EDD cut by politics — Economic development agency loses state funding

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

Thanks to convoluted political maneuvering, an economic engine used to support small businesses on the Kenai Peninsula is due to expire at the end of June.

The Senate Finance Committee in the closing days of the legislative session could have extended the authorization for the Alaska Regional Development Organizations. Instead, its sunset was approved. ARDOR serves as the umbrella over 13 regional districts.

This includes the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District. Its mission is to serve residents, “By enhancing their quality of life through responsible and sustainable regional economic and workforce development.”

“It will be business as usual, with our fingers crossed,” said Director John Torgerson. While the predicament is worrisome, it’s not going to shut the doors. The district receives $75,000 a year in federal funding and events such as the industrial forums are supported by the oil, gas and other industries.

Another $68,000 usually comes from the state Department of Commerce and Economic Development. But that check won’t be arriving this year.

“The state funding surely will be missed. We are a federal- and state-recognized district,” Torgerson said. “Primarily the board hasn’t weighed in on the state funding, but hopefully this week they will be discussing it.”

Fish under fire — State officials field questions, answer complaints from fishermen

By Jenny Neyman

From left, Gretchen Harrington, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, Stefanie Moreland, senior adviser for fisheries, oceans and Arctic policy with Gov. Sean Parnell’s office, and Susan Bell, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, answer questions from the crowd.

Redoubt Reporter

There are a lot of ifs involved in whether or not a commercial fishing season is successful — if the fishermen have all the necessary gear, crew, permits and equipment ready to go, plus the knowledge and experience of how best to use them; if fishery managers open opportunities to fish; if the fish arrive in decent numbers and in times and places coinciding with fishing openings; and if there’s a market offering decent prices for the catch.

Likewise, there are a lot of ifs involved in whether or not fishermen affected by the low king runs to Cook Inlet this summer — primarily, the east side set-netters whose July sockeye season was shut down in order to protect the king returns to the Kenai and Kasilof rivers — will get any economic relief through the federal disaster declaration process.

The difference being, fishermen know the ifs involved in fishing, whereas the ifs of the disaster declaration process have been as speculative as the causes behind what’s happening with the declining kings.

A meeting hosted by the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association on Friday at Grace Brethren Church on Kalifornsky Beach Road was meant to explain the unknowns of the declaration process, with Susan Bell, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development; Gretchen Harrington, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service; and Stefanie Moreland, senior adviser for fisheries, oceans and Arctic policy with Gov. Sean Parnell’s office. Jim Butler, local attorney and commercial fisherman, moderated the question-and-answer discussion between the panel and the crowd of more than 100 fishermen, elected officials and agency representatives.

Area taxes see big spikes — Alaska 1 of only states where government can triple bill without notice

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

When Melanie and Doug Meeker opened their latest property tax bill, they should have been sitting down.

According to the Kenai Peninsula Borough assessment, their property value at Lighthouse Village went up by 60 percent in the past year. Another parcel was up 80 percent.

“It is just stunning. We are in shock,” Melanie Meeker said Friday. She figures the tax bill amounts to a $400 to $600 monthly check to the borough. The Meekers own Lighthouse Village rental cabins, a quonset hut and a home in Homer. The quonset hut likewise came in at a higher appraisal.

It didn’t make sense, so they made phone calls. The borough assessor’s office is working with them.

While a few landowners say their assessment went down, others are sticker-shocked. One taxpayer who owns a downtown parcel in Homer calculates her property taxes rose 226 percent. Another has unimproved land, without a road or water and sewer, that rose from a valuation of $30,000 to $120,000.

Bay Realty owner Debra Leisek said that what’s needed is a legislative solution. Alaska is one of the only states that doesn’t bar governments from tripling or quadrupling property taxes from one year to the next.

“We need the Legislature to look at this. No other state is allowed to tax property so it comes in double and triple what it was the year before,” Leisek said. “There needs to be boundaries on the amount these things can be.”

