Alaska News Nightly: Monday, October 20, 2025

Summary

Alaska News Nightly: Monday, October 20, 2025

Podcast: Alaska News Nightly – Alaska Public Media
Host: Wesley Early
Date: October 21, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on the aftermath of Typhoon Ha Long's destructive path across Western Alaska, highlighting the impacts on critical infrastructure, archaeological sites, and community life. It also covers statewide political protests, food security challenges in rural Alaska, and organizational changes within prominent Alaska Native institutions. With on-the-ground reporting and quotes from community leaders, the episode illustrates the adaptation and resilience of Alaskans in the face of adversity.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Typhoon Ha Long Aftermath: Erosion, Infrastructure, and Archaeological Losses

[00:26–05:37]

• Quinahock Impact: The coastal village of Quinahock narrowly avoided the worst but faced erosion that threatened infrastructure and exposed archaeological artifacts.
• Erosion Threats:
  • 60 feet of shoreline lost to storm surge (Warren Jones, local Native corporation head).
  • Floodwaters reached town center, caused water line outages, and scattered boats/gillnets.
• Sewage Lagoon Danger:
  • Erosion brought raw sewage lagoon within a storm's reach of a catastrophic breach:

    “This is raw sewage we’re talking about. There’s no treatment, nothing.” — Warren Jones [02:28]

  • Jones urges inventive, urgent coastal reinforcement measures.
• Archaeological Devastation:
  • Nunakluk site, Alaska’s largest pre-contact Yupik archaeological site, exposed; artifacts scattered and lost:

    “It’s like you took our museum and sprinkled it out on the beach.” — Warren Jones [03:38]

  • Recovery teams, including lead archaeologist Rick Knecht, and over 30 villagers worked to recover artifacts (“armloads of what we can save” [04:37]).
  • Volunteer-led recovery is ongoing; need for larger preservation strategy.
• Ongoing Erosion:
  • Multiple vectors of erosion threaten the village, not just the ocean (from river, coast, and upland).

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2. Animal Rescue Efforts Post-Storm

[05:37–09:44]

• Mass Human & Animal Evacuations in Kipnuk:
  • Residents forced to leave pets behind during military emergency airlift evacuations.
  • Bethel Friends of Canines (BFoC) orchestrated dog rescues with local pilots, teachers, and volunteers.
• Scale and Innovation:
  • Over 118 dogs processed through BFoC since the storm.
  • Boarding, fostering, and eventual reunification efforts span Bethel and Anchorage.
  • Shelter capacity is a key hurdle, met by community members' willingness to foster displaced pets:

    “Quite a few people stopped in and were like, let me take a dog, you know, and that has worked out the best.” — Jesselyn Elliott, BFoC Director [07:22]

• Human Touches:
  • Teachers stayed behind to care for remaining animals.
  • Senator Lisa Murkowski fostered two rescued dogs herself, pledging to reunite them with their families.

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3. Statewide “No Kings” Protests and Political Developments

[09:44–13:22]

• Widespread Protests Against President Trump:
  • Over a dozen communities rallied for “No Kings” protests; over 2,000 in Anchorage.
  • Key theme: Federal negligence in climate emergency funding and infrastructure:

    "He took his chainsaws to Noah and blinded us to the weather. He took an axe to $20 million appropriated ... to protect coastal Alaskan communities from flooding." — Robin Beebe [10:12]

  • Personal empowerment and motivation drawn from collective action:

    “Seeing everyone else come out here... gives me motivation to keep calling people and trying to make a difference.” — Robin Beebe [10:59]

  • Sitka protest coincided with the historic U.S. acquisition of Alaska, drawing symbolism about power and self-determination.

    “We put people in power and we take people out of power.” — Jerry Depa [11:34]

• Congressional Race Developments:
  • Pastor Matt Schultz launches campaign against Rep. Nick Begich, pledging to “bridge the political divide.”
  • Schultz frames politics as “a construction zone” for the common good, critiquing divisive political culture [12:33].

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4. Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Convention: Recovery, Resilience, and Leadership Transition

[13:22–19:38]

• AFN Calls for Federal Disaster Declaration:
  • Emergency resolution for Western Alaska post-typhoon was unanimously supported.
  • A call for a Western Alaska Emergency Response Hub headquartered in Bethel.

