Thanks to Garrison for the kind mention of KFSK Petersburg on the June 15hth show in Seattle

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Sitka Tribe, Sealaska sign management agreement for Redoubt Lake Falls. Warm, dry weather prompts rare fire warning from USFS. Juneau jury considering infanticide verdict. Promising outlook for 2013 net fisheries in Southeast.

On Monday, June 17th, Bett Jakubek and Linda Koons Auger discussed the upcoming farmer’s markets.   Here is that interview.   FarmersMarket

Our next call in show is on July 1st and the topic is “seeds”. You can sow seeds year-round if you have the proper tools and know how.  More details to come.

Call in with your questions during the show – 225-9655 or 1-800-557-5723 – or email questions in advance to maria@krbd.org

The latest Job Service Report from the Ketchikan Job Center.  Jobs061813

SEATTLE — The video shows an exceptional wildlife sighting for a big city: A humpback whale surfaces just yards from Seattle’s busy waterfront at twilight. The city’s port cranes, Ferris wheel and car headlights glow in the background, and a ferry cruises by while the giant tail disappears back into the Puget Sound.

Whale watchers say the recording, shot in early May and confirmed by the conservationist group Orca Network, highlights an increase in humpback sightings in the Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca.

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KODIAK — The U.S. Coast Guard presented the crew of the Trident Seafoods fish tender Tuxedni with the prestigious Gold Lifesaving Medal awards for their heroic actions that saved the lives of five people from the sinking fishing vessel Heritage in 2012.

Tuxedni Capt. Greg Plancich, engineer Dan Hardwick, deckhands Jim Fultz and Wayne Kit received the medals Wednesday during a special ceremony at Coast Guard Base Kodiak.

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JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON — In mere minutes, Army paratroopers recently turned a quiet, empty field into a battleground.

The more than 500 paratroopers who filled the skies were members of the Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, which dropped onto the Malamute Drop Zone on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson as part of a massive three-day training mission designed to simulate the quick takeover of hostile enemy territory.

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FAIRBANKS — Seven professors from the University of Alaska Fairbanks are helping establish an engineering school at the new American University of Mongolia.

Professors are helping develop curriculum and designing classrooms at the new university, located in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, KUAC reported.

The university signed a contract with American University this spring.

UAF Mining and Geological Engineering program chairman Rajive Ganguli, who is leading the project, said Alaska and Mongolia are similar when it comes to mining in the far north.

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FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation department has opened two courts for a popular sport whose name sounds like an appetizer served at a dinner party.

Pickleball is a doubles racket sport that blends badminton, tennis and table tennis. The borough installed a pair of pickleball courts two weeks ago on an outdoor rink at the Big Dipper Ice Arena.

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JUNEAU — A barge line plans to return to service in southeast Alaska.

Sitka-based Samson Tug and Barge is looking to capitalize on changes among competitors in southeast, CoastAlaska reported.

Samson used to serve the timber industry, but as the industry shrank in Southeast, the company began carrying cargo to and from Seattle, Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and two ports in Aleutian Islands.

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KETCHIKAN — Mohab Mohamed Youssief Farran was a fixture of Ketchikan soccer and a graduating senior in the 2013 class — an unusual accomplishment for foreign exchange students, who often return to their home country to earn their diplomas.

Farran, 17, came to Ketchikan from Cairo, Egypt, through the American Field Service’s student exchange program. He was encouraged to travel abroad by his cousin, who was an exchange student in the Midwest. Farran was one of 50 selected from the 5,000 Egyptian students who applied for a scholarship to travel with AFS.

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ANCHORAGE — Another telecommunications provider has entered the Alaska market.

Verizon officially turned on its signal in Anchorage, Fairbanks, North Pole, Juneau and much of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough June 7.

Demian Voiles, vice president for Verizon Wireless Alaska, said launching the new network was very exciting for the company.

“A lot of work went into it,” he said.

The telecom spent about $100 million and two years on the network so far, with more planned, he said.

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New Archangel Dancers Kris Wilcox and Cindy Gibson dance arm-in-arm in front of St. Michael’s Cathedral Wednesday in Sitka. Two blocks of central downtown were closed to vehicles from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of an experiment to make the town more attractive and safer for cruise ship visitors. The closure allowed street vendors to fill the space and non-profits, such as the dancers, to perform.

ATLANTA — Far from reversing course, Senate Democrats who backed President Barack Obama’s health care law and now face re-election in GOP-leaning states are firming up their support for the overhaul even as Republican criticism intensifies.

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FAIRBANKS — Just 25 yards stood between Nello Cooper and a cow elephant with two young elephants during an expedition to Zimbabwe in 2006.

Just moments before, two other big elephants had caught wind of him and went stampeding into the brush. Now he and his guide were staring down at the huge mother elephant.

“It was at that time I asked myself ‘How did I get myself in this position?’” he said while recounting the experience at his home in Fairbanks during the weekend.

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KENAI — The two boys climbed out of their cockpits, onto a yellow wing and back onto the tarmac where the World War II era plane sat under a blue sky.

When the brothers grow up, if they chose a life in the sky, 8-year-old Devin Martin would like to fly barrel rolls and backflips; 9-year-old Tyler Treider would just like to fly a plane like the antique AT-6 Harvard warbird they had just climbed down from.