Packing adventure — Lightweight rafts heavy on versatility

By JP Bennett, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of JP Bennett. Lily pads presented a not-too-serious impediment to navigation for Branden Bornemann, of the Kenai Watershed Forum, during a trip down Soldotna Creek recently.

By definition, adventure requires uncertainty and risk, but not every outdoor adventure has to begin with a capital A and end with an exclamation point.

Two weeks ago I tagged along with Branden Bornemann, an environmental specialist for the Kenai Watershed Forum, for a float down Soldotna Creek. The Watershed Forum was under contract with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to do a preliminary assessment of the stream.

The data Bornemann began to collect will, among other things, be used to help

Bornemann gathering data.

develop a plan to eradicate pike, an introduced species that is wreaking havoc with the native salmon on this tributary of the Kenai River. We planned to launch at Sevena Lake and go to some undetermined point near the Sterling Highway.

Our takeout point was only a temporary uncertainty; it was quickly resolved as we scouted several possibilities en route to the put-in. There were other things we could not be sure of until we set out. Would there be enough water flowing through the creek to render it floatable? Would the creek be choked with obstacles of logs and debris, thereby requiring work with a capital W and an exclamation point to portage the barriers? Would we be able to complete the trip in time for Bornemann to keep an evening rendezvous with a special friend?

Oh, there were some risks, too. We both brought along bear spray and kept it handy throughout the day. This is most definitely an anadromous stream, and where there are spawning salmon, there likely are predators.

OK, maybe there was only that one risk. The creek was so slow-moving that even the easiest Class I rating would overstate the possibility of danger. At most, we expected the water to be thigh deep on either of our 6-foot-plus frames. As our luck would have it, the sun was shining and there was just enough wind to keep pesky flying insects from being annoying. 

Pretty threatening — Weeds take late-blooming opportunity to spread

By Janice Chumley, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Janice Chumley. Common tansy is pretty but efficient at reproduction, quickly choking out native plants.

While autumn may be approaching, hastening the end of the growing season, there are still several plants blooming along our roads and trails. Many folks might think of them as wildflowers, but they are anything but.

These invasive weeds are using the late-blooming opportunity for noncompetitive seed production — a chance to spread before the snow flies and replace more native plant habitat come spring. These late bloomers are:

• Fall dandelion (Leontodon autumnalis). Quickly spreading along trails and roads across the central Kenai Peninsula, this late-blooming yellow flower is often confused with the common dandelion. The leaves of the fall dandelion are deeply lobed, smooth and form a basal rosette — a ground-level arrangement of leaves around the plant’s central stem. This plant was introduced from Europe where it is commonly called Hawkbit, and has the same spreading habits as the common dandelion. Controls for this plant are similar to the common dandelion — don’t let this one go to seed!

Beluga issue nets large reply — Critical habitat testimony stretches into the thousands

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

The testimony on whether or not to designate most of Cook Inlet as beluga habitat is now in, with some 91,668 responses to the public comment period that ended March 3.

The comments will be available to the public shortly at the National Marine Fisheries Service Web site, said spokesperson Sheela McLean. It is important to note that the number of responses didn’t calculate how many made repeat testimony. However, the numbers from organizations were noted, with Sierra Club accounting for 43,339 responses. The Natural Resource Development Council — countering the idea of designating Cook Inlet as critical habitat — weighed in with 39,939 responses.

NMFS counted 10 responses from North Star Terminal and Stevedore Co., LLC, which operates the Port of Anchorage, and 219 from postcard mailings. It also received 13 “unknown” letters and received 7,500 from a signature petition.

The NMFS is expecting to issue its decision sometime in October, McLean said.

