Author: kfskadmin

Longtime friends and colleagues gathered to build a casket for Glen Ith in Petersburg this week. Ith was a Forest Service Wildlife Biologist who became prominent in recent years for successfully challenging some of his agency's timber-sale work on the Tongass. Those close to Ith knew him as a quiet, family man whose love and respect for the outdoors guided his personal and professional life. He passed away unexpectedly this week of Sudden Cardiac Death, which is when the heart abruptly stops. Ith was 48 years old.

Petersburg’s high school jazz band took second place honors for their performance in the small schools division at the Lionel Hampton jazz festival in Moscow, Idaho last week. Petersburg sends its jazz band to the international festival every other year to listen to renowned musicians, learn from prominent educators and have their performances critiqued alongside other schools. Matt Lichtenstein spoke with teacher Matt Lenhard and some of his band members about the trip:

Of the one-point-seven million acres of land within the Petersburg ranger district, 200 thousand acres are congressionally-designated wilderness. The forest service manager who oversees that wilderness along with the cabin, trail and recreation programs on the district is Brad Hunter, who has served in Petersburg since 1985.The Alaska region of the forest service recently recognized Hunter for his part in a ten year effort to improve the agency’s stewardship of wilderness at a district, Tongass-wide and national level. Matt Lichtenstein sat down with Brad Hunter to talk about the challenges of wilderness management in Alaska:

A local performance of “The Vagina Monologues” played to a full house over the weekend in Petersburg. The production and accompanying art auction raised over 5 thousand dollars, mainly from ticket receipts. Most of the money will benefit Women's Aid in Violent Emergencies. Wave is a local, a non-profit group dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence in Petersburg. Ten percent of the proceeds will go towards the v-day campaign, an international movement to stop violence against women. The movement was prompted by the monologues, a collection of interviews playwright Eve Ensler collected from hundreds of women. It’s the tenth anniversary of the play which is performed in towns large and small around the world. Matt Lichtenstein stopped by during a Petersburg rehearsal and produced this audio postcard:

The fast pace of this year’s session has prompted concern among legislators. Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are questioning whether too much public process is being sacrificed in order to meet the new 90-day deadline. Supporters of the shorter session say it’s making the process more efficient.