Ugashik Lagoon

As parts of the US have had mild weather, then killer storms, and some parts of Alaska are getting buried by record snows the Alaska Peninsula has had just ‘heavy’ snows and a long cold snap.

As usually the case for our part of Alaska when we get these cold snaps we usually get lots of bright sunshine!

SunDogs in January

It makes for some great opportunities to enjoy the abundant wildlife .

A neighbor!

One resident, Robert Dreezsen, and his wife live in an area of the Alaska Peninsula many do not venture into during our coldest months. He has agreed to share some of his great pictures with all of you. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

A pair of eagles seen fairly often in the area.

A couple of our favorite blogs have changed their “homes” recently. We would like to congratulate them on their new digs and encourage you to look at the the projects they’ve taken on since moving.

Bill Hess , Alaskan photographer and blogger extraordinaire (amongst all his other accomplishments and activities ) has moved from his delightful Wasilla by 300…  to a more photograph friendly set up at Logbook -Alaska, Wasilla, Beyond.   The quality of the visuals on his new site are blow-your-shorts-off better . Bill is the same , thank heavens, and has created another wonderful place to visit.

Saima of Kotzebue had started a blog about raising chickens in the far north at Tundra Chicks in 2009 on a Blogger platform. This last October she moved to a WordPress platform and the new tundrachicks  promises to continue to delight as a window on her chicken projects as well as family life .

The links in our blogroll on our Home Page lead to the new homes our neighbors have moved to and we hope you stop by and see what they are up to!

A Welcome Smile

Search terms which bring  folks to Anonymous Bloggers tend to be fairly predictable. People who have questions about Alaskan Salmon, cold climate housing, cold climate gardening, and fishing issues stop by regularly since they tend to choose  those terms for searching.

We see folks regularly popping in to read the little bit we have about subsistence issues, alternative energy info, and so on.

Sometimes a term just makes us wonder though, wonder how it got people here and what they got out of their visit.

In this last few days “just found out alaska is not an island” has brought someone(s) to visit here 3 times.

I laughed until I almost cried when I saw that in the Search Engine Terms list in the background here.

It reminded me of so many funny and sometimes frustrating attempts to get things shipped into or out of Southeast Alaska, trying to explain we don’t have UPS Ground because we don’t have any roads ,well yes, we have local roads, but there is no road into or out of Southeast, no, we’re not nearer Hawaii than Seattle, the barges which serve us come out of Seattle, yes, we are mostly islands but also part of the continental United States while not being part of the contiguous United States… Agh!

I remembered opening a gift at Christmas when I was 6 and how my excitement  turned to horror when I really looked at it . It was a map puzzle of America and Alaska was an island off in the South Pacific ! My ma assured me with a smile that Alaska hadn’t fallen off  the continent but I never did put that puzzle piece back in that place. I  laid it north of  Washington State and taped it on so it wouldn’t fall off ever again!

We appreciate everyone who stops by, even and especially those who remind us in unconventional ways of how much we treasure this place, this Alaska, this non-island on the huge island of North America.

Thanks for stopping by.

UgaVic and I hope to talk about a number of the issues surrounding CDQs and the upcoming review in the coming weeks.

We thought it might be best to start  with a very basic overview of the CDQ program- to refresh the memory of those who know about it already, as well as   provide a framework for those who have never heard of it.

Setting the blade on high and risking leaving some very rough patches as I blaze over the subject but hoping to be somewhat inclusive of any folks who have never heard of CDQs I will make a flying run at it all.
CDQ, Community Development Quota , is the federal legislative response to concern by small communities on the Bering Sea in relation to their ability to partake in the catch share programs in federal waters off the coast they live on.
The law established that a percentage of  yearly allowable catch , in multiple fisheries, be set aside for these villages who could not and would not be eligible for shares under the rules established for allocation of shares otherwise because of their historical lack of presence in the fisheries . (Their lack of presence , the whys, hows, and wherefores is a piece of the whole but needs a post by itself) )
Six regional non-profits were organized to manage the monies derived from the profits the sales of the set aside quota made. The ones I’ve had occasion to cross paths with are organized as 501(c)(4)s -social welfare-but I have never checked to see if all six are. Member villages  have representatives in the regional corporations. Each CDQ entity has bylaws governing how those representatives are chosen.
As often happens, the term CDQ began to stand for the organizations themselves as well as the program  so there’s a lot of flinging around of the term which gets confusing.
The law required that all CDQs have Community Development Plans and limited investments , outside of monies earmarked for education opportunities for stakeholders in their villages, to fishery infrastructure and support related projects.
It also required yearly state oversight of the CDPs to see if  intent and reality matched
Within a few years , some of the CDQs started fishing their own quota rather than receiving the monies  from sale of their quota, by investing as partners in other companies or buying their own boats/ships/processor companies. This was hailed as win-win as they  were then in the position of being able to provide employment opportunities to their stakeholders as well.
Along the way , the law was changed to drop yearly state oversight, lengthen reporting time between CDPs,  and allow for some non-fisheries related investment amongst other changes.
Some CDQs now  have large for-profit corporations  which operate as “feeders” of monies to the parent non-profits.There have been wrangles over how much information the “feeders” do or do not share with their parent non-profits and stakeholders, as well as how much  information the CDQ entities must share with their stakeholders .

