Environment

All Alaska news stories about the environment, climate and weather. Could also include topics like animal die-offs related to the environment.

a whale

A humpback whale is free after days-long entanglement in Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Bay

A team of state and federal officials were able to free the whale Friday morning.
a council

Western Alaska tribes, outraged by bycatch, turn up the heat on fishery managers and trawlers

The debate is increasingly urgent, as subsistence harvesting bans continue and proposed fixes threaten to impose steep costs on industry.
a landslide

New work season opens for Denali Park Road bridge

The $100 million Pretty Rocks Bridge will cross the site of a landslide that has closed the road at Mile 45 since 2021.
a bay

NOAA responds to entangled whale in Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Bay

Authorities are gathering images and information to coordinate helping an entangled humpback in Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Bay.
a sea otter

Seldovia the sea otter settles in at Chicago aquarium

Children in Seldovia voted to name the rescued pup, now at the Shedd Aquarium with five California otters, after the village it was found near.
skiffs

Alaska fishermen and processing plants are in limbo as a state-backed seafood company teeters

"We are all sort of on pins and needles," said a local official in King Cove waiting to learn the fate of Peter Pan Seafoods’ shuttered plant.
A persons arm is seen holding a salmon

Judge rules for the feds in a lawsuit against the state of Alaska over subsistence fishing rights

The state can’t allow salmon fishing on a long stretch of the Kuskokwim River if their orders conflict with federal management decisions, the judge ruled.
a sign

Landslide-triggered tsunamis can strike without warning. Alaska researchers are trying to change that.

Human-caused climate change may lead to more wave-generating slides. A new method could help detect them in time.
a mine

Kensington Gold Mine near Juneau reports 105,000-gallon tailings spill

Staff at the mine, about 45 miles north of Juneau, said the spill happened in late January after an underground pipeline leaked.
women

Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

Experts want to compile a glossary of Alaska Native words and phrases holding information that can help track climate change and other conditions.
a ship

New Coast Guard alert system aims to reduce the number of whales hit by vessels

The Coast Guard is stepping up to help improve one of the most used whale report apps, WRAS, which also forms the basis for Canada's alert system.
salmon

Environmental DNA offers scientists a look at salmon’s past and future

Scales and other genetic material can be collected from seawater up to two days after fish leave an area, according to a new paper.
A man carries a sled full of shovels in winter.

Anchorage is about a foot shy of breaking winter snowfall record

NWS climatologist Brian Brettschneider says the prospect of Anchorage having more than 134.5 inches of total snowfall this winter is “not looking good.”
A man on a ladder installs a piece of equipment on the upper part of a wall.

Alaska creates climate plan to reduce statewide emissions and fund a wide range of sustainable energy projects

The state identified almost a billion dollars in need for projects that would help lower energy costs for an EPA grant program. 
seaweed farming

Alaska aquaculture is growing quickly, but faces roadblocks

A new study's author says the growing industry has encountered a few “fundamental bottlenecks,” many of them involving Alaska logistics.
a building

Alaska development authority signs contracts with ex-Dunleavy aides, paying up to $295/hour

Rex Rock and John Moller, both former rural affairs advisors to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, were hired by AIDEA through a competitive procurement process.
a polar bear

Federal appeals court declines to ‘criminalize’ Beaufort Sea oil and gas work

A divided three-judge panel concluded that a federal agency failed to justify a regulation that allows some oil and gas work.
a man

Amid salmon crash, Alaska’s Yukon River residents say a new pact with Canada leaves them behind

In villages along the river, Tribal leaders say the state has cut them out of the process and they want federal oversight.
two people install a system near a pole outside

Technology that detects volcanoes and nuclear explosions will listen for avalanches in Juneau

Picking up infrasound could help Alaska Department of Transportation to track high mountain avalanches that often go undetected.
a map

U.S. Forest Service cuts back Southeast Alaska timber sale after public comments

After years of debate, the Thomas Bay timber sale has shrunk from an initial proposal of about 22 million board feet to 12.6 million board feet.