February 13, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka residents say ‘No’ to genetically modified salmon during Feb. 9 rally

Size comparison of an AquAdvantage® Salmon (background) vs. a non-transgenic Atlantic salmon sibling (foreground) of the same age. (CREDIT AquaBounty)

Between 100 and 150 Sitka residents braved the wind and rain on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Crescent Harbor Shelter to protest the possible U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of genetically modified salmon (aka, GMO or GE salmon, or Frankenfish).

The rally (click here to listen to rally coverage from KCAW-Raven Radio) was in protest of a genetically engineered salmon from the Massachusetts company AquaBounty Technologies, called the AquAdvantage® Salmon. The GMO salmon starts with an Atlantic salmon commonly used in fish farms, but adds genes from a Pacific king (chinook) salmon to promote growth and genes from an eel-like fish called an ocean pout that grows all year round instead of seasonally. According to AquaBounty, all of the commercialized fish will be female and sterile, and the fish are designed to be raised in fresh-water pens or tanks on land instead of the usual salt-water pens where most farmed Atlantic salmon are raised. AquaBounty promotes the fish as a faster-growing farmed salmon that takes half the time to reach maturity and be sent to market. To learn more about GMO salmon, read our post from 2010.

Paul Rioux — the Sitka resident who organized the rally with the help of local fishing groups, the Sitka Conservation Society, and others — said fishermen are concerned about what happens if these GMO salmon escape from pens. He noted that while AquaBounty said the fish will be sterile, other scientists said as many as 5 percent could be fertile, and that’s enough so that the GMO salmon as an invasive species could replace wild Pacific salmon within 40 salmon generations. David Wilcox, a 14-year-old Sitka resident who plans to run across the country to protest GMO foods, spoke for the other residents who said they were concerned with genetically engineered fish in general, and they worried this fish might go to market without being labeled as GMO salmon. (Click here to listen to Rioux, Wilcox and Ray Friedlander of the Sitka Conservation Society discuss why they held the rally during a Feb. 8 Morning Edition interview on KCAW-Raven Radio.)

The FDA, which has been looking at GMO salmon for more than a decade (AquaBounty started work on the fish in 1989), announced in December it planned to approve the genetically engineered fish, just in time for the holidays. At the same time, the FDA finally released environmental impact research papers it was supposed to have released in May. The FDA announcement also started a 60-day public comment period that was supposed to end on Feb. 25. On Feb. 13, the FDA extended the comment period until April 26. Sitka residents are encouraged to go to Regulations.gov and search for “GE salmon” (not “GMO”) to comment on the regulations before the April 26 deadline.

Alaska’s Congressional delegation agrees on few items, but Sen. Mark Begich, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young have been united for a couple of years in their efforts to stop Frankenfish. Sen. Begich this week introduced two bills banning GMO salmon. Last May, Sen. Murkowski introduced an amendment (that failed 50-46) requiring more study of GMO salmon by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). In the House, Rep. Young has been one of the most vocal opponents of Frankenfish and in February he introduced a bill requiring GMO salmon be labeled. In the Alaska House of Representatives, Rep. Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage) and Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) introduced an anti-Frankenfish bill that passed out of the House Fisheries Committee this week.

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October 25, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Pacific High School’s local food meal featured on KCAW-Raven Radio

Photo courtesy of KCAW-Raven Radio

A special local food meal cooked and eaten by students at Pacific High School in Sitka was featured in a story by reporter Anne Brice on the Wednesday, Oct. 24, morning and evening newscasts on KCAW-Raven Radio.

October is National Farm To School Month, and Oct. 24 was Food Day, so the students cooked up a meal featuring coho salmon with a lemon swirl and dill pesto served on a bed of kale. The fish was provided as part of the Sitka Conservation Society’s Fish-to-Schools program (a 2010 Sitka Health Summit project), and the veggies and herbs came from Lori Adams’ Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden.

July 26, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Farmers Market shoppers treated to a preview of Bye Bye Birdie

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Shoppers at the second Sitka Farmers Market of the season on Saturday, July 21, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall were treated to a special preview of the musical comedy “Bye Bye Birdie,” which is being performed this weekend by students from the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.

