Robert Woolsey, KCAW - Sitka

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Robert Woolsey is the news director at KCAW in Sitka.

Local Alder Tested In High School Wood Shop

The Sitka High wood shop is involved in an experiment to learn if young-growth timber can be made into high end furniture and other products. One of three class sections is using locally-harvested and milled alder in their projects; the other two are using traditional hardwoods from the lower forty-eight. Their teacher says his students don’t notice any difference.

Rau Offers Lessons In Life, Trolling In ‘As the Gurdy Turns’

A writer and salmon troller has published a new collection of articles written over the course of thirty-five years fishing in Southeast. As the Gurdy Turns is the first book for Ron Rau, who was a frequent contributor to The Alaska Fisherman’s Journal.

Kreiss-Tomkins: Not Alaska’s Youngest Lawmaker

The certification of the House District 34 race this week has put Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins in the legislature. At 23-years old, he is almost the youngest person ever elected to state government.

Didrickson Named to Alaska Sports Hall of Fame

Sitka basketball legend Herb Didrickson has been named to the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. Didrickson was selected for the honor over the weekend, along with former Eilson football coach Buck Nystrom.

‘Wood Energy Fair’ Reintroducing Sitka Residents To Wood Heat

Wood energy is making a comeback in Sitka. With fuel prices approaching record highs, locals are returning to firewood, and to other forms of wood fuel lumped under the term “biomass.” This Saturday, the community is holding a “Wood Energy Fair” to re-introduce residents to wood heat in the home.

Two Paths To The Political Future Offered In Chamber Forum

The two candidates for the newly-created legislative district that represents Sitka, Haines, Hoonah and Angoon, met in Sitka last week in a forum sponsored by the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

Historian Discovers Early Cartographer Technique

Every once in a while an historian makes a find that changes everything. Recently, a researcher combing through the National Archives made just such a discovery. In this case, while working on a project to scan some of the very first maps of Alaska, he learned how early cartographers so accurately depicted places they had never been.

‘Glacier Deer’ Spotted in Southeast

Southcentral Alaska has its white moose, now Southeast Alaska has its white deer. Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist Phil Mooney was tagging mountain goats on Baranof Island outside of Sitka in late August and saw the unusual animal from his helicopter.

Brown Bear Bites Teenage Tourist Near Sitka

An 18-year-old Vancouver, BC, resident suffered minor injuries after being attacked by a brown bear sow on a popular trail near Sitka.

Coast Guard Recovers Drifting Weather Buoy

This time, it’s the story of the buoy that didn’t get away. The US Coast Guard Cutter Maple retrieved the Cape Edgecumbe weather buoy last week, after the errant instrument spent six days adrift in the Gulf of Alaska. The buoy was only about 10 miles off station, dutifully transmitting weather and ocean conditions as it slowly cruised north and west in the balmiest seas of the summer.

Studying a Thriving Bird – The Rhino

A two-year project is underway in Sitka Sound this summer to study the rhinoceros auklet. Unlike much of the biological research in the state, the work on this particular seabird is not about unraveling...

Like Adventure? Siberian Bike Ride Goes To Facebook Vote

A former Alaskan is one of five finalists for the 2012 Outside Magazine Outdoor Adventure grant. Quinn Langbauer is a 2007 Sitka High graduate. If he wins, he and his brother and a friend from college will spend most of next year bicycling over 7,000 miles across Siberia.

Sitka Assembly To Ask NPFMC To Lower Allowable Trawl Bycatch

The city of Sitka has gone on record in support of efforts to reduce the amount of halibut wasted in Alaska’s trawl fisheries. The Sitka assembly last week unanimously approved asking the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to lower the cap on trawl bycatch when it meets in Kodiak in June.

Sitka Residents Testing New Bear-Resistant Trash Cans

Residents in a few select neighborhoods in Sitka will be trying out a new kind of bear-resistant trash can this spring. The local sanitation company is doing a field test of two prospective containers. Both are mostly plastic, and neither is considered “bear-proof.” All the authorities want to do is to frustrate brown bears looking for an easy meal, in the hope that they move on.

Young: Transparency Makes Good Government ‘Impossible’

Alaska’s lone congressman says transparency is the problem with – and not the solution to – good government. Don Young took advantage of the congressional recess to visit Sitka and speak at the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. Besides sharing his nostalgia for the days before television cameras intruded into the capitol, the 40-year representative railed against younger Alaskan’s comfort with government largesse, and their lack of productivity.

Sitka Fine Arts Camp Welcomes Adult Session

After three decades, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp is striking out in a new direction. Since 1973 the camp has taught thousands of kids music, dance, theater, and art. This summer, for the first time, they’ll offer a camp for adults.

Court Says 2008 Sitka Citizen’s Initiative Was Legal

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday that a controversial 2008 citizen’s initiative in Sitka was legal and should have gone before voters. The decision reverses a lower court ruling.

Traveling Sea Lion Phones Home

Herring seiners are not the only fishermen commuting long-distance to Sitka this spring. A half-ton Steller sea lion has been seen in and around Sitka’s harbors recently browsing on the abundant herring. The animal was tagged – just over a month ago – at the Bonneville Dam near Portland, Oregon, about 900 miles to the south.

Yupik Dancers Wow Netherlands Festival

Some  students at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka recently went on a field trip, the kind of field trip we all might like to take, if we didn’t mind dancing in front of thousands of...

Salmon Commission Helping Sitka Sound Center’s Hatchery Program

The hatchery program at the Sitka Sound Science Center is getting a helping hand from the Pacific Salmon Commission.