Close Encounter of the Whale Kind
This unidentified kayaker recently had an unexpected bird's eye view of humpback whales when they surfaced during bubble feeding in the Clover Pass area.
Front Page Photo By MIKE SMITH

Ketchikan: Seventy Years Ago, Bodding Survived Crash in Canada; Death of other flyers helped him and passenger survive A feature story By DAVE KIFFER - Despite the fact that the north country has vast expanses of nearly unexplored territory, it is not unheard of for airplanes to crash not far from other downed planes.

Bud Bodding 1940
Bud Bodding Collection Photo

First of all, there are “routes” that many pilots follow, especially in the most challenging areas, particularly the narrow mountain passes that connect Alaska.

And there are also the tragic situations in which a plane will crash while a pilot is searching for another plane, often when going in closer after spotting the potential wreckage of the first crash.

But the odds of two completely unrelated crashes taking place at the same small coastal location are akin to lighting striking the same person twice.

Yet, that was just the case 70 years ago this fall and it involved one of Ketchikan’s most famous pilots, Gerald “Bud” Bodding, also known as "Father Goose," for his decades of piloting Grumman Goose amphibians for Ellis Airilines.

In the 2010 book “Alaska’s Father Goose” published four years after Bodding’s 2006 death, he calls the dual crashes in October 1941 on British Columbia’s Salal Island “one of the strangest adventures in the flying history of the north.”

Salal Island is three by five mile island adjacent to Lady Douglas Island in Milbanke Sound, one of the few open stretches of water on the Inside Passage. It is north of Vancouver Island just off the Queen Charlotte Sound. It is roughly half way between the small communities of Bella Bella and Klemtu.

On October 20, 1941, Bodding had left Seattle after a month’s vacation. He was piloting a single engine Waco float plane that he was planning to deliver to a friend in Alaska. His passenger was an Oregon banker named Harry Sherman, who just happened to be the brother of Ellis Air Line’s maintenance vice president Jack Sherman. - More...
Monday PM - October 31, 2011

Southeast Alaska: Federal appeals court affirms decision in favor of Forest Service in Logjam lawsuit; Forest Service timber project analysis complies with environmental laws - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Logjam Timber Sale Project complies with federal environmental laws. In doing so, the court of appeals affirmed an earlier decision of a federal district court upholding the Tongass National Forest’s environmental analyses of the project.

In its decision Friday, the 9th Circuit found that the U.S. District Court properly granted summary judgment to the Forest Service. The 9th Circuit, summarily rejecting the plaintiffs’ arguments, held that the plaintiffs failed to show that the Final Environmental Impact Statement under the National Environmental Policy Act was flawed, or that the Forest Service failed to take the requisite “hard look” at the environmental consequences of the Logjam Project.

The Ninth Circuit held that the Logjam Project, which includes several timber sales, complied with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which requires federal agencies to assess the impacts of activities on federal lands.

The court found that the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that the Forest Service prepared took a “hard look” at the environmental impacts of the project, which provides for timber harvest on 3,422 acres of forestland and the construction of 22 miles of roads on Prince of Wales Island.

At stake was the future of the Viking Lumber Co., a family-owned small business that has been one of the largest year-round employers on Prince of Wales Island since 1994. More than 100 jobs in Alaska and Washington state were at risk. Without the “Logjam” timber sales that were given final approval under this ruling, Viking Lumber Co., the only mid-sized mill operating in Southeast, would not have had enough timber to continue operations and the economies of several Alaskan communities would have been negatively impacted.

Viking Lumber Company of Craig, which with the State of Alaska intervened in the case on behalf of the Forest Service, had already purchased the Diesel timber sale when the lawsuit began and subsequently purchased the Slake timber sale. Both sales are part of the Logjam Project. Several groups that brought the lawsuit (the Tongass Conservation Society, Greenpeace Inc., and Cascadia Wildlands) sought to stop the timber sales throughout the course of the suit but the court allowed the sales to continue during the suit. - More...
Monday PM - October 31, 2011

Fish Factor: State denies citizens’ petition aimed at protecting Cook Inlet fisheries from coal mining By LAINE WELCH - It took nearly two years for a decision, but recently the state denied a citizens’ petition aimed at protecting Cook Inlet fisheries from coal mining. The petition, by the Chuitna Citizens Coalition and Cook InletKeeper asked that buffer zones be required to protect salmon streams of the Chuitna River should a coal mine be built.  In a 109 page, Dept. of Natural Resources commissioner Dan Sullivan claimed the petitioners’ request would ‘ban all surface coal mining on these lands.’ 

The Chuitna strip mine, so called because it removes wetlands and land overlay, would be the largest coal mine in Alaska.  Plans by developer PacRim of Delaware call for removal of 11 miles of Middle Creek, an important salmon spawning stream.   PacRim claims it will be able to restore the stream after 25 years of strip mining. DNR’s Sullivan said he agrees such reclamation of areas affected by strip coal mining is possible.

Deputy DNR Commissioner Ed Fogels said the citizens’ petition would have called a halt to the permitting process.  

“We decided there is simply not enough evidence to say there is no way you can reclaim the land, and we were not about to pull the plug on this thorough environmental impact process. And that is the appropriate place to make these decisions as to whether reclamation can be done properly and in accordance with the law,” he told APRN.

United Fishermen of Alaska, the nation’s largest commercial fishing trade group, was disappointed with the DNR petition denial. - More...
Monday PM - October 31, 2011

Alaska: City of King Cove Celebrates its 100-year anniversary - The City of King Cove celebrated its 100-year anniversary this past weekend. The two-day celebration included honoring the community's elders, visits from U.S. and Alaska lawmakers, a banquet, contests, games and fireworks.

Friday, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell, Alaska Senator Lyman Hoffman and Representative Bryce Edgmon arrived in King Cove to take part in the festivities. The school choir serenaded the delegates with America the Beautiful. The King Cove Aleut Dancers also performed for the special guests. Afterwards, Murkowski and Mead shared remarks with residents about the celebration, the City's rich history and its bright future.

Later Friday, King Cove residents were treated to a banquet. The community's elders were honored with biographies and photos adorning the walls of the multi-purpose room.  During the evening, the community voted for the new City of King Cove flag design. There was also a photo contest. - More...
Monday PM - October 31, 2011

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