The students, who only had 11 days to learn the play, performed three songs at the market. They will perform the full play three times this weekend, at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 27, at at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 28, at the Sitka Performing Arts Center (at Sitka High School). Tickets are $20. To learn more about the production, KCAW-Raven Radio recently had two stories about the show, one by camp counselor/photographer Berett Wilber and one by KCAW staff news reporter Ed Ronco. The show also was the interview subject of the Morning Edition interview Thursday morning, July 26, on KCAW.

September 12, 2011 by Charles Bingham

• Fish to Schools program to serve fish lunches at two schools twice a month

The Fish to Schools program will kick off this year’s schedule of serving fish lunches at school on Wednesday, Sept. 14.

Local fish lunches will be served every second and fourth Wednesday of the month at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary and Blatchley Middle School as a hot lunch option. This is a Sitka Health Summit project that got started last year with once-a-month fish meals at Blatchley, so this is a major expansion of the program. The goal is to get more wild, local fish into school lunches.

These fresh and tasty meals will be prepared with locally caught fish donated by Seafood Producers Cooperative and Sitka Sound Seafoods. Encourage your children to eat healthy and choose fish for lunch. It’s yummy and good for you.

Sitka Conservation Society Community Sustainability Organizer Tracy Gagnon was interviewed about the program on Aug. 22 on KCAW-Raven Radio, and you can listen to the interview at this link. For more information about the project, contact Tracy at 747-7509 or tracy@sitkawild.org.

August 4, 2011 by Charles Bingham

• KCAW-Raven Radio highlights new walking tour about salmon in Sitka

Recently, KCAW-Raven Radio summer intern Emily Bender produced a story about a new walking tour that teaches tourists and locals about something near and dear to Sitka’s heart — wild salmon.

According to the story, Nicolaas Mink, owner and tour guide for Sitka Salmon Tours, leads behind-the-scenes walking tours of the local salmon fishery from stream to dinner table.

“The tours are really seeking to raise awareness of among healthy forest, healthy ecosystems, healthy community and we’re really doing that through the lens of our salmon fishery here and to a lesser extent our commercial fishery,” says Mink.

“In many ways, it’s a big interpretive project, we’re taking two dozen sites in Sitka, and stringing them together through a walking tour that’s narrated generally by me.”

Mink said the tour is by foot, rather than by bus, because it’s an eco-friendly way to present the subject. It also follows the philosophy of the Sitka Conservation Society, which helps produce the tours. To learn more and watch an audio slideshow, click this link.

April 14, 2011 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative to host public fruit tree planting party on April 23

The Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative will host a public fruit tree planting event starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 23, at the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center. The first tree planted will be dedicated in memory of noted Sitka historian Bob DeArmond, who was 99 when he passed away on Nov. 26, 2010.

The plan on April 23, is for volunteers to plant a few fruit trees in front of the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center (tools and snacks will be provided). The volunteers then will move on to plant trees at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, a communal garden run by the Sitka Local Foods Network located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church. Other planting locations on Saturday include the Betty Eliason Child Care Center, KCAW-Raven Radio and either Sealing Cove or Pacific High School. A total of 22 trees will be planted on Saturday.

The Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative hopes to plant 200 apple, crabapple or cherry trees in Sitka before the next Sitka Health Summit on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2011. This will be the first public planting of fruit trees since the 2010 Sitka Health Summit, when the project started. Several individuals, families and businesses around Sitka also have ordered fruit trees to plant this year.

For more information about the Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative or the Sitka Local Foods Network, contact Doug Osborne at 747-3752 or Lisa Sadleir-Hart at 747-5985.

December 13, 2010 by Charles Bingham

• New book on XtraTufs includes photos from Running of the Boots fundraiser for Sitka Local Foods Network

Author/photographer Larry Johansen poses with a copy of his new book, "XTRATUF: An Alaskan Way of Life," during the Sitka Artisans Market on Dec. 4

Photos from the Running of the Boots, an annual fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network, are featured in the new book “XTRATUF: An Alaskan Way of Life,” by Douglas resident Larry Johansen.