People ask about  what  the real benefits to CDQ communities are/ might be – it’s not simple to answer.
Many of the metrics used to measure benefit fall into what I think of as taking the temperature of the picture of the people on the box the thermometer came in.
They are measures of dollars piled up, spread around, employment figures without full context, glossies of completed projects, and so on.

The current  law says :

(H) DECENNIAL REVIEW AND ADJUSTMENT OF ENTITY ALLOCATIONS.—

(i) IN GENERAL.—During calendar year 2012 and every 10 years thereafter, the State of Alaska shall evaluate the performance of each entity participating in the program based on the criteria described in clause (ii).

(ii) CRITERIA.—The panel shall establish a system to be applied under this subparagraph that allows each entity participating in the program to assign relative

values to the following criteria to reflect the particular needs of its villages:

(I) Changes during the preceding 10-year period in population, poverty level, and economic development in the entity’s member villages.

(II) The overall financial performance of the entity, including fishery and nonfishery investments by the entity.

(III) Employment, scholarships, and training supported by the entity.

(IV) Achieving of the goals of the entity’s community development plan.

At this point, the State of Alaska is attempting to develop a way to evaluate performance and looking to funding to perform the review.

Many stakeholders in member villages feel that the weaknesses identified in this 1999 report have never been addressed and should be integrated in meaningful measure in the upcoming evaluation process.

“Perhaps the greatest weakness of the CDQ program as implemented is lack of open, consistent communication between the CDQ groups and the communities they represent, particularly a lack of mechanisms for substantial input from the communities into the governance structures. There has also been a lack of outreach by the state to the communities to help ensure that the communities are aware of the program and how to participate. Some controversy has surrounded the uncertainty about the intended beneficiaries of the program—essentially, whether the program is intended primarily for the Native Alaskan residents of the participating communities, and, if not, review the governance structures to ensure that non-native participation is possible. “

I think stakeholders are correct here. Accepting what these CDQ entities say about their own performance, weighted at their own discretion, creates  a very narrow window on what might be called “success” .

With that in mind, I do not think we will be able to judge clearly whether the CDQs are really benefitting their communities if we cannot extend or adjust the way we measure success and benefit to include criteria for judgment not normally employed by “blue ribbon panels”  or self interested self-reporting.

Stakeholders and their communities , the supposed beneficiaries of “success’ must have  a place at the table, a part in the evaluation process, for the process to be credible.

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postscript 

 I have skipped right on by anything to do with the uproar over CDQs participating in trawl fisheries which are suspected of damaging other fisheries including subsistence fishing but it is an important aspect of questioning real benefit as well

As some of us have started our holiday celebrations and others are still preparing, we here at AB want to wish everyone much happiness, warmth, joy and love during this celebration time.

 

The lifeblood of rural Alaska !!

Although this is a glimpse into one particular event that can, and does, happen in ‘bush” Alaska something tells me almost anyone can relate, especially if in a committed relationship! Just think about this incident like the car, washing machine, etc., that will for sure die when the partner that is  most familiar with it leaves town, usually within 24 hours of said leaving.

The beginning was simple and predictable enough. Spouse and I were in the ‘big’ city, Anchorage, a few weeks ago for some business. Since winter was also almost upon us I had made a lengthy list of things I felt we needed to get to make sure at least the start of the winter was survivable.

We were lucky enough to get one whole day, the use of a car and have two able bodied adults, to just run errands, something that almost never happens. (Usually you are cramming personal things like errands into lunch hours, evenings after meetings or even super early times due to other commitments. Most times there is also only one of us in town at the time)

A trip, or even two, to one of the big wholesale food, clothing, books, and whatever else they can think of to offer stores is ALWAYS on the list when coming in from the bush! Trips to a big box tool store, the ‘regular’ grocery store, some specialty tool places and of course the last place we all end up at, the airport post office to get all items heading home are also on the list of ‘must dos’.