    "We have a lot of support from across the state, so on behalf of our region koyana to everyone." — Vivian Korthios, AVCP CEO [14:34]

• Leadership Transition – Honoring Anna Hoffman:
  • Emotional tributes as Hoffman steps down as AFN co-chair:

    “She represents all of us and all the good that is in all of us. So queana cheknuk for all your good work.” — Bev Hoffman [15:49] “This entire moment is not about one person. This entire moment is about generations of ancestors.” — Joe Nelson [16:01]

  • Hoffman lauded as a bridge-builder and an interpreter for generations:

    “Hoffman’s been a translator since she was born … I’m really hoping that all the kids who are moving ... find an Anna in their classroom.” — Mary Peltola [16:45]

  • Parting letter to her mother, Margaret Cook—one of AFN’s founders—emphasized unity beyond differences:

    “Your ability to get past individual, cultural and regional differences ... is a life lesson we are still learning to apply and emulate.” — Anna Hoffman [18:51]

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5. Youth Programs and Organizational Funding Challenges

[19:38–20:36]

• Boys & Girls Club Southcentral Alaska Shuts Temporarily:
  • Funding shortfall due to donation slowdown and federal reimbursements delay after the government shutdown.
  • Focus on financial sustainability and donor engagement to “bridge the gap.”

    “Kids still need us.” — Susan Anderson, CEO [20:32]

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6. Food Security in Remote Communities

[21:09–25:27]

• St. Paul Island’s Supply Chain Crisis:
  • Weeks-long weather grounded planes and left only store without staples (eggs, milk), forcing significant food spoilage:

    “Eggs were shorted and then milk too, stuff like that.” — Ben Bordakovsky [21:42]

  • $20,000 of groceries lost after delay; reliance on subsistence food highlighted.
• Self-Reliance & Innovation:
  • Nikolski’s five greenhouses—built due to weather-induced isolation—now central to food security and sovereignty.
  • Subsistence hunting/fishing remains vital for survival:

    “The only food that I had ... was the reindeer that I had put up and the salmon, but ... the dogs got all the salmon and I ate all the reindeer. And now I can't eat reindeer anymore.” — Tanya Lestenkopf [23:37]

  • Children gather eggs, pick produce, supporting both nutrition and tradition.
• Systemic Challenges:
  • Attempts at hydroponics and local agriculture face sustainability hurdles due to remoteness, cost, and climate.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It's like running into a library or a museum that's on fire and we're just running out with armloads of what we can save.” — Warren Jones, on archaeological losses [00:19, 04:37]
• “The whole beach need to be reinforced by something ... We need to start thinking outside the box on this stuff.” — Warren Jones [02:48]
• “Our weather was so bad that we didn’t see a plane for like four months.” — Tanya Lestenkopf, Nikolski [23:25]
• “We’re simply doing good for the sake of doing good, and I think that’s a different lens.” — Matt Schultz [13:13]
• “Don’t worry too much. Like the salmon, they’ll find their way home to the Kuskokwim.” — Nicole Borromeo to Anna Hoffman [18:04]
• “We put people in power and we take people out of power.” — Jerry Depa [11:34]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Storm and Archaeological loss in Quinahock: [00:26–05:37]
• Displaced pets and animal rescue: [05:37–09:44]
• No Kings Protests/Political Rallies: [09:44–13:22]
• AFN Convention and Anna Hoffman Tribute: [13:22–19:38]
• Boys & Girls Club closure: [19:38–20:36]
• Food security on St. Paul & Nikolski: [21:09–25:27]

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Conclusion

This episode powerfully captures the interconnected crises in rural Alaska following Typhoon Ha Long: the physical destruction of land and heritage, the displacement of people and animals, the fragility of food systems, and the political and communal efforts to respond and rebuild. The stories are grounded in the lived experiences and voices of Alaskans, underscoring both the adversity faced and the collective determination to endure and thrive.

Transcript

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Support for Alaska Public Media On Demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.

[Warren Jones]

It's like running into a library or museum that's on fire and we're just running out with armloads of what we can save.

[Wesley Early]

Last week's massive storm damaged critical infrastructure in a major archaeological site in one Alaska community. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Monday, October 20th. Good evening, I'm Wesley Early. Also tonight, thousands gather in communities across the state to protest the Trump administration.