The Running of the Boots is a fun, end-of-the-summer event where people run a short downtown course while wearing colorful costumes and their XtraTuf boots, which also are known as Sitka Sneakers or Juneau Tennyrunners. About three years ago, the board of the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce, which had managed the race, decided to let the Sitka Local Foods Network use the Running of the Boots to raise money for its main projects, which include the Sitka Farmers Market, expanding community gardens in Sitka, trying to get a Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center built, encouraging the sustainable use of traditional foods, and providing education and encouragement for people who want to garden or harvest more local foods.

Runners hit the trail during the 14th Annual Running of the Boots race on Sept. 27, 2008, in Sitka.

Johansen, who used to work for now-defunct cruise company, was an amateur photographer who began taking photos seriously after his employer abruptly quit business. He told the Juneau Empire he focused on XtraTufs as a way to talk about how Southeast Alaskans connect with their environment. He started his own business, Rowdy Dog Images, and tried to take at least one good photo a day while he worked on the book. Johansen wrote all of the copy in the book, but did use some borrowed photos (including his photos from the Running of the Boots, which were supplied by Charles Bingham).

Since the book came out in October, Johansen has been traveling the region to promote it. He did this Oct. 29 interview with Jeff Brown on KTOO-FM’s A Juneau Afternoon show. Johansen also had a booth at the Sitka Artisans Market on Dec. 3-5, and he did an interview with KCAW-Raven Radio news director Robert Woolsey, which appeared in this story on KCAW’s regular newscast with extended audio posted on the station’s website (the extended audio aired on KCAW as a Morning Edition interview on Wednesday, Dec. 8).

According to a 2008 article in Capital City Weekly, about a third of the 100,000 XtraTuf boots sold each year end up in Alaska. Commercial fishermen liked the boots because the chevron outsole doesn’t slip on wet boat decks, and the neoprene kept fish oils from getting into the rubber. The boot’s popularity quickly moved to land as people saw how well the boots worked in Southeast Alaska’s rainy and icy weather.

The boots have been around since the 1950s, when B.F. Goodrich commissioned Norcross Safety Products of Rock Island, Ill., to manufacture the boots. Norcross bought the rights to the brand in 1985, but in 2008 to Honeywell Safety Products acquired Norcross and the XtraTuf brand. Until this year, the boots always had been manufactured in the same Illinois factory, but now they will be made in China.

Johansen’s book can be found in Sitka at Old Harbor Books. People also can order it off of his website for $19.90 a copy (plus postage).

September 22, 2010 by Charles Bingham

• Don’t forget the Running of the Boots is this Saturday, and there’s a small Sitka Farmers Market, too

Don’t forget the 16th annual Running of the Boots fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network takes place at 11 a.m. (registration opens at 10 a.m.) on Saturday, Sept. 25, as part of the third annual Summer’s End Celebration hosted by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruise Association. This fun run for people sporting XtraTuf rubber boots features a run from the Crescent Harbor shelter through downtown Sitka and around St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Since St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm and several other local gardeners have late produce, the Sitka Local Foods Network will have a table or two of produce for sale at the Running of the Boots, with all proceeds going to the non-profit Sitka Local Foods Network to help us with our various projects. The produce tables won’t be as big as they are during a typical Sitka Farmers Market, but WIC clients will be able to use their farmers market produce coupons. The market opens at 10 a.m., and local gardeners who have extra produce available should show up at 9:30 a.m. to barter, donate or sell it to the Sitka Local Foods Network for the produce booth.

More details on Saturday’s Running of the Boots are posted elsewhere on this site, or call Kerry MacLane at 752-0654 for more information. Click here for historical information on the Running of the Boots.

• Click here to download a copy of our flier to post around town (legal size paper needed)

September 7, 2010 by Charles Bingham

• Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 25, raises funds for Sitka Local Foods Network

High school exchange students dressed as aliens won the best group costume category in the 2009 costume contest

It’s time to dig your XtraTufs out of the closet and paint them up. The 16th annual Running of the Boots takes place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25, at the Crescent Harbor shelter.