So, back to the beginning, spouse and I were in town, had time and were off to get a few things done. Knowing that most items I had on the list could be gotten at the big discount store we head there first. While tromping the aisles, moving quickly but trying to see if there were items of need they had that you had not thought of (so often called impulse buying and what gets so many of us in hot water) we come to the automotive, batteries, mundane and expensive but needed section. I look at the rack of batteries, car/truck type, not camera type and my list with notes on it. I reach for a battery and spouse asks what I am getting. I explain that I usually try to get us at least 2 new batteries sometime during the summer as back-ups for the winter and this year I had not gotten it done yet. I am then informed that these are the ‘wrong’ kind. Given I have bought these from the same place year after year, had made notes of previous purchases, I was not convinced. Also realizing that this was not the time or place to ignore said comments I ask a few questions like. “well what type do you want to get?” The type mentioned was not there, of course. I voiced that given that we surely must make some time to check another place and get them before we leave as being without back-up batteries is not a lesson I need to relearn. Agreement was reached. At that time my inner voice, OK actually ALARM voice, said,”you better keep at this as spouse is likely to forget, ignore and overall leave us without back-up batteries since he had not lived “the lesson learning” time in a number of years”….meaning spouse would not be the one stuck ‘up the river without a paddle’.

This is the same as the time all of you have mentioned to a loved one, ‘shouldn’t we get a new washer hose soon as that one is leaking’, or ‘the noise in the car is happening more often and louder’ and been told not to worry they would take care of it can relate, I am sure.

So fast forward a few weeks to a month, the spouse heads out of town for a few days, no biggie as this has already happened a few times this year and goes on all winter.

Of course that first night the first good snow fall hits, causing 2-3 foot drifts and temperatures that are now much closer to 0 than freezing.

Spouse has been gone about 30 hours, things are running smoothly and you are about done for the day. Having buttoned up all outside activities, gotten the dogs inside, eaten dinner and settled in with a good book….alas the power goes off! Given we produce all our own power, be it from the diesel generator or some renewable energy (RE) system this is not a matter of waiting for someone else to deal with it. (The RE system happened to be waiting for spouse to replace a part that had arrived while gone and thus was not operational for these few days)

Now this could be a matter of running out of fuel, unlikely but still possible, a battery issue or something even worse like a blown seal. On go sweats, heavy socks-as this could be involve a lot of walking back and forth through drifted snow, clunky big winter boots, hat, ear muffs, big jacket, and gloves. Flashlight is unhooked from the power source (another relatable story for later about how always having a working flashlight is a MUST) and off to tromp to the generator building.

Thank heavens spouse has listened and an emergency light box is in the shed and working like a champ. There is enough light to at least see where to walk and equipment fairly well. Fuel is checked, low but OK, so onto the control panel/start switch. It looks to have vibrated off its normal place and fallen onto the top of the battery. Sure enough once righting things the switch is turned and it is determined quickly the battery is dead. Close by is another battery that had been hooked up to the charger so things look like they will be easy to remedy.

After a couple of different changes of batteries it is determined either none have enough life in them to start a dead generator OR the connections cannot be made tight enough to get enough juice to the generator to start.

Desire to return to a warm house, and probably soon to bed, overrules any desire to spend the next hour or two trying to right things that night.

A quick call is made to spouse to enlighten about said situation at home. Only an answering machine is gotten and two messages updating on what happened and attempts to right it are made. (Don’t worry, having lived through these things any number of times over the years we have back-up heating, telephone, radio and a light or two that can either run without electricity or are hooked to a 12 volt system in the house. All of this, most times, can keep things comfortable and communication going for a minimum of 24 hours)

Dragging the phone extension up near the bed everyone settles in for the night. About 15 minutes later comes a return call from spouse. All remedies attempted are explained in more detail and plans laid for early morning attempts. It is settled that the house is warm enough and will stay that way, everyone is safe and spouse will head home the next day unless early morning suggested new remedies are successful.

The night proves uneventful, no winds kick up to cause damage to items needing electricity to maintain integrity and animals figure out that making noise to get up at 5 AM is not going to result in anyone getting up to turn on the lights and feed them.

