Yereth Rosen

The Coral Princess cruise ship towers over small boats docked at Whittier's harbor on July 16, 2025.

Economy

Quirky, once-isolated Whittier is eyeing a transportation-system upgrade

Yereth Rosen

Officials have launched a plan to alleviate a traffic crunch in the port and railroad town famous for a single building that houses almost all its residents.

KODIAK, Alaska - Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Jeremiah Moon, a boatswains mate with the North Pacific Regional Fisheries Training Center, ties a trash bag full of garbage collected from Jewel Beach May 6, 2011, on Coast Guard base Kodiak. The base took advantage of the weather and held their annual Earth Day cleanup.

Environment

Bits of fishing gear and buoys dominate marine debris load in Alaska, report says

Yereth Rosen

Alaska’s marine debris mix shows how ocean activities and ocean currents bring trash to the state’s shores.

Brown bears cavort in the water in Katmai National Park on June 30, 2009. The Alaska Board of Game, in a special meeting, authorized resumption of a bear-culling program with the aim of helping the stuggling Mulchatna caribou herd. But debate continues about the program's scientific validity.

Environment

Alaska Board of Game approves revived bear-culling program in caribou grounds

Yereth Rosen

The controversial program, aimed at boosting the population of a struggling caribou herd in Western Alaska, had been halted by court rulings because of legal flaws.

Sockeye salmon swim in the Kenai River in 2008.

Politics

Court affirms split federal-state Cook Inlet salmon management system

Yereth Rosen

NMFS now manages commercial salmon catches in the inlet's federal waters, but the state will continue to manage harvests in state waters.

Harlequin Beach on Amchitka Island is seen in this undated photo. The island, now part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, was the site of atomic weapons tests in 1965, 1969 and 1971.

Environment

Feds extend payment program after Alaska nuclear tests

Yereth Rosen

Cancer victims who were exposed to radiation from Cold War bomb tests at Amchitka have more time to apply for compensation.

An Alaska hare perches on the tundra in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge on May 21, 2010. Alaska hares, which are much bigger than snowshoe hares, appear to be declining in population and are counted as one of the state's species of "greatest conservation need."

Washington, D.C.

Alaska wildlife action plan faces uncertainty as Trump seeks to end grant funding

Yereth Rosen

Political uncertainty swirls around the future of 10-year state plans like that of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

A vaccine dose is prepared at a mass vaccination site in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, in 2021. Vaccination rates for Alaska children have declined in recent years, the state reports.

Health

Amid national measles outbreaks, vaccination rates for Alaska children have fallen, report says

Yereth Rosen

Information about lower rates comes as measles, once thought eliminated in the U.S., has spread among unvaccinated people, including an Anchorage child this month.

Braided wetlands and tundra in the Bristol Bay watershed are seen from the air on July 26, 2010. Seen here is Upper Talarik Creek, which flows into Lake Iliamna and then the Kvichak River before emptying into Bristol Bay. A new bill introduced on the last day of the Alaska Legislature's 2025 session would bar hard-rock metals mining in the Bristol Bay watershed.

Environment

New bill would prohibit hard-rock metals mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed

Yereth Rosen

Introduced in the last hours of the 2025 session, the bill would expand the protections granted by the EPA, which barred permitting of the Pebble project

A subadult brown bear walks on June 8, 2018, on a gravel bar in front of a lake in Katmai National Park and Preserve. Critics of the state's Mulchatna predator control program say it might be killing some Katmai bears.

Environment

After 11 more bears killed, judge orders stop to Alaska predator control program

Yereth Rosen

State officials demonstrated "bad faith" by enacting an emergency regulation and resuming a legally invalid program, the ruling says.

A brown bear walks on the tundra in Katmai National Park and Preserve on Aug. 11, 2023. Critics of the state's bear-culling program, which is aimed at boosting Mulchatna Caribou Herd numbers, say Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials have failed to adequately analyze impacts to bear populations, including impacts to bears that roam in Katmai.

Environment

Judge says Alaska bear-killing program remains void, despite emergency authorization

Yereth Rosen

An emergency declaration by the Board of Game does not change the fact that the program is unconstitutional and the state failed to do required fixes, the judge ruled.