Here is a sampling of commentary that came from residents in Homer and/or the Kenai Peninsula:

• Roland Maw of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association: “It became apparent to us as an industry that belugas were declining 15 or more years ago. NMFS came to us as a group, and to the set net group, and asked us if we would have some observers on board our vessels and you have the results of that. We had observers to the tune of about 9,000 hours on our vessels and beaches. There were no sightings, no entanglements and certainly no deaths. We have been trying to be proactive, even though our government hasn’t been … This is a difficult problem to work through but we’ll get through it and we’ll be OK.”
• Ken Tarbox, Soldotna: “I worked from 1980 to 2000 for Fish and Game. In that capacity, I flew over Cook Inlet and observed whales. I support the critical habitat designation identified, with a couple of exceptions. One, it is not far enough up the Susitna River. The whales would go much further up the Susitna River than what is designated. Two is the Kenai River. Even recently, since 2000, I’ve seen whales moving two to three miles up from the bridge. I assure you the lower Kenai is still used by belugas. I’ve seen as many as 30 in there in the spring and in the fall. Where we are not seeing them is during the July period when we historically used to see them.”
• Harold Shepherd, director Center for Water Advocacy: “I am here to testify in support of proposed designation of critical habitat for beluga on behalf of our members, which includes native villages and tribal governments in Alaska including the Marine Mammal Council and the Eklutna, Kenaitze, Chickaloon, Ninilchik, Seldovia and Tyonek tribes… Many tribal organizations can be of significant assistance in implementation and support in helping keep the belugas from jeopardy.”
• Beaver Nelson: “I have lived here since 1965. As a commercial fisherman I’ve spent a lot of time in Kachemak Bay and have observed belugas. Up until mid 1980’s there was a group of belugas that would come in every fall. All through October they appeared to feed on smelt (little wiggling clouds you could see in the grass). There would be 40-50 belugas in that area steadily. In mid to late 1980’s the belugas began to disappear. They were gone in a two to three year period to where there just weren’t belugas there anymore. You very rarely saw orcas back then, but in the late 1980’s the orcas became way more common. Even now if you go up in October you will see orcas up there hunting seal. My feeling is belugas are a candy bar for orca. They found a good food source and drove the belugas out of there. It is a risky venture for a beluga to move through there to run a gauntlet of orcas which seem to be increasing in abundance.”

Save the whales. Save the economy. Can we do both?

By Jenny Neyman

Photo courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Redoubt Reporter

The Cook Inlet region is home to the largest congregation of Alaska’s population and supports the many and myriad economic uses that population has developed, and would like to develop, in and around the waterway — shipping, tourism, oil and gas industry activity, transportation, mineral extraction, discharge of effluents, fishing and more.

The inlet also is home to a population of beluga whales that has dwindled to the point of being listed under the Endangered Species Act in October 2008 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service. The endangered listing and subsequent designation of critical habitat encompassing much of Cook Inlet puts in place a level of protection for the whales, so that activity in the inlet won’t harm the existing population or inhibit their recovery.

At the same time, there’s debate over whether that protection is necessary, and concern that it might restrict, if not cripple, economic activity in the inlet. As public meetings are held, a federal comment period is open and the state decides whether it will sue to block the endangered listing and critical habitat designation, that’s the central question stirring up debate — can the whales be saved without endangering the economy?

Platform A in Cook Inlet, photo courtesy of XTO Energy

Declining numbers

No one knows for sure how many belugas used to be in Cook Inlet, but it’s clear that there are a lot less now than there used to be. Based on limited surveys done by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, anecdotal references and traditional knowledge from Native beluga hunters, NMFS estimates there were 1,000 to 1,300 belugas in the 1970s. By the time NMFS began comprehensive, systematic aerial surveys for belugas throughout the inlet in 1993, the number was estimated at 653. From just 1994 to 1998 the population decreased by about 50 percent to 347 whales.

NMFS attributes the rapid decline to an increase in Native beluga hunting.

“There has been traditional harvest by subsistence users of Cool Inlet belugas for as long back as anybody cares to go,” said Brad Smith, a field office supervisor for the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act with NMFS, at a presentation Thursday in Kenai.

