Neighbors; 1

Welcome to neighbors we have Dennis lodge here today who's visiting from Seward. You work with the Alaska vocational center which is a state agency training training folks fishermen about fishing safety and other navigational things could you describe a little bit about what your job is and what you're here in Dillingham to do. Thanks Alexia and thanks for the welcome. Yeah I'm from Seward originally from my accent you can tell I am from Great Britain but I've been in Alaska now for about 13 years. The Vocational Technical Center in Seward is probably well known to a number of Delano people because we teach a variety of programs such as welding and motor mechanics and EMT classes as well as the marine programs that I'm particularly involved in. We teach high tech fishing methods using sonar and modern navigational tools like a LORAN C radar and GP ass. And my particular job is as head of the marine department to

move around the state giving seminars and hoping to bring local fisherman up to date with what's available commercially. How to buy the equipment how to install it and mainly how to use it and get the very best out of it. The most of those instructional things are free. Free to the public for fishermen to help them out. Yes that we are a state funded nonprofit organization but we often work through the University of Alaska and local schools. Often there's a charge for these classes to offset the expenses. And. So. I'm not exactly sure what the cost of the the one we examine our giving in in Dillingham is but if you like to call it. Johannah about care at the university. Sheila why is your post at the cost. In Dillingham this week we're running two particular classes of interest. Two and a half days at the beginning of the week

on both electrical systems. I was looking at wiring boats and. And checking for faults when things like generators break down how to repair them at sea and how to check out the entire electrical system and particularly to look for corrosion on the boat from electrolysis. The second half of the week from Wednesday lunchtime on. We're trying to phase in with a fisheries symposium which is taking place this weekend. And we're offering special classes in the latest navigation techniques using small boat radar and particularly the new G B asked system global positioning system is now becoming widespread in the fishing industry. We'll talk about what equipment to buy to match the local conditions in Dillingham. We'll talk about the installations and the cost of equipment and. How to use the equipment to position plot so that we can

avoid the legal problems of being over the line when we fishing. And also talk about the use of us as a safety aid if we have to do get into distress how to radio our position accurately to the Coast Guard and also to mark our favorite fishing sites so that we can return to them and make the overall operation more efficient. P.S. is a relatively new technology using satellites. I just read recently that the Kodiak station they've stopped using their Morse code I think this morning they stopped using their Morse code signals they decided to phase that out. What kind of improvements in the technology have we seen for fishing around here in the last couple of years and how is GP s really changing. The way things are done. Everyone in the world would like to know where he is particularly America and with the older LORAN C system which is still

operating by the way and is likely to keep operating for a few more years yet. This older system is gradually losing favor in comparison with the newer global positioning system. A few years ago the price of a GVS receiver was up to $10000. But now for less than $500 we can buy quite a good quality receiver which does everything that LORAN C would do. But does it better. It gives worldwide coverage. It gives coverage on a land very well also. GUY WITH THE SNOW go a snow machine who's going out hunting on the tundra or into the backwoods can carry a receiver in his pocket and literally never get lost again. Even in zero visibility unless you're NOT about it unless you run out of batteries Yeah that is a pond Alexia you've got to keep those batteries charged up all carry spare batteries with you

so this kind of technology is making life easier and better for a number of people who want to mark a certain position in the ocean or on land. It's been used a great deal by prospectors for marking mineral sites for example and returning to them from hundreds of miles away and finding that exact position again very accurately. It's been years by earthquake scientists. For measuring movement of the earth's plates. And been used in airports quite a lot for blind landing systems so we're probably going to see some GP s facilities used that Dillingham Airport over the next few years. So literally this new technology using. The space based satellites has opened up a new world of proposition fixing. And in Dillingham of course where most people are employed in the fishing industry it gives us a

new measure of knowing whether we are illegal and inside the limits or whether we are legal and. Keeping within the leader's zones. If we do happen to get into trouble in distress we can be located easier by the rescue Coast Guard authorities. And like I mentioned earlier I believe it and enables us to fix our favorite fishing positions. Much more accurate. Also it does measure vessels very accurately so we can measure times of arrival back in dock more accurately. We can measure distances to go back to the dock more accurately and most of the modern GP as is now have a memory bank in them. Which can memorize up to a thousand points on the Earth's surface and any one of these thousand points may be a favorite hunting camp bar or a fishing hole or an airport runway or

whatever. You as the operator can input any up to 1000 of your favorite locations into that memory and the machine will remember where they are tell you how far away they are from your present position. How long it would take you to get there. As you move towards that position. And it will also tell you if you are drifting off track to the right or left by an amount which it calculates. So you can steer your airplane or your boat in a dead straight line from one point to another. By using these special set and drift facilities which you have built into modern vs. This is the kind of data which we hope to demonstrate. We have a number of machines that I brought from Seward which will demonstrate in a classroom so that students will get a good idea of. How to tune up the machines and. Take the data from the machine and apply it to a navigation chart of Bristol Bay.

