Mat-Su Valley
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Week of Jul 27
Strong sockeye run opens Fish Creek to six salmon a day
A banner sockeye run opens Fish Creek early, doubling the sport limit to six salmon a day through Aug. 15. Kings still off-limits, coho capped at two.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Wasilla weighs a facility meant to keep Alaska kids in Alaska
A Wasilla facility aimed at keeping Alaska kids from being sent out of state for behavioral health care went before the Planning Commission Tuesday.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
State cost-share helps Kenai and Mat-Su fix eroding riverbanks
Kenai and Mat-Su landowners can get the state to cover up to half or two-thirds of eroding-bank repairs — if they use salmon-friendly fixes, not rock armor.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Tree closes all lanes of North Glenn Highway near mile 71
When a tree falls on the North Glenn and nobody is around to see it, can the highway be shut down at all?
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Mat-Su forum tackles housing for after parents are gone
A Mat-Su nonprofit will present plans Thursday for small-scale housing for disabled adults, aimed at the families asking what comes after they're gone.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Motorcyclist dies after Parks Highway collision in Meadow Lakes
A motorcyclist died Monday night after colliding with a van on the Parks Highway at South Potter Road in Meadow Lakes, according to Alaska State Troopers.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
A magnitude 3.0 leads a weekend quake cluster in the Susitna Valley
A magnitude 3.0 led a weekend of small quakes in the Susitna Valley, felt as far as Anchorage — routine for ground sitting on three seismic sources.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
A Palmer sentencing marks another case from Alaska's cybertip pipeline
A Palmer man will register as a sex offender for life after pleading guilty to possessing child abuse material — one of a run of Alaska cybertip cases.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
More from Mat-Su Valley
Wasilla hiring event features employer with no listed openings
A nonprofit is recruiting at the Mat-Su Job Center on Wednesday. Its own careers page says every position is currently filled. Bring a resume anyway.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Fish and Game offers $6 foraging class at Matanuska River Park
Fish and Game will walk you through Matanuska River Park for $6 and answer the only foraging question that matters: can I eat this, or will it kill me?
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
The sleeper on Alaska's August primary ballot: money, turnout and Measure 1
Alaska campaign donations currently have one limit: your imagination. Ballot Measure 1 would add a second — $2,000. Voters decide at the Aug. 18 primary.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Troopers cite 12 dipnetters on the Kenai in one day
Troopers wrote at least 12 dipnet citations on the Kenai in a single day, mostly for fishing after hours. The reward: $120 bail and a long drive home.
by Alaska News3mo ago1 min read
Week of Jul 20
A missing Wasilla man was found alive in a car in Delta Junction
A Wasilla man missing since July 21 was found alive in Delta Junction — in a car that had sat parked for nearly a day before anyone checked.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Wasilla man, 83, arrested after allegedly pulling handgun on EMTs
Wasilla man Frank Bird, 83, was arrested on a warrant charging four counts of third-degree assault after he pulled a handgun on two EMTs and friends who came to help him after a fall on July 18.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Talkeetna's erosion fight reaches a new stage: buying people off the riverbank
Talkeetna's erosion fight has reached buyout territory: the borough wants federal money to pay people off the riverbank, if the state covers the match.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Fatigue blamed in a Parks Highway rollover near Cantwell
A tired Florida driver rolled her vehicle near Cantwell on Thursday, the latest in a summer of crashes and closures on the Parks Highway. Injuries were minor.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Coming up
Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly Regular Meeting
Assembly Chambers, 350 East Dahlia Avenue, Palmer, AK 99645; testimony by phone at 1-855-225-2326
Meeting
19th Annual Mat-Su Salmon Science and Conservation Symposium
Conference
Marijuana Control Board Meeting
Meeting
Alaska Supreme Court oral argument: Leif S. Backlin v. Matanuska-Susitna Borough
Hearing
Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly and School Board Joint Meeting
Meeting
About Mat-Su Valley
The Mat-Su Valley is a region of Southcentral Alaska that takes in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Its communities include Wasilla, Palmer, Big Lake, Houston, Willow, Talkeetna and Trapper Creek, and it is known for agriculture, Hatcher Pass and the Iditarod.
The Mat-Su Borough Assembly, its Platting Board and Planning Commission decide on land use, subdivisions, grants and library policy, while the Wasilla and Palmer city councils run their own towns. Port MacKenzie and its rail line draw industrial proposals such as a mineral refinery, and the Wasilla airport plans to lengthen its runway.
The Parks and Glenn highways carry traffic through the borough, and crashes along them recur. The region shares Southcentral Alaska with Anchorage, Cook Inlet and the Susitna River.