Once the sun is up far enough to actually help with seeing items, all the possible remedies are attempted. In the course of these attempts are searches for tools, since said spouse has borrowed your tools so many times and failed to return them you no longer having any. There are obstacles that result in you stumbling, remember those clunky boots, and setting a 100# battery down just hard enough to break a cell and have battery acid form a pool on the generator building floor (yes, we have soda handy to keep this from being more dangerous than batteries already are) and hook-ups on the last battery tried do require additional parts not readily available. By mid-morning, after a number of calls to spouse, any attempts to play junior mechanic are done and a hot cup of tea is being enjoyed inside.

Spouse will be home in a few hours, probably righting things is less than an hour, the sun is shining, the house is warm and we WILL be getting a couple of back-up batteries purchased and out here ASAP. No ‘I told you so’ will be necessary but some inner voice says that next time it is suggested that we get an item as back-up there will be compliance.

The river is showing some serious 'ice building' on this 9 degree day.

Well after being battered by storms these last few weeks all up and down at least the west coast of Alaska we are wondering if this is how our entire winter is going to play itself out.

For those of us on the Alaska Peninsula and Bristol Bay the weather has actually been pretty mild in many areas with only a few cold snaps, into the 20s and not a lot of snow. The  storms have had lots of rain and sleet associated with winds upwards of 70+ kt.  So when this real ‘cold snap’ hit we were all a little surprised.  We had become accustomed already to watching for winds speeds and not paying too much attention to temperatures.

We had been harvesting the last of the outside cold tolerant crops like cabbage, any potatoes left in the ground and covering the perennials that we are attempting to grow through the winter these last few weeks.

This week was the time to see if the things we are trying to grow and  harvest late into the winter are going to make it or if our efforts were now killed with these hard freezes. Ground temperatures are holding right now at 34/35 degrees even through the night, as measured by probes down about 6″-8″ under the surface inside the high tunnels.

Late fall planted greens under row cover and making it through the first few freezes and so far at least one single digit night and day.

So far, so good. We clipped a salad from the chard (rainbow) just a few evenings ago, letting these greens get bigger and pulled a few other things.

The last bits of cold tolerant crops, as they have been now clipped off by the chickens.

In our high tunnels we still have green onions, some spinach and carrots still being harvested. I was told a week or so ago that at least one high tunnel grower in Dillingham was still getting kale, and a number of other crops the last week in October. They generally have colder, wetter weather than we do further south in this part of Bristol Bay, even being only about 50 miles away by way the crow flies.

The last few years have been fast-moving as a lot more information is being shared, projects considered, even other set of high tunnels in our tiny village, and generally an effort to be more sustainable in our own areas.

We will keep you posted on how the winter efforts go to furnish at least part of our own fresh things up here in Alaska!

Sunrise over Juneau

Ahhhh, that time of year, when we turn back the clock an hour. Here is Alaska it seems it is also the time of year when you consider giving into your natural rhythms of spending just a tad more time in bed or moving at a slower pace seems to kick in too.

Fall Color

Despite the general perception not all of Alaska goes totally dark for the winter, or for that matter has 24 hour daylight in the summer. That particular yearly event only happens to those areas near the Arctic Circle and it does not happen for the entire winter. Barrow, a city at the top of the state, has a two month period in the winter when it doesn’t have a sunrise but on the flip side they get about 85 days of continuous sun during part of the summer. Most of us deal, just like you, with less daylight and chilly temperatures for the next 5-6 months.

Night lights

 Typically this is the time of year when families get to spend time ice fishing, sewing on winter gear, and a host of other activities. Winter festivals and potlatches happen before spring arrives. Mostly we try to slow down enough to enjoy all the ‘good things’ most wonder if they get enough of in other parts of the country. The turning back the clock an hour just gives us another clue we are entering that time of year.

I found this at the Discovery website:

ARCTIC WINDS
Premiere: Oct 28, 2011

John Ponts fights heavy turbulence and angry passengers on a flight through the Nulato Hills. Jim and Ferno’s leave the terminal in the hands of the pilots and Sarah’s flight to rescue a villager lost in a storm turns into a battle for her own survival.

A couple of other links are “‘Flying Wild Alaska’ set to premiere season 2″ which you can find here and, “What to expect in season two of ‘Flying Wild Alaska’” found here.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to go stock up on some popcorn!

The ADN is saying results should be posted online by 10 PM this evening and that turnout was high as expected.

Update:

In unofficial results, the Save Our Salmon initiative passed in the Lake and Peninsula Borough 280 to 246. The Borough Assembly is due to certify the election results at it’s October 24th meeting.

 Alaska’s Dispatch’s Amanda Coyne reports on the results and background of the initiative  as does  Sean Cockerham at the ADN in the updated  article linked above.

