News

Colorful blooms peek out of the green foliage in a section of the Pratt Museum’s garden Thursday, July 12, 2018 in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)

The Pratt’s new gardener wants you to rediscover the many uses of plants

Yarrow Hinnant has long known the many health and subsistence benefits native plants can provide. As the Pratt Museum’s new official gardener, he’s excited to… Continue reading

Colorful blooms peek out of the green foliage in a section of the Pratt Museum’s garden Thursday, July 12, 2018 in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)
Tasi Fosi of Anchorage, who has been dipnetting in Chitina since 1991, holds up two king salmon on July 9, 2018 as seagulls hover overhead. (Photo courtesy Mary Catharine Martin)

Low Copper River sockeye return effects ripple outward

It’s a summer tradition for many in Alaska: pack up the car, drive to Chitina and dipnet for Copper River red salmon. It’s a tradition,… Continue reading

Tasi Fosi of Anchorage, who has been dipnetting in Chitina since 1991, holds up two king salmon on July 9, 2018 as seagulls hover overhead. (Photo courtesy Mary Catharine Martin)
An aerial photo taken in 2014 shows the current South Peninsula Hospital campus. (Homer News file photo)

Assembly approves hospital boundary ballot questions

Voters in both hospital service areas will weigh in on who should pay taxes to which hospital this fall.

An aerial photo taken in 2014 shows the current South Peninsula Hospital campus. (Homer News file photo)
An angler casts her line into the Kenai River near Soldotna Creek Park on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The water in the Kenai River is a little higher than usual — about 9.71 feet, according to U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge at Soldotna — but has fallen since last week and is significantly below the flood stage of 12 feet. Anglers were hitting the banks on Wednesday morning for sockeye salmon, which normally peak in returning numbers to the Kenai River in mid-July. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Sockeye fishing remains slow on Kenai, counts pick up on Kasilof

Anglers are hitting the banks of the Kenai River in more serious numbers now, though the sockeye have yet to show up in real force.… Continue reading

An angler casts her line into the Kenai River near Soldotna Creek Park on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The water in the Kenai River is a little higher than usual — about 9.71 feet, according to U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge at Soldotna — but has fallen since last week and is significantly below the flood stage of 12 feet. Anglers were hitting the banks on Wednesday morning for sockeye salmon, which normally peak in returning numbers to the Kenai River in mid-July. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Borough approves two gravel pits, denies one

With the Kenai Peninsula Borough postponing efforts to rewrite its rules on the contentious subject of gravel pits, the Planning Commission approved two gravel pit… Continue reading

Congressional candidates debate Alaska issues at chamber forum

With just over a month to go before the primary election, two Alaskan U.S. Congressional candidates, Republican Thomas “John” Nelson and Democrat Dimitri Shein, debated… Continue reading

Hawaii man arrested for car theft

A Hawaii man working at a local fish-processing plant was arrested last week for allegedly stealing a van from a Kalifornsky Beach address and withdrawing… Continue reading

Seagulls flock to where participants in the personal use dipnet fishery fish on the north beach of the Kenai River on July 10, 2016 in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

High bacteria levels detected at Kenai beaches

Both of the Kenai beaches have too much fecal coliform and enterococci bacteria in the water to meet state standards. Every year, the Alaska Department… Continue reading

Seagulls flock to where participants in the personal use dipnet fishery fish on the north beach of the Kenai River on July 10, 2016 in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

Sinclair resigns as Watershed Forum director

After leading the conservation nonprofit Kenai Watershed Forum since 2016, Jack Sinclair has resigned as the group’s executive director. On Tuesday the Watershed Forum announced… Continue reading

Few lower peninsula residents comment on hospital service area boundary move

Two proposals that would alter the boundaries of the South Kenai Peninsula Hospital Service Area are poised to make it onto the ballot this October.… Continue reading

Docent Carroll Knutson describes Alaska’s 1964 earthquake to visitors of the Soldotna Historical Society Museum on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The Historical Society will be kicking off next weekend’s Soldotna Progress Days celebration on July 27 with a free community barbecue featuring several of Soldotna’s early settlers and their descendents. Knutson, whose family began homesteading about eight miles south of Soldotna in 1958, will be among those telling stories and leading tours thorugh the museum’s collection of homesteader cabins and exhibits of artifiacts. The event, from 4 p.m to 7 p.m, will also include music from Hobo Jim, a dutch oven demonstration, and children’s scavenger hunts. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Docent Carroll Knutson describes Alaska’s 1964 earthquake to visitors of the Soldotna Historical Society Museum on Tuesday in Soldotna. The Historical Society will be kicking… Continue reading

Docent Carroll Knutson describes Alaska’s 1964 earthquake to visitors of the Soldotna Historical Society Museum on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The Historical Society will be kicking off next weekend’s Soldotna Progress Days celebration on July 27 with a free community barbecue featuring several of Soldotna’s early settlers and their descendents. Knutson, whose family began homesteading about eight miles south of Soldotna in 1958, will be among those telling stories and leading tours thorugh the museum’s collection of homesteader cabins and exhibits of artifiacts. The event, from 4 p.m to 7 p.m, will also include music from Hobo Jim, a dutch oven demonstration, and children’s scavenger hunts. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Fish board denies emergency petition on hatchery permit