More from Mat-Su Valley
Troopers waited two months after the traffic stop to make the arrest
Troopers stopped a Wasilla woman in May, took her car, and let the case build. They came back with a search warrant two months later.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
West Petersville Road is washed out, and the creek won't let crews in
West Petersville Road is washed out at Kenny Creek with no reopening date — crews can't start until the water slows down enough to work in.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
More than 100 land deals stand between Alaska and a safer KGB Road
Alaska can't fix KGB Road until it buys land from 100-plus owners. Elsewhere a Gustavus generator waits on a signature. Everything's sliding to 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Fish Creek dipnet fishery opens Sunday for Alaska resident dipnetters
More fishing more fish
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min readFrom 
Water is over roads in the Lower Matanuska Valley
Heavy rain has the Little Susitna up and water over roads near North Sushana Drive, with a flood advisory for the Lower Matanuska Valley until Friday morning.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
High water has Southcentral anglers waiting it out
Flooding has Southcentral anglers mostly sidelined — weirs underwater, creeks blown out, and 12-foot waves hitting the Kenai dipnet beaches.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
A 100 mph chase ended with a Palmer driver pinned against a tree
A 100 mph chase near Palmer ended with the driver upside down in a ditch, pinned against a tree. He was already wanted on four warrants.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
State plans a gravel sale on the Parks Highway near Denali
Alaska is set to sell gravel from a Parks Highway site near Denali — under a system an ombudsman faulted in 2019 and the state declined to change.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Alaska sends kids Outside for care. A Wasilla project targets that.
Alaska sends children thousands of miles away for behavioral health care. A Wasilla proposal would build the kind of local services that could keep them home.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
A Parks Highway gas station, ahead of the state's traffic review
Wasilla may approve a new Parks Highway gas station before the state finishes deciding whether its driveway onto the highway is safe.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Mat-Su Assembly declares Talkeetna flood emergency, seeks state aid for permanent fix
Mat-Su Assembly declared a local emergency over Susitna River flooding in Talkeetna to unlock state aid for a permanent fix that could cost over $20 million.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
A $700 property tax break, paid for by a 1% sales tax
Mat-Su voters will decide in November whether to shave about $700 off homeowners' property taxes and pay for it with a 1% sales tax on everyone.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
State opens 30-day window on nearly 1,700 acres of Petersville mining leases
Alaska opened a 30-day window for objections to seven mining leases covering 1,680 acres near Petersville, with the deadline September 19.
by Alaska News3mo ago2 min readMat-Su Platting Board approves Primrose Point Phase 4 preliminary plat despite unresolved driveway questions
Mat-Su Platting Board approved Primrose Point Phase 4 subdivision despite unresolved driveway access for five lots, deferring the question to a later engineering meeting.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Mat-Su Platting Board approves Starlight Subdivision master plan over neighbor objections
Mat-Su Platting Board approved the 184-lot Starlight Subdivision master plan Thursday despite neighbor complaints about traffic, mail delivery, and drainage on the roughly 200-acre Knik Fairview site.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Week of Jul 13
Rain forecast for Yentna and Skwentna gravel bars through Monday night
Rain forecast for the Yentna and Skwentna River basins Saturday night through Monday night may push rivers to bankfull, threatening gravel bars and low-lying camping areas.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Comment deadline looms on basecamp permit near Denali Highway milepost 86.5
Public comment deadline is July 27 on a five-year commercial basecamp permit for big game guiding and trapping near Denali Highway milepost 86.5.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
A tiny Alaska post office runs out of a cabin, and the state wants to keep it
Skwentna's post office runs out of a private cabin at a fly-in airport, and the state just moved to renew the lease keeping it open.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
A free Palmer class to turn beginners into bird hunters
Free Fish and Game class in Palmer turns bird-hunting beginners into hunters in a day — guns, ammo, and dogs included. Season's already open.
by Bill AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Alaska's worst-ever syphilis outbreak is now reaching newborns
Alaska is in its worst syphilis outbreak ever, up twentyfold since 2016 — and it's now reaching babies. A record 14 newborns were born with it in 2025, though it's preventable with prenatal testing.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Fish Creek sport fishery closes today; dipnet opening possible if counts hold
Fish Creek sport fishery closes today, but Alaska residents could dipnet sockeye starting late July if ADF&G counts exceed 35,000 salmon in coming days.
by Bill AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Yentna River forecast to crest above flood stage tonight
The Yentna River near Lake Creek is set to crest above flood stage Wednesday night, sending water into several cabins — in a roadless area reachable only by bush plane and boat.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Wasilla's mayor is termed out, and the first candidate to replace her just filed
Wasilla's mayor is term-limited, so the seat's open this fall — and Stu Graham is first to signal a run, filing before the July 20–31 window even opens.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
Mat-Su moves to clean up 'forever chemicals' in its groundwater
The Mat-Su Borough wants $400K to clean up "forever chemicals" in its groundwater — traced to old firefighting foam and found this spring near a Wasilla elementary school.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
