Nature & Outdoors
RSSAlaska News covers outdoor recreation, trails, parks, wildlife viewing, fishing closures, and safety in Alaska's natural areas.
Trail runner injured by brown bear near Anchorage's Prospect Heights trailhead
A woman running alone on Wolverine Bowl trail near Anchorage was injured by a brown bear Thursday, deployed bear spray, and walked out; she was hospitalized and the bear was not located.
by Maggie AlaskaNews16h ago2 min readAI
Kake advisory committee holds elections Aug. 26 and takes up 2027-2028 fisheries proposals
Kake's fish and game advisory committee holds elections and reviews 2027-28 fisheries proposals on Aug. 26 at 3:30 p.m. at the Organized Village of Kake Office.
by Walter AlaskaNews2h ago1 min readAI
Seats still open in two Juneau outdoor skills classes, Aug. 29 and Sept. 13
Juneau's Fish and Game program has six spots left in a wilderness survival class Aug. 29 and seven in a handgun safety class Sept. 13, both at the Hunter Education Shooting Complex.
by Bill AlaskaNews1d ago1 min readAI
Habitat damage stops counting as 'harm' to endangered species on Sept. 14
Federal agencies plan to stop counting habitat damage as harm to endangered species by July 2026, weakening protections for Alaska salmon.
by Maggie AlaskaNews9h ago2 min readAI
Pile driving for a Juneau cruise terminal could permanently damage 98 sea otters' hearing; comments close Sept. 11
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comment through September 11 on a permit that would allow pile driving near Juneau to legally harm or disturb northern sea otters for up to one year.
by Maggie AlaskaNews14h ago2 min readAI
NOAA seeks a vessel for its Gulf of Alaska trawl survey, but its own documents disagree on who can bid
NOAA is seeking a small-business fishing vessel for a 55-day Gulf of Alaska groundfish survey starting April 2027, with bids due Aug. 28.
by Bill AlaskaNews4h ago1 min readAI
Fortymile caribou hunt in Zones 1 and 4 runs just two days, closing Aug. 21
Alaska closes Fortymile caribou hunt in Zones 1 and 4 on Aug. 21, just two days after opening, expecting to fill the 190-bull quota in that window.
by Maggie AlaskaNews11h ago2 min readAI
ADF&G asks Kenai bull moose hunters for tissue samples within 24 hours of harvest
Alaska Fish and Game wants Kenai bull moose hunters to deliver tissue samples within 24 hours of harvest, a tight window that will force some hunters to cut their field time short.
by Bill AlaskaNews11h ago1 min readAI
Watermelon Trail reroute near Homer starts Aug. 19
Construction starts Aug. 19 on rerouting the Watermelon Trail near Homer, where a century-old route has eroded deep gullies that dump sediment into Beaver Creek, a salmon stream.
by Maggie AlaskaNews12h ago2 min readAI
The NRA gives Begich an F and three Republican tickets A+
The NRA's political arm gave the ticket of leading Alaska governor candidate Tom Begich an F and three Republican tickets A+ in its new primary grades.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Chignik Bay, Central districts open five days for commercial salmon starting Aug. 17
Chignik Bay and Central districts open for commercial salmon Aug. 17-21, but the window is provisional and most other Chignik areas stay closed due to low pink and chum counts.
by Bill AlaskaNews1d ago2 min readAI
Drift gillnetters got their extra day, and Boat Harbor now has a closing date
Alaska Department of Fish and Game extended drift gillnet fishing by one day in Section 1-B near Ketchikan and District 15 near Haines under emergency orders, with specific area closures in place.
by Walter AlaskaNews1d ago2 min readAI
State testing finds little or no PFAS in Alaska marine fish, with one exception for pollock
Alaska tested 610 marine fish specimens from 2022 to 2024 and found PFAS in only five samples, all below European and Japanese food thresholds, suggesting locally caught fish pose little dietary risk.
by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min readAI
Deep Inlet reopens to seine, gillnet and troll fleets at 12:01 a.m. Saturday
Alaska reopened Deep Inlet to commercial salmon fishing after the state hatchery finished cost-recovery operations, ending a closure that began June 28.
by Bill AlaskaNews1d ago2 min readAI
Sand Point fishermen get 61 hours on the water — in a fishery the rest of Alaska watches closely
Sand Point fishermen get 61 hours on the water — in an Area M fishery watched across Alaska for catching chum bound for the struggling Yukon and Kuskokwim.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Sitka crews cleaning waste oil spilled Aug. 12 on the O'Connell Bridge lane to Harbor Drive
Sitka crews are cleaning oil from O'Connell Bridge to Harbor Drive now. Expect delays and follow crew directions.
by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago1 min readAI
Bears are still raiding the Kodiak dump, weeks after a state plan to keep them out
Bears are still raiding the Kodiak dump weeks after the state approved a plan to keep them out, because the landfill is full of fish and game waste they can't resist.
by Walter AlaskaNews4d ago2 min readAI
Juneau's sewage plant has spent three years out of compliance as the state rewrites its permit
Alaska is rewriting Juneau's sewage plant pollution permit for the first time in years, and whatever treatment limits it sets will be paid by local sewer ratepayers through higher bills.
by Lucas Brown1d ago2 min readAI
Kenai dipnet season closes after another strong sockeye run
The Kenai River personal use dipnet fishery closed for 2026 after a late-run sockeye return near 3 million, again clearing Fish and Game's escapement goals. Kasilof stays open through Aug. 7.