[Robin Beebe]

It gives me motivation to kind of keep calling people and trying to make a difference.

[Wesley Early]

Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Among more than a dozen communities significantly damaged by the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long, the coastal village of Quinahock avoided the most severe impacts. But as KYUK's Evan Erickson reports, severe erosion has put critical infrastructure in peril and destroyed a vital archaeological lens into the past.

[Evan Erickson]

Warren Jones says he has never seen anything like the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long.

[Warren Jones]

It it doesn't look like our beach no more. Looks like a bomb hit it.

[Evan Erickson]

Jones, who heads the local Alaska Native Corporation, says the shoreline that borders the village was peeled back as much as 60ft by the storm surge.

[Warren Jones]

The flooding and the wave action pretty much stripped off the top soil tundra, so what's left is clay and permafrost.

[Evan Erickson]

Jones says water reached the Moravian Church in the center of town for the first time in living memory. It temporarily knocked out the community's water supply line and and it sent boats deep into stands of alders lining the Conectock River, a vital source of salmon for the community of roughly 800 people.

[Warren Jones]

There's some gillnets that are hanging on top of the trees stretched out. There's no fish wrecks, no smoke houses.

[Evan Erickson]

A half mile down the coast, the erosion from the storm hit especially hard near the community's sprawling sewage lagoon.

[Warren Jones]

The south side corner of the sewage lagoon is right on the bank of the erosion.

[Evan Erickson]

Drone videos captured by the community after the storm reveal a large chunk out of the shoreline just dozens of feet from the 10 acre pool of waste.

[Warren Jones]

This is raw sewage we're talking about. There's no treatment, nothing. It's just sewage gets grinded up and then down to the lagoon.

[Evan Erickson]

After the erosion brought on by the storm, Jones says the lagoon may be one storm away from catastrophe. A breach would send raw sewage into the bay to be carried by the tide up into the mouth of the Connectoc.

[Warren Jones]

The whole beach need to Be reinforced by something, rocks or whatever. Maybe make our own concrete boulders. We need to start thinking outside the box on this stuff.

[Evan Erickson]

The state department of environmental conservation did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the potential threat at the lagoon. Across the storm impacted region, numerous agencies are assessing flood related environmental contamination on a scale that is still not fully understood. Several miles further down the coast from Quinnehawk, the erosion has laid bare a different story.

[Warren Jones]

They're finding masks, all kinds of artifacts right on the beach on top. So we don't know how much is washed out now.

[Evan Erickson]

At Nunakluk, the largest known pre contact Yupik archaeological site in Alaska, thousands of artifacts dating back to the 16th century have been scattered across the sand.

[Warren Jones]

It's like you took our museum and sprinkled it out on the beach.

[Evan Erickson]

Lead archaeologist Rick Knecht flew to the community to lead the recovery effort.

[Warren Jones]

What's washing up right now are basically everything people used. Weapon shafts, pieces of kayak frames. They're complete carved wooden masks, Beautiful little carvings, big pieces of bentwood bowls, some complete bentwood bowls.

[Evan Erickson]

Knech says around 30 to 40 people in the community are assisting with the recovery. He estimates around 1,000 pieces have been saved.

[Warren Jones]

Main help here is the volunteers from the village that have been out collecting and turning stuff. A stream of people bringing in totes and boxes full of artifacts that they've saved over the last few days.

[Evan Erickson]

The pieces are all headed for a tiny museum in the center of Quinnehawk, where hundreds of thousands of artifacts collected from the site have already been cataloged and stored.

[Warren Jones]

Almost everything we know about pre contact Yupik culture comes from that site, and it comes from that material. It's like running into a library or a museum that's on fire, and we're just running out with armloads of what we can save.

[Evan Erickson]

Jones, who has been involved with the community based archaeology project since its inception, says the erosion eating away at Quinhawk is coming from all sides.

[Warren Jones]

Well, I think we're a little bit more elevated, but not for long because we're getting erosion from all sides. We're getting it from the coast river on the north side. It's coming up. And as you see in the old Runway is gone now. So it's coming down from up river. 2.

[Evan Erickson]

Now the clock is ticking for Quinnehawk to not only recover its cultural heritage, but address its immediate infrastructure needs before winter sets in. The community cannot afford to endure another powerful storm. But as Knecht says, nature bats last. In Bethel. I'M Evan Erickson.