The Running of the Boots is part of the thid annual Season’s End Celebration, an event sponsored by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruise Association that includes a free lunch for Sitka residents. The Chamber’s board donates money raised by the Running of the Boots to the Sitka Local Foods Network, the non-profit group that hosts the Sitka Farmers Market and advocates for community gardens, a community greenhouse, sustainable uses of traditional subsistence foods and education for Sitka gardeners.

The 2008 winner of the fastest boots award

So what is the Running of the Boots? It’s Southeast Alaska’s answer to Spain’s “Running of the Bulls.” But unlike the Pamplona spectacle, humans do the running in Sitka and they wear zany costumes and XtraTufs — Southeast Alaska’s distinctive rubber boots (aka, Sitka Sneakers). The entry fee for the Running of the Boots is $5 per person and $20 per family, and people can register for the race starting at 10 a.m. There is a lip synch contest after the race, which costs $10 to enter.

The Running of the Boots is a short race for fun and not for speed, even though one of the many prize categories is for the fastest boots. Categories include best dressed boots, zaniest costume, best couple, best kids group and many others. The course includes a loop around St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral before returning to Crescent Harbor for families with children, or a run from Crescent Harbor to the corner of Katlian and Lincoln streets and back for Sitka’s hardier souls.

“This event is the highlight of our Season’s End Celebration, after which Sitkans can partake of the Alaska Cruise Association’s free lunch,” said Sheila Finkenbinder, executive director of the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce. Finkenbinder started the ‘run’ 16 years ago, inspired by an idea from KCAW-Raven Radio general manager Ken Fate.

“This is a really fun way to advance the Sitka Farmers Market and our other Sitka Local Foods Network projects,” Sitka Local Foods Network President Kerry MacLane said. “And just like at the market, there will be live music by the Sitka Blues Band.”

To learn more about the Running of the Boots, contact Kerry MacLane at 752-0654 or by e-mail at maclanekerry@yahoo.com. Historical information about the race (through 2005) can be found online at http://www.runningoftheboots.org/. Info about the Sitka Local Foods Network and more recent Running of the Boots events (2008-09) is on this site (either click “Running of the Boots” under Categories in the right-hand column, or type “Running of the Boots” into the search engine at the very top of the page).

July 22, 2010 by Charles Bingham

• Lori Adams of Down To Earth U-Pick Garden wins Table of the Day at first Sitka Farmers Market

Sitka Local Foods Network Board Member Doug Osborne presents Lori Adams of Down To Earth U-Pick Garden the Table Of The Day award for the first Sitka Farmers Market of the 2010 summer season

Lori Adams of Down To Earth U-Pick Garden received the Table of the Day Award from the first Sitka Farmers Market of the 2010 summer season July 17 at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall.

Adams, who has had booths in the Sitka Farmers Market for three years, grows vegetables, flowers, berries and herbs at her garden, located at 2103 Sawmill Creek Road. Sitka Local Foods Network Board Member Doug Osborne presented Adams with a certificate, $25 cash and a copy of the South Anchorage Farmers Market Cookbook.

One vendor at each of the five scheduled Sitka Farmers Markets this season will receive a similar prize. The next markets are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on alternate Saturdays, July 31, Aug. 14, Aug. 28 and Sept. 11, at historic ANB Hall.

The first market of the season received lots of publicity, including a KCAW-Raven Radio morning show interview (link has audio) with Sitka Local Foods Network President Kerry MacLane on Friday, July 16, to preview the first market, and an audio postcard on KCAW’s Monday, July 19, newscasts. The Daily Sitka Sentinel also ran a Weekend feature on Friday, July 16, and had a front-page photo from the market on Tuesday, July 20 (password required to view content).

A slideshow of photos from the first market is posted below, and a similar slideshow can be found on our Shutterfly site. By the way, if you haven’t already done so, please go to the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest site run by the American Farmland Trust and vote for the Sitka Farmers Market. The Sitka Farmers Market was the leading vote-getter for Alaska as of Thursday, July 22, but voting continues through the end of August so we need your votes.

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