Before the 1990s, subsistence hunters took a few belugas a year. But during the 1980s and 1990s, more people moved to Southcentral from Native villages in outlying Alaska and took up beluga harvest, Smith said.

“I think they gradually became aware that there were beluga whales available. The harvest levels increased drastically by the early ’90s,” he said.

Subsistence harvest of inlet belugas was regulated in 1998, and just five whales were taken between 1999 and 2008. In 2000, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to have the whales listed as endangered, but at the time NMFS did not do so because it believed the whale population would rebound at a rate of 2 percent to 6 percent a year once the pressure of hunting was relieved.

That hasn’t happened. The current NMFS analysis is that there’s only a 5 percent probability that the whales’ population is growing at a rate of above 2 percent per year, and a 62 percent or more probability that the population will decline further.

“We expected during that time to see an uptick and see a recovery in the numbers. Unfortunately, we did not,” Smith said. “Subsequent to that we received an additional petition recommending listing under the Endangered Species Act.”

NMFS designed various models to predict the likelihood of inlet beluga whale extinction. They include various factors and variables, such as an updated 2008 population estimate; whales’ biological characteristics — lifespan, age of reproductive maturity, etc.; and possible causes of mortality — predation, mostly by killer whales, and strandings or other unusual mortality events. The scenario NMFS considers to be the most realistic model accounts for an average of one mortality a year due to predation and a 5 percent annual chance of an unusual mortality event (like strandings, ice entrapment or ship strikes) that kills 20 percent of the population. That model predicts a 1 percent chance of extinction in 50 years, 26 percent probability of extinction in 100 years, 70 percent probability of extinction in 300 years and 80 percent probability that the population is declining.

NMFS listed the whales as endangered in October 2008. In December 2010 about 3,000 square miles of Cook Inlet were designated as critical habitat for the belugas. The comment period on the proposed critical habitat has recently been extended to March 3.

State of concern — Alaska may sue to block federal beluga protections

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

As the state of Alaska examines the science and reasoning supporting the National Marine Fishery Service’s listing of Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered and the designation of a large swath of Cook Inlet as critical habitat for the whales, its initial response is simple — not so fast.

An Alaska Department of Fish and Game representative contends that an endangered listing and critical habitat designation carry the potential for wide-ranging, complex and difficult-to-predict ramifications. That step should only be taken if absolutely necessary and scientifically sound, and state government believes the situation with belugas may not be there yet.

NMFS has determined the population of Cook Inlet belugas to be distinct and endangered. Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration is questioning both decisions.

“The state, when that listing decision was announced, expressed our disappointment. We felt it was a bit premature,” said Douglas Vincent-Lang, special projects coordinator for Fish and Game’s Research and Technical Services division, at a briefing for the Kenai River Special Management Area’s habitat committee on Jan. 11, in Soldotna. “The state filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue over that decision. That doesn’t mean we’re going to sue, but it doesn’t mean we’re not going to sue. … We’re looking very carefully at those two questions. Whether or not they’ve answered them, not so much procedurally, but did they answer them in a scientifically sound manner?”

As Vincent-Lang explained the state’s concerns about the data and research that the NMFS, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is using, Fish and Game’s position was being questioned, as well. Ken Tarbox, a retired research project leader for Fish and Game’s upper Cook Inlet commercial fisheries division and member of the habitat committee, wanted to know what data and research Fish and Game is using to question NMFS and NOAA.

“The models indicate the population is in a negative growth mode and if you’re saying it’s going in a positive growth mode, I’m wondering where the science is to support that position.” Tarbox said. “I’m not saying there’s not uncertainty, I’m just saying that I can look at NOAA’s science. I’m looking for Fish and Game’s science, and you’re telling me it’s not done yet.”