[Wesley Early]

As residents boarded air transports out of Kipnuk Wednesday, they were leaving what remained of their houses, belongings and ancestral homeland behind. For many, that list also included their dogs. As Kyuk Samantha Watson reports, a Bethel based nonprofit sprang into action to rescue the pets.

[Jesselyn Elliott]

The remnant of Typhoon Ha long ravaged Yukon Kuskokwim Delta communities Oct. 12, leaving the coastal village of Kipnook among the hardest hit. Community members sheltered in Kipnook school building until many voluntarily evacuated to Bethel or Anchorage. But they couldn't take their pets with them on the army and National Guard transports. Bethel based dog rescue Bethel Friends of Canines Quee quickly began searching for a way to evacuate the animals left behind. Jesselyn Elliott is the director of Bethel Friends of Canines. As Of Sunday, about 118 displaced dogs have gone through the organization, most of them rescued in Bush Plains.

[Warren Jones]

This is all really new to us. You know, we've never had a natural disaster where we have had to do where it's affected, you know, the animals really, and especially to this, this magnitude.

[Jesselyn Elliott]

The nonprofit coordinated with school teachers that had stayed behind in the village who rounded up the dogs. Local pilots quickly responded to help charter dogs out of Kipnook. Elliott says most of the rescued dogs families have been identified, though some were surrendered after the storm or are strays. Some have been reunited with their families in Bethel or are being fostered by extended family. Other dogs have been sent to foster homes in Anchorage to help expand Bethel's capacity for future dog evacuations. Right now, Elliot says one of the biggest hurdles is the organization's sheltering capacity.

[Warren Jones]

We're pretty full, but, but people have stepped up and, and they've. Quite a few people stopped in and were like, let me take a dog, you know, and that has worked out the best, you know, just, just stopping by and saying, what can I do?

[Jesselyn Elliott]

Pilot Nate DeHaan cooperates Dahan Aviation and flew to Kipnook a few days after the storm. DeHaan says they arrived just hours after the community had been almost entirely evacuated.

[Warren Jones]

You can start to see that debris field from a long ways away. And then you get closer and you realize that the debris field is partially made up of like buildings in people's houses and like they're a long way from the village.

[Jesselyn Elliott]

Dehaan says it was clear that people had recently fled. He described left behind four wheelers clustered by the airport.

[Warren Jones]

The airport ramp was just scattered with people's boots, with their rubber boots that they had left behind, you know, right before they, you know, got on the transport, taking them out of there. You know, it looked like a lot of people, you know, had pulled off the rubber boots and put something else on and, you know, they were just scattered around the airport.

[Jesselyn Elliott]

He moved over a dozen dogs.

[Warren Jones]

What it would mean for all these displaced families to, you know, get, get reconnected with, like, a little piece of their home that they've had to leave behind, I can't even imagine.

[Jesselyn Elliott]

Elliot says teachers in Kipnook are still feeding and looking out for the dogs that remain. Bethel Friends of Canines is also accepting monetary donations through its website that will support its ongoing evacuation efforts in Anchorage. At the Alaska Federation of Natives conference on Saturday, Senator Lisa Murkowski spoke of her visit to the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in the aftermath of ex typhoon Ha Long after visiting the emergency shelter in Bethel's National Guard armory, she took a Chinook helicopter to survey Kipnook's damage. Markowski says she brought two loose dogs from the village back with her to Foster, who she's temporarily named Kipnook and Chinook. She she plans to reunite the dogs with their owners in Bethel. I'm Samantha Watson.

[Wesley Early]

Alaskans turned out for no Kings protests held in opposition to President Donald Trump and his policies across more than a dozen communities on Saturday, including Anchorage, Juneau, Ketchikan, Fairbanks, and Kotzebue. More than 2,000 people gathered in Anchorage's Town Square Park Saturday afternoon for the rally. Aaron Jackson Hill, executive director of advocacy group Stand Up Alaska, led the rally. She spoke about the recent influx of evacuees from western Alaska due to flooding and laid the blame firmly on Trump.

[Robin Beebe]

He took his chainsaws to Noah and blinded us to the weather. He took an Axe to $20 million appropriated by Congress to protect coastal Alaskan communities from flooding, eroding our ability to defend against.

