Nature & Outdoors
RSSAlaska News covers outdoor recreation, trails, parks, wildlife viewing, fishing closures, and safety in Alaska's natural areas.
Knik Tribe awarded $5 million to design fish passage fixes on Talkeetna Spur Road
Eight culverts on the Talkeetna Spur Road block salmon from more than 66 miles of stream. The Knik Tribe got $5 million to design the fixes.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Alaska's seat on the halibut commission is open, and you can nominate yourself
Alaska's seat on the commission that sets Pacific halibut catch limits is open. Nominations close Sept. 14, and self-nominations are accepted.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Park Service urges hard-sided bear containers in the Arrigetch Peaks
A brown bear took food from a soft-sided bear-resistant container in the Arrigetch Peaks on August 13. The Park Service now strongly recommends hard-sided containers, which backpackers can check out at the Bettles Ranger Station.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Hilcorp wants to dig a 95-acre gravel pit near the Putuligayuk River
Hilcorp wants to dig a 95-acre gravel pit near the Putuligayuk River on the North Slope. Two-thirds of it would be permanent. Comment closes Sept. 4.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min read
Copper River gillnetters get a 12-hour opener Monday, half the last period
Copper River and Bering River gillnetters get 12 hours Monday, half of last week's opener, as Fish and Game tries to keep building early salmon escapement.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
NOAA pays $1.57 million for samples from subsistence-harvested seals
NOAA is paying $1.57 million for samples from seals Alaska Native hunters take for food. The science depends on hunters volunteering what they harvested.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A toxic bloom killed fur seals off St. George with the highest saxitoxin level ever recorded in the species
A toxic bloom killed fur seals off St. George with the highest saxitoxin level ever recorded in the species. Tribal monitors get another year to track it.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Yakutat opened a short sockeye gillnet fishery, with kings still off-limits
Yakutat opened a short sockeye gillnet fishery in mid-August, but king salmon stayed off-limits as the Situk River's king run keeps declining.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A second Southeast area hits its lingcod limit in two weeks
For the second time in two weeks, Southeast longliners must start throwing lingcod back as another area hits its seasonal limit. The state calls it routine.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
If you pulled an Upper Cook Inlet dipnet permit, you have until Aug. 31 to file, even if you never fished
Pulled an Upper Cook Inlet dipnet permit? File your harvest report by Aug. 31, even if you never fished, or you lose personal-use fishing privileges next year.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Catch a pike in an Anchorage lake and you have to kill it
Catch a northern pike in an Anchorage lake and you have to kill it. They are invasive south of the Alaska Range and they eat salmon and trout.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Silvers are slow in Resurrection Bay, but the best coho fishing is just outside it
Silvers are slow in Resurrection Bay with few coho past the weir, but the best coho fishing is just outside it toward Montague Island and Harris Bay.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Subsistence coho fishing closes on the middle and upper Kuskokwim
Subsistence coho fishing closes Friday on the middle Kuskokwim and a week later upriver. Sonar counts are running about a third below average for the date.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Alaska managers open some salmon fisheries and close others as runs diverge
Alaska fishery managers opened some salmon fisheries and closed others the same week, each call turning on how the fish are running in that particular place.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Sand Point salmon fishing extended 48 hours through Sunday night
Sand Point boats get 48 more hours of salmon fishing, through 9 pm Sunday. The state published no catch or escapement figures explaining why.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Fairbanks draft river plan backs changing wastewater discharge so the Chena can freeze
A Fairbanks plan backs letting the Chena freeze through town again, undoing decades of warm power-plant water, though some residents worry about snowmachines.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
BLM closes spur road and gravel pit at Moose Creek Landing through fall
BLM closed a spur road and gravel pit at Moose Creek Landing through fall so newly seeded ground can regrow, blocking vehicle access to the recreation site in the White Mountains.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
USDA proposes lifting roadless rule protections on Tongass and Chugach
USDA proposes ending the 2001 Roadless Rule on Alaska's Tongass and Chugach forests, opening 9.3 million acres to potential road building and logging under local forest plans. Comments due Sept. 21.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Kotzebue chum fishermen got a second buyer for the season's last week
Kotzebue chum fishermen had two buyers for the season's final six openings, after weeks with one. The regulatory season closes Aug. 31.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
There's a narrow window to ask Alaska's fish board to take up new topics
A narrow window closes Aug. 28 to ask Alaska's fish board to take up new topics, but the bar is high: it accepted just two of nine such requests last year.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Skagway's national park hosts a leashed-dog tour for National Dog Day
Skagway's Klondike Gold Rush park is hosting a free leashed-dog walking tour Aug. 26 for National Dog Day — a nod to the stampeders' sled dogs, with rangers and small tokens along the way.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
NOAA is still testing groundwater in the Pribilofs, decades after it left
NOAA is paying $186,644 to keep sampling groundwater in the Pribilofs, cleanup left over from 116 years of federal control of the fur seal harvest.
