Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Emma Gibney

“Over the years, we've received dozens of comments of support not only from community councils but also from the Parks and Recreation Department, Watershed Management Services Division, the. Municipal Cemetery Director, and a long list. Of residents who would love the opportunity to receive a natural burial in in. Such a beautiful location.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Emma Gibney

“Because the proposed disposal is pursuant to subsection H, which allows for the competitive disposal of HLB land in order to facilitate a specific project that will provide public benefits, it is required that the disposal also include conditions to ensure the proper development and completion of the project in the public interest.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Emma Gibney

“This type of cemetery relies on affordable. Low density burials, restricting the use of large monuments or gravestones so view sheds remain uninterrupted and the land can serve the community as a multipurpose space and as wildlife habitat.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Emma Gibney

“Alaska Natural. Burial is going to work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to. Create a document with guidelines for best practices to avoid human wildlife conflict. And that this document will be supplied. To HLV prior to disposal.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Ryan Yelle “And also we have two conditions about. The Green Burial Council's natural burial ground standards that address those concerns”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Ryan Yelle “So it is just over $500,000.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Emma Gibney

“There is the direct public benefit that Alaska Natural Burials Project will provide much needed cemetery space for the municipality while also providing the indirect financial public benefit. By not relying on taxpayer funding or the passing of bond measures, this project. Has proven to be one of the. Most highly supported projects I've ever experienced during my time at hlb.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Emma Gibney

“The only other financial information I can. Cite is the amount of money that. The bonds were for to create a new municipal cemetery which would have been $1.57 million for the book for each. Each of the Girdwood and then the Eagle. Eagle river cemeteries.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Emma Gibney

“This property is located in South Anchorage on Golden view Drive about 1.25 miles south of the Golden View Middle School. It is across the street from Moen. Park and it is uphill from Potter Marsh Watershed Park. It is approximately 9.6 acres in size and is zoned PLI Public Lands and Institutions.”

Prefix — Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

James Kaufman “I ask these questions because it's been kind of conversationally put forth that that's available for the potential gas project. And I just want to be clear on the record with where we're at on that. Do you know if there's been any inquiry to start that?”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 5, 2026 9:00am · Jun 5, 2026

Jesse Kiehl “I think there was conversation a few minutes ago about a barrel of oil equivalent in gas having a value like $9 versus a barrel of oil, which, you know, we cry a little bit when it's 60. And right now we're doing pretty well on the budget within at 105 or 110. So there, that's not something the commission looks at. That's something that the legislature has to look at”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 5, 2026 9:00am · Jun 5, 2026

Austin Quinn-Davidson “we are proposing a zero dollar sale of the property”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Austin Quinn-Davidson “it is just over $500,000”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Austin Quinn-Davidson “the amount of money that the bonds were for to create a new municipal cemetery, which would have been $1.57 million for the book for each. Each of the Girdwood and then the Eagle. Eagle river cemeteries. Not to say that that's how much it's going to cost to set up this because it's a very different model, but just as a comparison that we are going to be creating a new cemetery for residents of the municipality of the municipality that instead of something that would have cost $4.1 million”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Austin Quinn-Davidson “Alaska Natural Burial is going to work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to create a document with guidelines for best practices to avoid human wildlife conflict. And that this document will be supplied to HLB prior to disposal.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Austin Quinn-Davidson “There is the direct public benefit that Alaska Natural Burials Project will provide much needed cemetery space for the municipality while also providing the indirect financial public benefit by not relying on taxpayer funding or the passing of bond measures.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Austin Quinn-Davidson “we have two conditions about the Green Burial Council's natural burial ground standards that address those concerns as well. Thank you. And also, there's no residential wells downstream from where this is going to take place.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank... · Jun 1, 2026

Rob Allen “We can put in fuel breaks in a lot of places, but if the wind's blowing and fire is established, those fuel breaks can only do so much. What's going to help people out is. Is what we call hardening around their houses and getting their houses set up to where a fire comes through. It just goes by and doesn't bother their house.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Miller's Reach - 30 Years Later (Full Documentary) · Jun 5, 2026

“I went from literally just a few trees torching, which we got on in a hurry, to group torching and to a full running fire in under 15 minutes. I mean 15, 20 minutes. And it was off and running and something we weren't going to be able to catch.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Miller's Reach - 30 Years Later (Full Documentary) · Jun 5, 2026

“We called for retardant and the helicopters and they dropped. The winds were just made it ineffective. The retardant blew, you know, 200ft past where they were trying to drop”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Miller's Reach - 30 Years Later (Full Documentary) · Jun 5, 2026

Dick Coose “we had the big contract go out and looking for partners and it was going to be a floating dock off of both 1 and 2. And what it did is it gave them easier access to the dock and it also gave us more space on the dock because we don't have enough space down there for all the buses and vans right now.”

Ketchikan: Recurring City Council Meeting of June 4, 2026 · Jun 5, 2026

Abby Bradberry “I just don't think this is the right climate for the expansion of birth one.”

Ketchikan: Recurring City Council Meeting of June 4, 2026 · Jun 5, 2026

Jai Mahtani “I also think our cruise line partners, if they are going to bring in bigger ships, should pony up.”

Ketchikan: Recurring City Council Meeting of June 4, 2026 · Jun 5, 2026

Bob Svenson

“Has any thought gone into that process in regards to this type of expansion? I have certainly thought about that. I, I think the initial, my initial idea is to get, get the design and then once that's done, if we decide we want to go with that, then we can certainly reach out to, to the particular cruise lines to see if there's interest.”