[Wesley Early]

Other prominent speakers included Democratic State Senator Luki Tobin, Anchorage Assemblymember Aaron Baldwin Day, and Democratic candidate for Governor Tom Begage. As the bulk of the crowd packed the park, dozens of rally goers lined Fifth and Sixth avenues, waving signs and receiving supportive honks from passing cars. Robin Beebe says she's been to multiple political rallies, including some during Trump's first term in office. She says these rallies remind her that she's not alone in her opposition to the president's actions.

[Robin Beebe]

The bad news that seems to come down every day, it feels often like you can't do anything about it. But seeing everyone else come out here and it feels like I feel supported by everyone else and it gives me motivation to kind of keep calling people and trying to make a difference.

[Wesley Early]

The rally site in Sitka coincided with the annual reenactment of the ceremony in 1867, when Russia was then ruled by a czar transferred ownership of Alaska to the United States. That history Wasn't lost on 84 year old Jerry Depa.

[Warren Jones]

We put people in power and we take people out of power.

[Wesley Early]

No czars, no kings, no local reporters estimated protest crowds from a few dozen in Unalaska and Nome to hundreds in Sitka and Ketchikan. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, a look at food security challenges for communities in the Aleutians.

[Warren Jones]

Our weather was so bad that we didn't see a plane for like four months.

[Wesley Early]

That's ahead. Stay with us. Alaska Congressman Nick Begich has a new challenger. Pastor Matt Schultz of First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage launched his campaign today. Schulz is well known in Anchorage progressive circles and on social media. He's spoken at no Kings protests and champions affordable health care, social justice and LGBTQ rights. He's running as a Democrat, but says he hopes to bridge the political divide by listening to other Alaskans.

[Warren Jones]

People have spent so much time treating politics as a war zone that we've forgotten that it's supposed to be a construction zone and we're supposed to gather together and build something better together.

[Wesley Early]

Beggar In a speech to the Alaska Federation of Natives convention this weekend focused on the economic benefits of the budget recognition reconciliation bill Congress passed this summer, particularly how it advances oil development in Alaska, Schultz was among thousands of Alaskans who rallied against the bill, citing the impact it would have on Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. Schultz says he plans to keep his job at First Presbyterian as he campaigns. He's a first time candidate, but says he has a lifetime of public service.

[Warren Jones]

We're simply doing good for the sake of doing good, and I think that's a different lens to view our community service than our current representative have.

[Wesley Early]

Schultz enters the race with a big cash disadvantage. Begich has raised more than $2 million for his campaign so far this year. Another Democrat, John Brendan Williams of Fairbanks, has also filed paperwork to run for U.S. house in the 2026 election. He hasn't reported any fundraising so far. Alaska Federation of Natives delegates on Saturday called for an immediate emergency declaration from President Donald Trump and more federal assistance for communities hit by the remnants of typhoon halong earlier this month. It was one of dozens of resolutions passed on the final day of the AFN convention in Anchorage. The storm killed at least one woman, wiped out homes and infrastructure, and displaced more than a thousand people in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta. Hundreds of residents were sent to Bethel and then to emergency shelters in Anchorage over the last week. The resolution was put forward by the association of Village Council Presidents, a tribal consortium that serves communities in the Yukon Kuskokwim region. Vivian Korthios is the group's CEO for this resolution.

[Warren Jones]

We have a lot of support from across the state, so on behalf of our region koyana to everyone.

[Wesley Early]

The delegates amended the resolution to also include damage caused in the Northwest Arctic and Bering Strait regions and called for a Western Alaska Emergency Response Hub in Bethel. Governor Mike Dunleavy requested that Trump declare a federal disaster for western Alaska earlier this week, but that request has not been approved as of today. Alaska's congressional delegation has also urged Trump to approve the declaration. Other AFN resolutions touch on a wide array of topics, from health and safety to education and subsistence. Meanwhile, every Alaska Federation of Natives convention is best remembered in moments that sometimes live on for years. And one of those came at the conclusion of the gathering on Saturday when Anna Hoffman of Bethel stepped down as co chair of afn. She passed the torch to Gayla Hosit, an AFN board member from the Bristol Bay region who served as chair of the board's subsistence committee. As KBA's Rhonda McBride tells us, Hoffman has been one of AFN's longest serving co chairs.

