floods. By allowing industrial logging to continue in the Tongass, we are undermining Southeast’s economy and future.

Protecting the Tongass is not a charitable act; it is the most cost-effective way to improve ecosystem productivity and ensure the prosperity and well-being for all who call Southeast home. We need our lawmakers and the Forest Service to prioritize protection of the natural capital that sustains our rural communities and local businesses. Our livelihoods depend on it.

Linda Behnken resides in Sitka, where she has commercial fished for over 40 years. She is the executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and president of the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust.

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Alaska

Alaska accepts ballots that arrive after Election Day. This case could end that.

Published

10 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Alaska accepts ballots that arrive after Election Day. This case could end that.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to rule in favor of the Republican National Committee that all ballots must be received on Election Day to be counted.

In a case argued Monday, the RNC challenges a Mississipi law that allows ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to arrive up to five days later.

Alaska accepts postmarked ballots that arrive up to 10 days after Election Day – 15 days if mailed from overseas. And, for Alaska, the implications of the Supreme Court ruling could extend beyond mailed ballots.

The RNC case could be consequential for the midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake. While people of both parties vote by mail, more permissive rules for it are perceived to help Democrats, especially since President Trump rails against the practice.

U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued that counting ballots that arrive late violates the federal law that sets the Tuesday following the first Monday of November as Election Day for the whole country.

“All ballots have to be received and the ballot box has to close on Election Day,” he said.

In Alaska’s last general election, more than 50,000 ballots arrived by mail. The Division of Elections couldn’t immediately say how many of those arrived in the 10 days after Election Day but it appears to be many thousand.

Sometimes, even Alaska ballots cast in person on Election Day aren’t received the same day. The village of Atqasuk , on the North Slope, tried to phone in its 2024 election results but couldn’t get through to the Division of Elections. The mailed ballots arrived nine days later.

Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox cited the Atqasuk episode in a friend-of-court brief he filed in the Mississippi case.

“Alaska asks this Court to consider how its rule here will apply in all States—including Alaska, where ‘receiving’ a ballot isn’t always as simple as walking to a precinct or driving a few hours to pick up a ballot box,” he wrote.

Pat Redmond, co-president of the Alaska League of Women Voters, said Alaska has a secure process for mailed ballots. She believes the current deadline is fair and allows remote places necessary time to deliver their ballots.

“Not every place has electronic transmission,” said Redmond, who has also served as an election worker. If all ballots have to be in on Election Day “then those people, their ballots don’t count, and that’s disenfranchising people.”

Attorney Scott Stewart, defending Mississippi’s ballot deadline, told the justices that it’s wrong for the Trump administration to suggest that late-arriving ballots are subject to fraud.

“Obviously, they’ve sounded the anti-fraud theme,” Stewart said. “They haven’t cited a single example of fraud from post-Election Day ballot receipts.”

Late-counted ballots have swung several statewide contests in Alaska.

•The 2020 ballot measure creating Alaska’s ranked choice voting system and open primaries was losing on election night but ultimately won.

•Post-Election Day counts gave Sen. Lisa Murkowski the lead over challenger Kelly Tshibaka in 2022, and Murkowski’s lead grew further after second- and third-choice votes were tallied.

•In 2024, a measure to repeal ranked choice voting was ahead on election night but narrowly lost in later counts.

Late-counted ballots typically include an unknown number of ballots that arrived before Election Day, too. Still, despite no evidence of wrongdoing, supporters of the losing campaign have sometimes alleged fraud.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in the Mississippi case this summer. An attorney for the Republican National Committee told the justices a June ruling would allow states to change their ballot rules in time for the November election.

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Alaska

Polar bear undergoes root canal at Alaska Zoo

Published

22 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Polar bear undergoes root canal at Alaska Zoo

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (InvestigateTV) — Staff at the Alaska Zoo performed a root canal on one of its polar bears after the bear broke a canine tooth.

Kova, 4, shares an enclosure with another polar bear named Cranbeary. The two have toys, treats and a large pool where Kova likes to take her morning swim.

Curator Sam Lavin noticed something was wrong when Kova’s behavior changed.

“Kova is a very interactive and busy bear and she just seemed kind of off. She was pawing at her mouth a little bit,” Lavin said.

Lavin suspected a tooth issue and asked Kova to open her mouth for a closer look.

“We could see that she had broken one of her canines and there’s any number of ways she could have done that,” Lavin said.

An X-ray confirmed the diagnosis. Zoo staff consulted with a veterinary specialist outside Alaska, sent the X-rays and received advice on how to proceed.

“We went with a local doctor to do the work,” Lavin said.

An endodontist who normally operates on humans was part of the large team that performed the root canal on the fully sedated 450-pound bear.

“Everybody knew ahead of time what their role was and what to do and where to be and it was so well planned out and everybody worked so well together,” Lavin said.

The procedure went smoothly.

“She feels so much better,” Lavin said.

The zoo said Kova quickly recovered and is back with her playmate Cranbeary.