by Alaska News1mo ago2 min read
King salmon fishing is over for the year in the Upper Copper River drainages
King salmon fishing in the Upper Copper River drainages is done for 2026. Permit holders must report online by Aug. 31 even if they never fished.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Salmon dying off in Prince of Wales drainages amid low, warm water
Salmon are dying off in several Prince of Wales Island streams, where low, warm water from drought has killed fish and stranded survivors in shrinking pools.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A declining Fortymile caribou herd, short hunts, and a dispute over timing
A declining Fortymile caribou herd has forced short, tightly capped hunts. Tribes say the state's timing this year cut into the federal subsistence priority.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Eight Alaska fishery disaster requests are past the deadline federal law sets
Eight Alaska fishing communities are owed federal disaster relief the law says is already overdue, and until the decisions come, no one gets paid.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Alaska's cruise ship wastewater permit expired in 2019 and is still in force
Twenty-eight cruise ships discharged treated wastewater in Alaska last season under a 2014 permit that expired in 2019. Nine discharges were unauthorized.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A sharp cut to West Coast salmon limits lands on fish Alaska shares
Federal managers cut West Coast Chinook troll limits by three-quarters, and because the salmon are shared, mixed stocks, the change reaches Alaska's runs too.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Bristol Bay 2027 sockeye forecast to fall below 50 million, ending an 11-year run
Bristol Bay's sockeye run is forecast at 44.2 million for 2027, which would end an eleven-year streak above 50 million. The state still grades that strong.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Woman injured by brown bear sow near Bells Flats in Kodiak
A woman was hurt by a brown bear sow while walking her dog near Bells Flats on Kodiak, but her dog's barking distracted the bear long enough for her to escape.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A second person has been hurt in an Anchorage otter attack in three weeks
A second Anchorage resident in three weeks has been hurt by a river otter, and Fish and Game is telling paddleboarders and dog walkers to carry bear spray.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Yukon coho are running far below normal, and even a strong chum year likely won't reopen fishing
Yukon River coho are running far below normal as their peak season opens, and even a strong fall chum year likely won't reopen subsistence fishing.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Petersburg ships most of its trash to Washington; its unlined landfill is up for renewal
Petersburg's household trash gets barged to Washington state. What stays behind goes into an unlined landfill where groundwater monitoring was waived.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Sockeye are running so strong in Bristol Bay that anglers can now keep twice as many
Sockeye are running so strong in Bristol Bay's Wood River and Nushagak drainages that the state has doubled the daily bag limit to 10 fish through year's end.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Judge vacates Izembek land exchange for King Cove road
A federal judge vacated the land exchange behind the King Cove road through the Izembek refuge, reopening one of Alaska's longest fights on primary day.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Cook Inlet king fishing reopens north of Bluff Point at one fish a day
King fishing reopened north of Bluff Point on Aug. 15, one fish a day through Sept. 15. Every Cook Inlet king run was forecast under its escapement goal.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Pink salmon swamp Kodiak road-system rivers, crowding out sockeye and coho
Pink salmon are crowding Kodiak road-system rivers in unusual numbers, making sockeye and coho harder for anglers to find this week.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Juneau-area gillnetters get another opener, but directed king fishing stays closed on low abundance
Juneau-area gillnetters get another opener through Wednesday, but directed king fishing stays closed across four Southeast districts on low king numbers.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
EPA proposes $5,859 UniSea settlement over Dutch Harbor stormwater
EPA says UniSea's Dutch Harbor plant went years with a stale pollution plan and unpermitted flows toward Iliuliuk Harbor. The proposed penalty is $5,859
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Where to watch spawning salmon around Ketchikan this month
Want to watch Fish, it's like watching paint dry but consequences… Cool ones!
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read