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Ash cloud rises over Alaskan volcano, canceling commercial and cargo flights
TransportAn Alaska volcano eruption is prompting regional airlines to cancel flights to nearby communities, including a town that reported traces of fallen ash. Pavlof Volcano released ash plumes as high as 22,000 feet over the weekend, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Clouds obscured the volcano Monday, but U.S. Geological Survey scientists said seismic instruments [...]
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Alaska’s interior cruise tourism turns from rail to bus to speed visits
TransportTwo tour companies are changing how they will move tourists in and out of Fairbanks. Princess Alaska Tours and Holland America told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that visitors to Denali National Park will cover the trip north to Fairbanks by bus rather than rail car starting in 2014. Princess will begin the change this year. Spokesman [...]
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Native Alaskan tribes use tourism to turn a profit and keep traditions alive
TransportAn Alaska Native village corporation that operates a popular cruise ship destination has launched a commercial consulting service for others seeking help developing their own cultural tourism ventures. Huna Totem Corp. opened Alaska Native Voices on Wednesday. Huna Totem is the village Native corporation for Hoonah — a largely Tlingit community of 775 in southeast [...]
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Alaska’s first cruise season with tougher emissions laws begins now
TransportMore than 1 million cruise ship passengers are expected to visit Alaska this year, but industry officials fear new fuel standards intended to limit pollution from large ships could drive vessels away and lower that number later. This will be the first full cruise season in Alaska under rules that require cargo carriers and cruise [...]
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Juneau, Alaska drops the politics to get ready for tourist season
TransportThe week after Alaska’s 90 day legislative session comes to a close, its capital seems to slow down and take a huge sigh of relief. Juneau’s streets are quieter, its restaurants are emptier; hotels are ghost towns. The city may seem like a sleepy town now, but in about a week or two, merchants will [...]
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Alaska’s ferry to nowhere could land in the Netherlands or U.S. Virgin Islands
TransportOne $80 million ice-breaking ferry, one $751,000 bid to buy it. The Matanuska-Sustina Borough, trying to rid itself of the novel ferry it once embraced but has never used, received just a single bid by the noon Friday deadline. It doesn’t have to accept it. The vessel was completed in 2011 and born out of [...]
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U.S. federal judge tosses challenges to roadless national forests in Alaska
DestinationsA federal judge ruled Monday that the Parnell administration was more than four years too late in filing its 2011 lawsuit challenging the Forest Service’s roadless policy. “The plaintiffs’ case must be dismissed as untimely,” said U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in Washington, D.C., in tossing Alaska’s claims. The roadless rule challenged in the lawsuit [...]
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Northern lights tourism is booming in Alaska this season
DestinationsBill Carter had been planning his bucket-list winter vacation to Alaska for 30 years, and he couldn’t have picked a better time to take it. The retired chemist from Jesup, Ga., didn’t mind that February temperatures can hover near minus 40 degrees on the outskirts of Fairbanks, because the night sky there offered Carter something [...]
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Alaska state senate passes bill that lowers standards for cruise ship sewage
TransportA bill that would change how Alaska regulates cruise ship wastewater is on its way to the governor’s desk. The state Senate passed HB80 Tuesday, 15-5, following lengthy debate over whether Alaska waters and fisheries would be adequately protected. The vote had been pushed to Tuesday after several failed attempts to amend it last week. [...]
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Alaska state legislators roll back restrictions on cruise ship wastewater dumping
TransportThe Alaska House on Monday passed legislation that critics say would roll back requirements that cruise ships meet state water quality standards when dumping wastewater. The 27-9 vote followed unsuccessful efforts, led by minority Democrats, to amend HB80, including requiring the location, date and volume of discharged wastewater be posted online. Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, [...]