by Bill AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Kenai dipnetting goes 24 hours as sockeye run hits 3 million
Daaaaang! Kenai sockeye are running hot — 3 million projected — so dipnetting goes 24 hours a day through Friday's season close. Residents only, and kings go back.
by Bill AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Want to spear whitefish by lantern light? The permit deadline is Friday
Alaska households have until Friday to enter the lottery for 400 permits to spear whitefish by lantern light on the Chatanika River this fall.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Unalaska moves to rebuild its harbor, with sea otter safeguards for the pile driving
Unalaska is set to rebuild moorage at Robert Storrs Harbor, with standard safeguards for nearby sea otters. The projected effect is minor. Comment to Sept. 10.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4d ago2 min readAI
Lower Cook Inlet seiners are shut down while set netters keep fishing, days before the season ends
Lower Cook Inlet's purse seiners are shut down while set netters in the same district keep fishing, right as the salmon season closes out Aug. 15.
by Bill AlaskaNews6d ago1 min readAI
NSF awards UAA $605,353 to study why some spruce survive the beetle kill at Denali
NSF awarded UAA $605,353 to study why some white spruce survive spruce beetle outbreaks now killing trees across Denali and moving into Alaska's Interior forests.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2d ago2 min readAI
A Petersburg-area drift gillnet fishery opens for about 40 hours
The state will open a fishing section near Petersburg to about 40 hours of unrestricted drift gillnet fishing, from Tuesday evening through Thursday noon.
by Walter AlaskaNews5d ago2 min readAI
Anchorage and Fairbanks airports finish swapping PFAS foam out of crash trucks
Anchorage and Fairbanks airports replaced PFAS firefighting foam in their crash trucks with fluorine-free alternatives, cutting PFAS levels up to 99.999% in the tanks.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Upper Cook Inlet reopens to a one-king limit after a spring closure
Upper Cook Inlet anglers north of Bluff Point can keep one king salmon from Aug. 16 through Sept. 15, after a closure meant to protect declining king stocks.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago1 min readAI
A Juneau builder with a long wetlands-filling history moves to settle federal charges
Federal and state authorities lodged a settlement with Duran Construction over Clean Water Act wetlands violations, but the public comment period has not yet been scheduled.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1w ago2 min readAI
Eklutna Tailrace closes stretch to anglers 16 and older Saturday
Alaska Department of Fish and Game closes a stretch of Eklutna Tailrace to anglers 16 and older on Saturday, Aug. 15, to give kids 15 and younger a youth-only coho salmon fishery from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min readAI
Kamishak District closed to seining after survey found fewer pinks
Alaska closes the Kamishak District to commercial salmon seining Wednesday night after an aerial survey found fewer pink salmon than expected in Lower Cook Inlet.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Prince William Sound's purse seine fleet stays closed, waiting on weather
Prince William Sound's seine fleet stays closed, grounded because the weather's too poor to fly the aerial surveys Fish and Game needs before it will open.
by Bill AlaskaNews4d ago1 min readAI
Alaska's 2027 and 2028 groundfish catch limits get their first review Sept. 8
Groundfish Plan Teams meet Sept. 8-11 in hybrid format to review stock assessments and ecosystem data that inform Alaska catch limits for pollock, Pacific cod, and rockfish.
by Bill AlaskaNews2d ago1 min readAI
The Situk's Rodeo Hole reopens Wednesday, the kings already gone upstream
The Situk's Rodeo Hole reopens to sport fishing Wednesday after five weeks closed, once surveys showed the king salmon had already moved upstream.
by Bill AlaskaNews4d ago1 min readAI
A weak coho run just shut down federal commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet
A weak coho run just closed commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet's federal waters through Aug. 15, and the low cap is already squeezing state gillnetters.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 6d ago1 min readAI
A Homer seafood plant would pass to Silver Bay amid an OBI takeover
A Homer Spit seafood plant would pass to Silver Bay as it absorbs OBI statewide — a deal some fishermen and workers fear could erode local wages.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Pollock fleet holds an Anchorage job fair days before a bycatch-shaped election
Days before the final vote, the Bering Sea pollock fleet holds an Anchorage job fair — as salmon bycatch, and a new mandatory chum cap, roil the 2026 campaign.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago3 min readAI
Alaska Peninsula salmon fishing keeps opening and closing as managers work around sockeye returns
Alaska Peninsula salmon fishing keeps opening and closing — 20 advisories in this season — as managers work around sockeye returns near Port Moller.
by Bill AlaskaNews5d ago1 min readAI
In Talkeetna, a debate over whether weather or a bridge is eroding the riverbank
Weather, or a rebuilt railroad bridge? As Talkeetna's bank erodes, one river-watcher says the bridge choked the river — and that's the fixable cause.
by Bill AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Cook Inlet's oil and gas discharge rules expired in 2021, and EPA is finally rewriting them
The rules for what oil and gas exploration can discharge into federal Cook Inlet waters expired in 2021 and have run on an extension. EPA is rewriting them.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago1 min readAI
Five muskoxen are stuck on a 15-acre island, so Alaska is opening a hunt
Five muskoxen wandered onto a 15-acre island with no water and no way off. Alaska can't afford to move them, so it's opening a hunt instead.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