[Warren Jones]

We are so proud of you.

[Rhonda McBride]

Native leaders like Bev Hoffman crowded onto the convention stage to honor Ana Hoffman. Bev and Anna are related by marriage.

[Robin Beebe]

I'll try not to cry, but look at all these people. She represents all of us and all the good that is in all of us. So queana cheknuk for all your good work.

[Warren Jones]

And this entire moment is not about one person. This entire moment is about generations of ancestors that have done well to channel their best and their best to bring forward.

[Rhonda McBride]

For Joe Nelson, this moment is a celebration of what it means to be a Native leader. He's been co chair of AFN since 2020 and has served with Anna Hoffman for half of her 12 year tenure. He says he's learned a lot from working alongside someone steeped in Yupik culture who works hard to uphold its values.

[Warren Jones]

She is hard working, but she's also the most grounded, most well rounded human being I've ever worked with.

[Rhonda McBride]

Former Congresswoman Mary Peltola is a longtime friend of Hoffman's.

[Robin Beebe]

Anna's really been a translator since she.

[Rhonda McBride]

Was born, Peltola says. When Hoffman was in grade school, she would help translate English for children who could only speak Yuktun.

[Robin Beebe]

And I'm really hoping and putting a prayer out there that all the kids who are moving to Bethel or Anchorage or new locations from the typhoon find an Anna in their classroom, find an interpreter, someone to love them and take care of them.

[Rhonda McBride]

Hoffman's name, Anna, short for Anastasia, sounds similar to the Yupik word for mother. When she was small, elders sometimes called her Little Mama. Maybe they knew something she didn't. Hoffman told the gathering she hadn't even thought of running for AFN co chair until some elders encouraged her to try.

[Robin Beebe]

It is a very Yupik and Alaska Native way to be called to these positions from your elders.

[Rhonda McBride]

While on stage, Hoffman received many parting gifts, but two were meant to bring comfort in the wake of the typhoon, a disaster which has displaced more than a thousand people from western Alaska who are mostly Yupik. There was the salmon leather necklace from Peltola and a bracelet with a salmon design from Nicole Borromeo, a former colleague at afn.

[Robin Beebe]

And they know how much I am worried for the people. And as Nicole handed the bracelet with the salmon design, she said, don't worry too much. Like the salmon, they'll find their way home to the Kuskokwim.

[Rhonda McBride]

Nicole Borromeo reminded the gathering that Hoffman's roots in the Kuskokwim and AFN run deep.

[Robin Beebe]

One of my favorite quotes comes from her late mother, Margaret Cook, who said during the Claim Settlement act, take our land and take our life. So she comes from a very strong lineage.

[Rhonda McBride]

Hoffman's last words to the convention as co chair came in the form of a letter to her mother, Margaret, who died not long after she graduated from Stanford. Margaret was one of the founders of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

[Robin Beebe]

Your ability to get past individual, cultural and regional differences in order to achieve the common goal of establishing this federation and securing land rights for Alaska Native people is a life lesson we are still learning to apply and emulate.

[Rhonda McBride]

Hoffman then called some fellow Russian Orthodox choir members onto the stage to help her sing her swan song as AFN co chair to depend part amid sounds of harmony, renewal and continuity in anchorage, I'm Rhonda McBride.

[Wesley Early]

The boys and Girls Club of South Central Alaska, which operates 20 clubhouses around the state, has temporarily paused clubhouse and athletic operations effective today. The move comes after funding challenges exacerbated by the weeks long federal government shutdown. Susan Anderson is the South Central Alaska branch's CEO. She says the organization has seen a slowdown in corporate and individual donations, as well as delays in federal government reimbursements.

[Warren Jones]

This is extremely difficult, an extremely difficult decision to make. It was not done lightly. We know that it impacts people and kids and families and our wonderful employees, you know, but our focus really is to get back to offering a safe, supportive space for kids.

[Wesley Early]

Anderson says the statewide organization will focus its efforts on long term financial sustainability. She says she's been contacting past donors and looking for emergency grants to help.

[Warren Jones]

Bridge the gap because our clubs, you know, kids still need us.