“When I was in the back you could see a lot of the controls,” Tyler said.

Devin said there were gauges and switches and dials.

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A pickup truck from contractor QAP (Quality Asphalt Paving) leads motorists through a work zone along Sawmill Creek Road on Friday afternoon. The road is closed periodically for blasting as the state works to widen it. Traffic is down to one lane for a short stretch. Blasting on Saturday is tentatively set from noon until 1 p.m. All motorists are urged to use caution and expect delays. (KCAW photo by Ed Ronco)

Pablo Raster’s deserted island is a very groovy place. He has been immersed in reggae music since he first saw Reggae National Tickets perform live in Venice, Italy when he was nineteen years old. He has learned guitar, bass, singing, writing and producing reggae, dub and dub step and growing four feet dreadlocks in the process. Pablo is the songwriter and  vocalist for Raster, a dub band based in Spoleto, Italy, with six albums and more than 700 performances to their credit. He selected ten songs that he would choose to have on a deserted island, plus one dessert. Here are the songs, the dessert and a recording of the program.

Reggae National Tickets – Suono
Almamegretta – Figli di annibale
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Sonny’s Lettah
Israel Vibration – Cool and Calm
Africa Unite – Ruggine
Mau Mau – Due Cuori
Madaski – Tonight
Delta V – Un’estate fa
Zion Train – Baby Father
Zomboy – Nuclear (Hands up)

Pablo’s dessert of choice is Tiramisu, an Italian favorite, click on the photo for the recipe.

Warm temperatures forecast for the weekend, combined with relatively dry weather over the past few weeks, have created an unusual situation in the Tongass: fire danger.

The Sitka Ranger District of the US Forest Service issued a very rare fire warning for the region over the weekend.

Perry Edwards, ecosystem staff for the district, says Tongass fires are caused by humans.

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Edwards says only a few people are “red-carded” for wildland fire fighting in Sitka. If a large fire were to start, the district would have to bring in support from Hoonah and Thorne Bay.

Sealaska vice-chair Rosita Worl and chair Albert Kookesh look on as STA Council chair Michael Baines signs a management agreement for Redoubt Falls.

Representatives from both organizations met in a signing ceremony Friday afternoon (6-14-13) in Sitka.

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Redoubt Falls lies about 17 miles southeast of Sitka. It’s home to the largest subsistence dipnet salmon fishery in the area.

Sealaska selected the few acres around the falls 38 years ago, under rules spelled out in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA.

Former state Sen. Albert Kookesh is chairman of the Sealaska board.

“This is a process set up by the United States government to allow us to get control of our sacred sites. It doesn’t work very well.”

Still, there has been some movement recently on the Redoubt selection. A Bureau of Land Management survey of the property was done in 2011. And the trustees of Sheldon Jackson College filed a color of title claim, saying some of the area had been deeded to the school, following the sale of Alaska from Russia to the United States.

Kookesh regarded the Sitka signing ceremony — which has no effect whatsoever unless the BLM conveys the land to Sealaska — as a demonstration of Sealaska’s intention to keep sacred tribal lands under the control of local tribes — if not in their ownership.

He told the small audience gathered in the Sitka Tribe conference room that corporate ownership was the only tool available to tribes to regain control over traditional lands.

“We really want to make sure that the Sitka Tribe, and other tribes, understand that we don’t want to own it. But by circumstances we have to own it — we’re the only train left at congress that management of sacred sites can come to.”

Corporate ownership of public lands — particularly at a major sockeye run — has been polarizing in Sitka.

Sealaska vice-chair Rosita Worl repeated a theme that the corporation has emphasized at public meetings on the issue: ANSCA guidelines on the use of sacred sites are clear.

“It can’t be for any kind of commercial development. It can continue to be used for a subsistence fishery. And we know that the site is really important not only to tribal members, but to the public at large. This agreement recognizes that the public will continue to have access to that site for a subsistence fishery.”

The four-page memorandum of agreement was signed by former Sen. Kookesh on behalf of Sealaska, and by Tribal Council chairman Mike Baines.

Afterwards, Worl discussed why Redoubt was sacred. She said she’d been down to visit the falls.

“I could feel the essence of that site. I could imagine the long use of it by our ancestors. I’m also aware that it was a site used by the Russians, and so there is that part of history that is there. Although that doesn’t have the kind of sacred dimensions, we do recognize the significance of the Russian occupancy.”

Sitka Tribal chairman Mike Baines said his organization had no immediate plans for Redoubt, if Sealaska were to finally receive the land. But he acknowledged that there were possibilities for cultural education in the area.

For him, signing the management agreement was about fulfilling the mission of his office.

“When we say our oath of office on the council, one of the most important things is that we’ll work to protect the traditional resources of the Tlingit in the area. And Redoubt is one of those resources — so that’s what we plan to do.”

The management agreement will not affect the Forest Service, and the $100,000 taxpayer funded lake fertilization program. Sealaska’s Worl said she hoped the federal government continued to pay for the program.

Separate Sealaska land selection legislation, affecting nearly 70,000 acres of timberlands on the Tongass, and another 80 sacred sites, is currently before Congress.