The Board of Fisheries declined to take up an emergency petition related to hatchery pink salmon production in Prince William Sound, though members agreed the… Continue reading

Nikiski man indicted for stealing, repainting neighbor’s dirt bike

A Nikiski man was indicted for first-degree vehicle theft last week after allegedly taking a dirt bike from his neighbor and spray painting it orange.… Continue reading

Angler Mark Higgins fishes the Kenai River from the stairs at Centennial Park on Monday, July 16, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. It’s the peak of the fishing season, but runs have been far below those of past years — as of Sunday, <a href="https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/FishCounts/index.cfm?ADFG=main.displayResults&COUNTLOCATIONID=40&SpeciesID=420" target="_blank">the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s sonar had counted a cummulative 105,819 sockeye</a> in the Kenai River this year, versus138,568 sockeye by that date in 2017. Like many anglers on the river, Higgins had an unsucessful Monday afternoon. “Chances are low, but you might as well be fishing rather than sitting in the camper,” he said. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

By Ben Boettger Peninsula Clarion… Continue reading

Angler Mark Higgins fishes the Kenai River from the stairs at Centennial Park on Monday, July 16, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. It’s the peak of the fishing season, but runs have been far below those of past years — as of Sunday, <a href="https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/FishCounts/index.cfm?ADFG=main.displayResults&COUNTLOCATIONID=40&SpeciesID=420" target="_blank">the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s sonar had counted a cummulative 105,819 sockeye</a> in the Kenai River this year, versus138,568 sockeye by that date in 2017. Like many anglers on the river, Higgins had an unsucessful Monday afternoon. “Chances are low, but you might as well be fishing rather than sitting in the camper,” he said. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
Clyde Didrickson and his wife, Charlotte, smile and hug each other in their new home Friday morning. The couple were able to get their new home through a Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority grant funding program aimed to help veterans. (Gregory Philson | Juneau Empire)

‘It is a blessing’: Grant offering housing for Alaska Native veterans

Program has helped 19 individuals or familes in the last year.

Clyde Didrickson and his wife, Charlotte, smile and hug each other in their new home Friday morning. The couple were able to get their new home through a Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority grant funding program aimed to help veterans. (Gregory Philson | Juneau Empire)

More restrictions for Kenai, Kasilof king salmon

Anglers won’t be able to keep a king salmon on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers after Wednesday. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced… Continue reading

Kodiak hatchery experiments with salt water exposure to mark its pink salmon

Editor’s note: This is the third part of a three-story series about the operations of Alaska’s salmon hatcheries and their consideration in the North Pacific.… Continue reading

Sockeye salmon smolt being raised by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association at the Trail Lakes Hatchery, ultimately destined for Shell Lake in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, swim in their tank on Friday, April 20, 2018, near Moose Pass. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Hatchery-marked salmon important for management, international relations

Editor’s note: This story is the second in a three-part series about the operations of Alaska’s salmon hatcheries and their impact on the North Pacific.… Continue reading

Sockeye salmon smolt being raised by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association at the Trail Lakes Hatchery, ultimately destined for Shell Lake in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, swim in their tank on Friday, April 20, 2018, near Moose Pass. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)
Sockeye salmon smolt being raised by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association at the Trail Lakes Hatchery, ultimately destined for Shell Lake in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, swim in their tank on Friday, April 20, 2018 near Moose Pass, Alaska. Pacific salmon raised in hatcheries are usually exposed to predetermined sets of hot and cold water cycles before they hatch, leading to dark and light rings on their inner ear bone, called an otolith, that biologists can later read to track where the salmon came from when it returns as an adult. Staff at Trail Lakes Hatchery raise all the association’s sockeye salmon, which are hatched, imprinted and distributed to the organization’s various operations across Cook Inlet, from China Poot Lake in Lower Cook Inlet to Shell Lake. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

A look into how salmon hatcheries mark their fish

Editor’s note: This is the first part of a three-story series about the operations of Alaska’s salmon hatcheries and their impacts in the North Pacific.… Continue reading

Sockeye salmon smolt being raised by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association at the Trail Lakes Hatchery, ultimately destined for Shell Lake in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, swim in their tank on Friday, April 20, 2018 near Moose Pass, Alaska. Pacific salmon raised in hatcheries are usually exposed to predetermined sets of hot and cold water cycles before they hatch, leading to dark and light rings on their inner ear bone, called an otolith, that biologists can later read to track where the salmon came from when it returns as an adult. Staff at Trail Lakes Hatchery raise all the association’s sockeye salmon, which are hatched, imprinted and distributed to the organization’s various operations across Cook Inlet, from China Poot Lake in Lower Cook Inlet to Shell Lake. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Alaska Department of Labor to use $1.2 million grant for opioid response

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development plans to use $1.2 million from the federal government for its first programs specifically to help people… Continue reading