Job market in need of boost

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

If finding a job tops the Christmas wish list for central Kenai Peninsula residents this year, that may be a tall order to fill, as rising unemployment continues to plague the Kenai Peninsula.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s latest economic report noted the unemployment rate at 11 percent in October, with 2,871 people reportedly out of work. That’s higher than the statewide average of 8.3 percent, and higher than the borough’s unemployment rate in October 2008, which was 7.9 percent.

Winter is typically a slow time of year for employment, with seasonal job losses in fishing, construction, tourism and other industries finishing up in September and few new positions opening until spring. This year is further complicated by effects of the nationwide recession being felt locally, as well as oil industry job losses, including Chevron’s announcement in November that the company would be cutting an estimated 25 positions from its local oil operations.

“Quite honestly, we’ve been very busy,” said Val Ischi, employment specialist at the Peninsula Job Center in Kenai. “We’ve had a lot of job seekers in the Job Center looking for work, trying to get their resumes together, and that’s for any jobs that we’ve got coming in. And this time of year, it’s tough. It’s right before the holidays and I would say, as a general rule, in all the years I’ve been here, our job orders are limited at this time of year.

“Obviously we’ve had some significant layoffs in the area. We’re a seasonal area to begin with, and so that makes it even tougher, especially this time of year,” she said.

From that perspective, Ischi said the Job Center is looking forward to a blue-and-gold bright spot of the horizon — the new Wal-Mart supercenter in Kenai, slated to open this spring. Wal-Mart has said it expects the store to need between 200 and 300 employees.

Angling numbers show sinking trend

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

If the number of fishing licenses sold over the course of the past two summers is any indication, Southcentral Alaska’s draw for sportfishing is in a bit of a slump.

The region saw 18,000 fewer fishermen between 2007 and 2008, with projections for this year running relatively similar.

In 2007, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game recorded 270,426 sportfishing licenses sold. A year later — at the height of the nation’s spiked fuel prices — 252,149 were counted. Homer’s take of those was 23,936 in 2007, with 21,333 sold in 2008. The area generated $792,639 for the state in 2007, and then dropped to $708,060 in 2008.

So far in 2009, of the 24,157 licenses issued to Homer vendors, only 15,193 have been sold. This was the latest number available as of Sept. 10, and accounts for license sales through July.

The numbers, supplied by Susan Cloudy, the license accounting supervisor with Fish and Game’s department of administration, are just some of the statistics showing how Region II fares in license sales. A better picture of 2009’s numbers will not be compiled until March 2010, she said.

“It takes a crew of 10 people to compile all the state’s licensing stats,” Cloudy said. “And 2009 numbers are still trickling in by February.”

In comparison to other fishing hotspots on the Kenai Peninsula, Homer is second only to Soldotna in regard to licenses sold.

Soldotna sales generated $1.7 million in 2007, which fell to $1.6 million in 2008. The number of licenses likewise fell from 37,876 to 34,665.

Fighting the tides — Homeowners lose in battle with wind, water, erosion

Editor’s note: This is the second story in a series about bluff erosion.

Photo courtesy of Gary Williams, borough coastal district coordinator. Seawater surrounds houses built on Hawk’s Beach during a high tide in October 2007. The Hawk’s Beach subdivision has suffered severe erosion since houses were built there in the mid-1990s.

By Patrice Kohl
Redoubt Reporter

North of Anchor Point and south of Ninilchik, a grassy bench of land known as Hawk’s Beach once overlooked the surf from below a seaside bluff. It was the perfect place for sea lovers to build houses, or at least that’s what the families who purchased plots on the beach thought. Now a great deal of the bench is gone, and six out of the seven houses built on it remain.

Three of the houses hover precariously on stilts as high as 16 feet above the ground with water surging below them during high tides. Two houses stand surrounded by the destroyed remains of failed seawalls built to protect them.

Just one house remains standing on solid ground ringed by an intact seawall. One of the houses originally built on the beach was removed due to erosion.