Ketchikan: Recurring City Council Meeting of June 4, 2026 · Jun 5, 2026

Abby Bradberry “I'm also really more focused on shoring up docks one and two. They haven't had a lot of maintenance underground, like proper maintenance to shore it up in a long time. And I would prefer to see this money move to just making sure that dock is gonna hold”

Ketchikan: Recurring City Council Meeting of June 4, 2026 · Jun 5, 2026

Jack Finnegan “I move that the city council Authorize contract number 2639, Professional Services Agreement Birth 1 Expansion Dolphin and Dock. PND Engineers incorporated in the amount of $290,000”

Ketchikan: Recurring City Council Meeting of June 4, 2026 · Jun 5, 2026

Geneva Preston “Lands that are designated wildlife habitat, their primary use is supporting fish and wildlife habitat values. And so any development activities would need to be designed in support of those values.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “Timber harvest would are very likely to be designed in coordination with the Department of Fish and Game and they would be designed with the purpose of enhancing habitat. And generally this will look like selective harvest in these units as well.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “any harvest, any timber harvest or resource development activities must be designed to exist compatibly with public recreation uses. And so typically that would look like timbers harvests that are designed to support recreation facilities or support access to areas that are important for recreation.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “within the Haines State Forest resource management area, 300 foot buffer around anonymous streams and 500 foot like retention buffers around lakes with anadromous fish populations apply throughout the forest.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “one of the most significant changes between the plan that was published in 2002 and the current amended draft is a change in policy that allows timber sales to be a potential use in the public recreation or wildlife habitat lands.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “our tools really for addressing like, the needs of the biotic community in, you know, in this landscape would be like having the ability to use forest management activities in a way that the Department of Fish and Game is advising the division to do”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “5 acres in unit 3H is the smallest size limit that we see and other units have a cap at 20. 20 Acres is the largest even age timber harvest that I think is permitted in these public recreation designated lands.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “The management goal for the state forest includes balancing a wide range of values and uses”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area Public Review: Virtual Meeting – April 29, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “the question is more of how to accommodate multiple uses on these sites with the different primary classification use that's, that's identified through that classification name. So the goal in updating the policy is to, to find a way that we can accommodate both wildlife habitat and timber harvest, or both public recreation and timber harvest.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

George

“the old growth forests are now have pretty well been determined to be the most important forest to protect through carbon offsets because they, you know, they have sequesters and hold the most carbon and sort of cutting those down would, you know, release more carbon than any other part of the forest.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

George

“it kind of flies in the face of the concept of management plan if you set something up where you classify the lands for different management purposes, so you have recreation, you have wildlife and. And other categories, and then you say, but by the way, we can, even though we're managing this for one purpose, we can turn around and change all that.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “it's written in Alaska statute that the primary purpose for the establishment of the Haines State Forest Resource Management Area, or purposes plural, are the utilization, perpetuation, conservation and production of the land and water, including but not limited to the use of renewable and non renewable resources through multiple use management”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

George

“you haven't provided any rationale for why all your policy, the policy you're proposing in which all lands become part of the timber base, you know, you've said, you've expressed that, but you really haven't provided a rationale for why you would want to do this.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “one of the Division of Forestry's primary goals and amending the management plan at this time is to create space and allow for carbon offset projects as a potential use within Haines State Forest Resource Management Area and for that to be a realistic possibility, it needs to be identified in the management plan. And the Division has determined that to make a carbon off the project like a realistic use of the resources in the Haines State Forest Resource Management Area to like expand the timber base is a part of that of that process.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “The feedback that we receive on a side of opposition to the, to this strategy that's kind of proposed right now, we have an equal and opposite force of feedback asking for something more. And so our role is to find a balance where the most possible use is made available to the Alaskan public by DoF's management of the forest.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “we determined that with our one of our primary goals in the revision to be adding language to allow carbon offset projects within the state forest, we might need to make additional changes that we hadn't originally presented to the public as part of this amendment. And so in July of this year, this past summer, we published a public notice announcement that specified that we would be revising policy to allow timber harvest in areas where it had previously been prohibited.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “we're expanding the opportunity to harvest timber, but we are not expanding the acreage of land that's classified forest. The classifications as they currently are, will not be changed in this plan amendment.”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Geneva Preston “the sample size for those percentages that you just described is 12 individuals. And so in, in reviewing the survey responses, we arrived at the conclusion that 12 individuals is not representative of the community at large”

Alaska DNR Forestry: Haines State Forest Resource Management Area- Project Update Meeting: August 27, 2025 · Jun 3, 2026

Savannah (Mat Su Job Center)

“Our current labor market provides vast opportunities for you to find meaningful work because there are two jobs for every one job seeker in Alaska and many people are finding work who have never worked before who experience significant barriers to employment.”

Alaska Labor & Workforce: Employment After Incarceration · May 15, 2026

Savannah (Mat Su Job Center)

“The bond covers against loss of money or property due to employee dishonesty through theft, forgery, larceny, or embezzlement. The bond helps build trust between the individual and their potential employer by showing that there is a mechanism in place to cover losses.”

Alaska Labor & Workforce: Employment After Incarceration · May 15, 2026

Savannah (Mat Su Job Center)

“You can visit a job center for help and write clearly on applications.”

Alaska Labor & Workforce: Employment After Incarceration · May 15, 2026

Savannah (Mat Su Job Center)

“My name is Savannah and I work at the Mat Su Job center and today I'm going to be talking with you about Employment after incarceration.”

Alaska Labor & Workforce: Employment After Incarceration · May 15, 2026

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