[Wesley Early]

Anderson says she expects the closures to be temporary, but did not say how long she expects them to be. The organization will provide weekly updates about the closures on its website. Out in the Bering Sea, when planes can't land, grocery shelves go bare. That's what happened this summer on St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands. The Alaska Desk's Theo Greenlee reports that it revealed just how fragile rural Alaska's food system can be.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Ben Bordakovsky manages the Aleut community store in St. Paul.

[Warren Jones]

Okay, here's our produce section.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

It's the only shop for the island's 300 or so residents, so everyone just calls it the store.

[Warren Jones]

There's only one store and that's here.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

It's a one stop shop where you can get everything you need.

[Warren Jones]

Toys, fishing section.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Well, most of the time in June, rough weather grounded planes and deliveries couldn't make it in. Many major staples went missing from the shelves.

[Warren Jones]

Eggs were shorted and then milk too, stuff like that.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

£20,000 of groceries stuck in Anchorage for over a month. When the planes finally did arrive, a lot of the food had spoiled. The store says they had to throw away about a quarter of it.

[Warren Jones]

Sometimes they won't come in in time. Short, dated stuff, you know, we gotta watch what we ordered.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

The food shortage this summer was uncommon, but it wasn't unheard of. The Pribilofs are some of the most remote communities in the nation, and freight can be logistically difficult, expensive, and unreliable. In 2020, the regional nonprofit, the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands association partnered with the US Department of Agriculture to survey community members across the region and assess their local food systems. They found that most residents rely on local stores, but that fresh, healthy options are often limited and expensive. The survey also found that subsistence is the second most common source of food for families in the region. The COVID 19 pandemic made things worse, exposing strains in Alaska's food supply. A government report found that Alaska Native communities felt the brunt of it.

[Robin Beebe]

See my banana trees?

[Warren Jones]

These are my bananas, my banana plants. They're not actually trees because it's a grass, but.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Nikolski is another island village about 300 miles south of St. Paul. Only 30 people live here, but they've built five greenhouses. Tribal administrator Tanya Lestenkopf says they built the first one around 2007 after experiencing a situation similar to this summer's food shortage in St. Paul.

[Warren Jones]

Our weather was so bad that we didn't see a plane for like four months.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Nikolski also has one store and relies heavily on subsistence, including hunting the roughly 5,000 reindeer on the island.

[Warren Jones]

The only food that I had in the house was the reindeer that I had put up and the salmon, but.

[Robin Beebe]

I had dogs, so the dogs got all the salmon and I ate all the reindeer.

[Warren Jones]

And now I can't eat reindeer anymore.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Inside the greenhouse domes, children can come and collect eggs from the roughly 100 chickens. You can pick vegetables and herbs for tonight's salad. There's even a community sauna and a small pool.

[Rhonda McBride]

Oh, and lots of fruit, figs, apples, nectarines, cherries.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Lily Stam is a project coordinator for the tribal government. She says they ramped up their investment in the greenhouses after global supply chain disruptions during the pandemic further exposed the community's vulnerable food supply. Since then, Stam says Nikolski has made food security and food sovereignty a community.

[Warren Jones]

Project in this village. They've really prioritized it and started some really neat projects.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

St. Paul has tried greenhouse projects too, including a hydroponic grow center the community built underneath the Aleut store. It ran for several years before eventually shutting down. Today, there aren't any large scale growing efforts on the island. Back upstairs from where the grow center used to be, Bordakovsky is organizing the order that just came in.

[Warren Jones]

We just got a freighter last night.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

Today, St. Paul's store's shelves are full. But Bordakovsky says this wasn't the first time something like this happened.

[Warren Jones]

It kind of happens summertime a lot.

[Ben Bordakovsky]

During fishing time, and it likely won't be the last. The challenges of isolation and weather aren't going away, but local efforts from food banks to greenhouse domes show how Aleutian and Pribilof communities are finding their own ways to stay fed. With reporting From Nikolski and St. Paul, I'm Theo Greenlee.

[Wesley Early]

That was the first in a four part series from the Alaska desk called Shelf Life, which looks at food security in Alaska. And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories. We're [e-mail] and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Evan Erickson and Samantha Watson in Bethel, Hope McKinney in Sitka, Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. aliona Knightson and Rhonda McBride in Anchorage, Hunter Morrison in Ketchikan and Theo Greenlee in Nikolski and St. Paul. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email [e-mail] Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde, Madeline Rose is our producer, and I'm Wesley Early. Good night.