Front and center talking points: With new offshore oil and gas development, it’s only a question of when accidents and spills will occur. It doesn’t have to be on the scale of the Exxon Valdez disaster to be a catastrophe for Cook Inlet. A recent estimate from Lease Sale 258 estimated a 1 in 5 chance of at least one major oil spill. Salmon...
Hilcorp’s environmental and regulatory violations across Alaska have proven to be more reliable than snow in December. At the end of November, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) issued its most recent penalty against the privately owned corporation. For nearly two years of infractions at a pair of North Slope oil wells, the...
What’s happening now, and why it’s different Cook Inlet | Tikahtnu is facing a series of new threats from the oil and gas industry. Developing offshore oil platforms creates the risk of pollution and spills that could have huge consequences for our fisheries, endangered species, and for local tourism. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Ocean...
By Ella Hubbard As a little kid I told stories, drew worlds. Poetry notebook in hand, I would sit under the cherry tree in the backyard near the garden, and write down words that almost went together, form figures that were almost proportional. Through trial and error, I learned to form ideas into stories. Art taught me how to pay attention. I...
Sunsetting the Alaska Food Hub After nine incredible seasons of connecting you with fresh, local food, and supporting our vibrant community of farmers and producers, we’ve made the difficult decision to sunset the Alaska Food Hub program. Inletkeeper initiated the concept of the Food Hub in early 2015. Through funding from the Local Foods...
From the Deepest Night, a Spark of Light: Celebrating a Decade of Impact on the Central Peninsula — Kaitlin Vadla In Alaska, the winter solstice is a powerful reminder of the cyclical nature of life. We stand at the edge of the longest night, embraced by a profound darkness that seems to hold the world in quiet anticipation. We are about to cross...
Our paper: "Summer temperature regimes in southcentral Alaska streams: watershed drivers of variation and potential implications for Pacific salmon" has just come out in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. We posed some specific questions: Which streams run hot? Which streams run cold? And does that change year to year? We...
Fall is my favorite time to bicycle commute through Anchorage. Â I like to watch the birch trees turn from their summer shades of green, to the yellow of autumn, and ultimately to their final resting place on the bike path where they crunch under my tires. I also like to see our salmon change as they slowly dawn their spawning colors while working...
Inspired by the Patagonia-sponsored film Damnation, the Susitna River Coalition decided to fund the creation of a film that told the story of the fight against the Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project. Thus Super Salmon was born, directed and created by Alaska filmmaker Ryan Peterson with the support of Patagonia. The film follows the incredible...
Wild salmon define who we are as Alaskans; they shape our cultures, they feed our families and they support our local economies. Yet today, Alaska’s laws and rules contain few hard and fast safeguards to protect the water and other habitat salmon need to thrive. More specifically, there is no requirement to retain sufficient water in our lakes...