Oct 5

Municipal elections were held yesterday across the state. In my borough we had our results within hours with the exception of an Assembly seat too close to call before absentee ballots are counted. Far flung Lake and Peninsula Borough conducts elections entirely through the  mail  so it will be a bit before we will hear what the outcome of the vote on the so-called Save Our Salmon initiative is.

Lake and Peninsula Borough ballots must be postmarked on or before October 4, 2011 to be valid. At least one village within the borough only gets mail in and out twice  a week, weather permitting, so the window for return of completed  ballots is necessarily wider than it might be elsewhere.

Oct 7

Whatever the outcome of the vote in Lake and Pen is, I’ve learned a lot in the last few months about how we are organized as communities within the state here in Alaska. I kinda, sorta, knew some of it but had never tried to look at all of it with a view towards  competing interests between local and state entities.

For all I’ve learned, I also realize I still know very little.

In March of this year, with permission , we reprinted Initiative Would Halt Large Scale Resource Extraction  from The Bristol Bay Times.

This was the first run at getting an initiative on the Lake and Peninsula ballot . It was not certified for the ballot as it included language which was an obvious attempt to “define the jurisdiction of courts or prescribe their rules” which is prohibited under law governing initiatives and referendums here.

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From Alaska Statutes Title 29, Chapter 26- Elections

Article 2. Initiative and Referendum.

Sec. 29.26.100. Reservation of powers. The powers of initiative and referendum are reserved to the residents of municipalities, except the powers do not extend to matters restricted by art. XI, sec. 7 of the state constitution. (emphasis mine) (§ 9 ch 74 SLA 1985

Sec. 29.26.110. Application for petition.
 (a) An initiative or referendum is proposed by filing an application with the municipal clerk containing the ordinance or resolution to be initiated or the ordinance or resolution to be referred and the name and address of a contact person and an alternate to whom all correspondence relating to the petition may be sent. An application shall be signed by at least 10 voters who will sponsor the petition. An additional sponsor may be added at any time before the petition is filed by submitting the name of the sponsor to the clerk. Within two weeks the clerk shall certify the application if the clerk finds that it is in proper form and, for an initiative petition, that the matter

      (1) is not restricted by AS 29.26.100;

      (2) includes only a single subject;

      (3) relates to a legislative rather than to an administrative matter; and

      (4) would be enforceable as a matter of law.

(b) A decision by the clerk on an application for petition is subject to judicial review. (§ 9 ch 74 SLA 1985; am § 9 ch 80 SLA 1989)

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As per restrictions in Section 29.26.100, Article XI, Section 7  of the Alaska State Constitution reads:

7. Restrictions

The initiative shall not be used to dedicate revenues, make or repeal appropriations, create courts, define the jurisdiction of courts or prescribe their rules, or enact local or special legislation. (emphasis mine) The referendum shall not be applied to dedications of revenue, to appropriations, to local or special legislation, or to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety.

__________________________________

There was talk at the time that it also attempted to “enact local or special legislation” but the very obvious problem with language about what courts must do was adequate to deny certification.

The second proposed initiative backed off describing what courts must do and focussed on legislating under the borough’s planning powers in a broad enough manner to avoid appearing as “local or special legislation” ( within the meaning that the Pebble Mine was not being targeted specifically but that all resource extraction over 640 acres -1 square mile- was being addressed)   and to the extent that it was certified by the borough clerk.

The Pebble Limited Partnership filed motions for  summary judgment  against allowing the initiative on Lake and Pen’s ballot  for being unenforceable.

The arguments vary but they tend to turn on whether the borough can enforce a law which disallows major resource extraction on state land within the borders of the borough.

In late July, Superior Court Judge John Suddock deferred a ruling on the PLP’s motions for summary judgement.

The Bristol Bay Times reported that :

“Suddock said the issue of enforceability as a matter of law turns on the applicability of two decisions of the Alaska Supreme Court holding that proposed zoning ordinances could not be enacted via the initiative process. “Both decisions reasoned that the legislatively imposed requirements for participation by land use planning commissions in zoning matters preclude voter initiatives absent such involvement,” Suddock wrote.

“But those decisions arise in the context of land use planning statutes applicable to general law municipalities and boroughs, the judge said.

“Those statutes do not apply to a home rule borough such as the borough here,” he said.

“Further the two decisions address zoning, rather than more general land use provisions.”

Suddock also took into consideration the Alaska Supreme Court announcement of a policy of pre-election judicial deference to initiatives absent controlling adverse authority.”