So you're always in no doubt whatsoever exactly where you are. I can see that would be very few arrests in the future. Of people fishing illegally. If everyone follows their GP s positions. And if they are arrested it probably will be because they were over the line actually fishing in an illegal position. Can you give me some examples of how it's been used. Stories that you have maybe about instances where the GSA saved today are. Uses unique uses that people have come up with to use it for a while has a few unique uses and it's so new that there have been a lot of instances that I can point to. Where it's been. Kind of ultimate value to put it that way but we do know that quake scientists in San

Francisco have asked receivers either side of the San Andreas fault. And they're constantly monitoring these receivers. And as the earth's plates are stretching a few inches a year. These are special receivers monitoring this stretch and it measures those inches measures those inches of drift of the plates. And unable scientists to keep a very close eye on what's happening and maybe in future to predict. When the next earthquake is due. We may be able to use systems like that in Alaska because we are obviously in a highly quake sensitive zone. We may find systems like that used in. Dillingham and around my area here where there's a lot of seismic activity. Most people know that it involves satellites but could you explain to the layman exactly what the technology is how it works it's a passive receiver and the system consists of 21 satellites that are circling the Earth.

They're all spaced out. Are they exclusively for us or they have other things. You know these are exclusively for GP as the total system cost the taxpayer about 8 billion dollars. And the satellites on launch from Cape Canaveral. They're originally military as a writer. Yes this was a Department of Defense funded system originally for military use and we saw how effective it was in Desert Storm. And when we got high accuracy bomb aiming systems. And how. Well one example I couldn't think of an example to begin with how effective it was but here's an example. The soldiers in the desert in Desert Storm the Army National Guard all the soldiers or at least the sergeants carry receivers in the backpacks and knew exactly where they were in the desert. Bedouin tribesmen who lived in that area for generations. Thousands of years would often get

lost in sandstorms. But American National Guardsmen maybe from Alabama. Who'd never seen a desert before. Could tell the Bedouins exactly where they were and which way to go to get home in any kind of his visibility during a sandstorm. This kind of capability anywhere on earth to know where you are within inches and to know which way to go to get somewhere. It really pays off in conditions of zero visibility like a white outs in Alaska. Or does it does it conditions when you have sandstorms. This ability to and know where you are and find a way is lifesaving and then has to be in lots of cases already in the last three years where that has been very important. The satellites are 12000 miles high. And they beam signals down to earth. And above Bellingham at any instant of time like this instant now there's at least four satellites above the

visual horizon. If they had bright lights in them. That you could see from 12000 miles you could actually look up in broad daylight and see four artificial stars up there slowly passing over Dillingham to be replaced by other ones. But at any instant there's at least four of them up there. They became signals radio signals down to earth. And your receiver. Picks up the four satellites and triangulates on them in a way similar to what surveyors do for finding a position they have. Three of four cross bearings and where the bearings all intersect. That would be where you are. So your receiver triangulates on these satellites that are 12000 miles away and literally fixes your position. Within a couple hundred feet at the moment with the average system. But there are upgrades coming along which will fix our position within 20 feet or better.

And that will make zero visibility zero visibility landings. At the airport possible for anyone who has a receiver. This automatic guidance system if you can guarantee where the runway is within 20 feet that's generally good enough to land a plane in zero visibility. Together with the other instruments of course. If people buy now is it going to be the kind of case where the technology is coming along so fast that what they get now is going to be updated fairly quickly or how does that work. That's partly a problem that's a problem we all have with things like home computers that get faster every year and better every year. That is a problem that if we buy a G B S that top of the line today. Within a couple of years there's bound to be something better coming along. But fishermen have that problem all the time with their electronics. With things like fish finders and radars and Iran's generally weak. You have to

strike at some point and decide I'm going to buy now and and you know quite well that it is going to be obsolete but at least you're going to get a few years work out of it rather than never buy and always wait for something coming along eventually. So it's at the point where it's fairly proven and the systems are working. Oh yeah yeah pretty well. Many people today is this very instant. Moving across the earth's surface in airplanes and boats and their very lives are depending upon the accuracy of that G.P.A. and so far there's been no major failures. Well we could point to the B.S. and say it didn't work and they died as a result. We can't say that. It's so reliable. That. It's literally. People using it to stay afloat and to stay in the air and know where they are all the time every day. And the other things about the course that you'd like to talk about. Either the electrical or the. Navigation.

I would just like to invite people along and I think they'll find it interesting. Most fishermen like hands on and like demonstrations. We realize that so there's a minimal amount of blackboard work. And memorize Asian mainly learn by doing so we're going to get the charts out and we're going to take the numbers from the GP ass and we're going to use the actual equipment and pretend we're out there in the ocean and. Fix our favorite fishing holes on the G B S and place them on the chart and. Tune up the machines and really show people how they can apply this technology to their own situation whether they're a snow machine or who wants to go hunting. Whether they're a gill net or who wants to go out during the season which is going to open in the next few weeks or whether they're an airplane pilot got a smaller bush plane and wants to know better. How to. Locate.