The story of Hawk’s Beach teaches an acute lesson about the natural and manmade factors that shape landscapes through shoreline erosion.

Guest editorial — Economic collapse, bailout plan seem stranger than fiction

One of my favorite books of the past decade is “Confessions of an Economic Hitman.” Author John Perkins spent years working for global banks that lured Third World countries into taking out huge loans for hospitals, schools, highways, dams and other necessities, as well as luxuries. Superficially, this appeared benign if not altruistic. In reality, it was ultrapredatory lending aimed only at maximizing corporate profits.

Income from loan interest was but the iceberg’s tip. The modus operandi was convincing governments to borrow more than they could repay. When default occurred, the banks confiscated all collateral — for instance, land with diamonds, gold, timber or other resources — at a fraction of its market value. They also bought up industries at bargain rates.

Obviously, that couldn’t happen here in America. But it certainly would make a great plot for a conspiracy novel. Now that Mideastern countries control banks with more money than Allah, I could easily imagine them lending our federal and state governments massive amounts of money for domestic projects and (in the case of the feds) for foreign aid and wars. Then there are loans to businesses and to private individuals for home mortgages and on credit cards. Finally, when America is overextended beyond all redemption, the global banks would jerk out the rug and bring our economy down like a house of cards — much as the Soviet Union came crashing down after being bankrupted by their war in Afghanistan.

Enriching the credit crisis theme would be subplots about lobbyists blocking attempts to make America energy-independent and about selling out our leadership in technological innovation by letting our universities train foreign students in critical sciences, math and engineering, while American students watch TV, play video games and fantasize about automatic riches from careers on Wall Street or as music stars and professional athletes.

Once countries with cheap labor had enough highly educated personnel, as well as the Internet, massive outsourcing would be inevitable. Other subplots would involve global crime syndicates like those documented in books like “McMafia” (Misha Glenny), “Crimes of Patriots” (Jonathan Kwitny), “Legacy of Ashes” (Tim Weiner), and “Crossing the Rubicon: Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil” (Michael Ruppert).

Writing those parts of the novel would be easy. But where to go from there? Would the ultrawealthy banks buy up America on the cheap, injecting money back into our economy, but ever after controlling our politics through lobbyists? That in turn would give them control of our military to enforce their will worldwide. Or would the banks simply leave us a smoking ruin, at the mercy of some newly emergent Mideastern superpower?

Finally, depending on which of those scenarios I chose to follow, how could we ever regain control of our economy, government and democracy? And what role would be played by the Federal Reserve — a private corporation beholden less to the American public, than to its own stockholders?

Brick wall. I’m not an economist, a banker or a business mogul. Envisioning the bare bones of the story was easy. But fleshing it out was beyond me. Anyway, it seemed too far-fetched even for fiction. So I shelved the project, hoping that someone like Tom Clancy would one day pick up on it and develop a first-rate thriller. Little did I dream of how far America was already overextended on borrowing, or how fast and far our economy could plunge. Nor did I imagine that we would funnel hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout welfare back into the same banks that caused the collapse; and then consider giving control of those banks to the Fed. Talk about truth being more bizarre than fiction!

Fortunately, available evidence blames Wall Street’s problems on mistakes by our fellow Americans, not on some global conspiracy. Yet, looked at from a novelist’s perspective, I can’t but wonder whether there’s more going on than meets the eye, and whether evidence against conspiracy is really strong enough to make the novel totally implausible — assuming anyone would have money to buy my novel, should I ever get it written and published.

Now we’ve got a real-world crisis to solve, without much idea what or who can get it done. In novels, most world-shaking crises are solved by a hero like James Bond. In real life, who can we rely on? Barack Obama and his team? Or, heaven forbid, you and me? “The inquiring mind wonders.”

Dr. Stephen Stringham earned his mater of science degree at the University of Alaska studying moose and his doctorate degree studying bears. He is the author of five books on Alaska’s wildlife.