His favorite lake in zero visibility of bad weather for example and snowstorms are in heavy rain. We're going to show people how to use these new instruments to to really be able to. Locate themselves and keep out of trouble basically. Part of the class of course will look at Small Boat radars many of the radars. Many of the small boats in Dillingham outfitted with a radar and everyone that buys it swears by it. As being a great aid to safety. We'll show how to buy radars install them look at the new digital radars using a technique called raster scan. Also we're going to look at how to install any electronic equipment you buy everything from a single sideband radios through to Iran see Santana's through to radar systems and also

to look at corrosion prevention by using sacrificial anode. That would be at the end of the electrical class. But. Anyone who needs information on that during the electronic navigation class would be glad to give them some information on that as well. We hope to see a few of you Dillingham fisherman. Coming round and seeing if we can teach you something we know the many things you know already. But some of the fishermen we've already got on the electrical class are already stating that they the few extra points that they didn't know might very well pay off one day if they have an electrical breakdown at the start of the season. If they can fix it themselves without having to call in. That. Spare parts from Anchorage for example it might to mean a lot of extra dollars in the pocket of wasted fishing time if they can do the job themselves. Well thanks for coming in. Thanks Alexia and I look forward to see in a few Dillingham fishermen over the next few days.

Welcome to neighbors I have a old friend to dealing him Bob King who is back in town for the 1095 Bristol Bay fish conference and it's good to be here. Thanks for coming in. Yeah I was wondering since you've come back what are you what are your impressions since you've come back to dealing in last couple of days. This is probably the longest you've been away from dealing him for how many years. Long time 17 or so years. Yeah it's a different experience but it's really pleasant to be back. Especially in such a nice day and with the sun and the warm temperatures and then the roads have been broken up two bit. It's it's it's fun to see old friends as well. If you could describe a little bit of your job as press secretary for the governor what kind of a change was it from when you were working as news director here and.

Things that you have enjoyed about it challenges maybe that you are encountering. It's a real interesting job for a lot of different reasons but I will say it's intense. There's a lot of things happening and they're all very very very serious. Around the state and as press secretary I deal mostly with the reporters of course. I get into work early in the morning around and the phone starts to ring and it doesn't stop until late in the evening. And it's all calls from mostly reporters but me to hear from you know other folks as well but mostly reporters. They're all asking questions about you know the important issues in their particular area they're all dead serious in their issues. Well I don't know I know nothing about you know call up the first call will be about the Tongass Tongass timber Reform Act where does the knolls administration stand on that where does no stand on the something Glenallan intertie and other things they were limited to. And and I have to I have to know

and I have to find out it's a real challenge you know juggling all these juggling all these all these different issues and and trying to find answers. I will say the good thing about working with a guy like Tony is that they have very good access to both the governor himself as well as you know. You know the key cabinet members and the like and when a quick question. Just come up on something like you know in timber which I know nothing about. I'm going to talk to the governor himself or go talk to the head of the state a vision of forestry or find out our answer find out where we're standing on it and actually pretty pretty pretty quick order the governor. When I got down there he gave me a free pass to get in his office at any time. And he said because he believes that you know open access to government is very important and in the press secretary's role is a big part of that. So he told me whenever I needed to get in you know he says just just walk on me and

whatever's whatever's happening and. And I've used that on many many occasion to be able to get in and say Tony what are we saying about this or what's going on about Babs dudes interesting. Do you pretty much work in isolation trying to massage that information for the press or do you spend time. Working with the governor as he's creating policy are you privy or in on a lot of the different policy things as they are being formed. Yeah both really. A lot of these issues a lot of issues you know get answered because they're asked by a reporter and I'll come in and say you know gee you know Tony where do we stand on such and such and such a thing and he goes Well we've got to figure this out you know because other people been asking as well so you know call him and he says call in the you know the so and so and so and so good as chief of staff he'll get a special assistant in one particular area you know call or a commissioner to call over the attorney general get everybody and sit down and have a meeting. And let's get it over with. And work

out a solution work out an answer and then go go from there. That's what's really fun about what was really interesting about this. And I certainly can't claim to. I don't claim to have a lot of. I'm still a real rookie in this job. In this in this press secretary job and in this whole political game I'm still I'm still a real novice. But it's interesting being. They're in the room when decisions are made and and watching as his policies are being formed and and and occasionally having a having a say in that thing. I don't know you should do that or that's a good idea. You don't need the perspective just as coming from a job as the press you're kind of going over to the other side. What are the kind of observations that you made if there's kind of one or two things that have shown you being on both sides and you've seen about things where. Yeah that's that is kind of interesting one is that again you know a lot of. A lot of issues get decided because questions are specifically asked often by reporters often by constituents of the like but

very often that you know when or when a reporter you know does ask the right questions and knows about these things and it really provokes you know a lot of very serious stuff. Yeah it's interesting you know there are a lot of sort of little subtle differences going from. From being a reporter to being the press secretary. You know all the people who call first. Yeah actually it's good I do No I do most reporters I'm never pretty good reputation although I'm sure. I'm sure they have times of gotten frustrated frustrated me. It's fun getting that actually you know. One of the banes of reporters is never getting people to return your phone calls. But it's fun now being able to call up and say you're with the Office of the governor and why don't people return your phone calls pretty quickly. Oh those are the little differences I guess the. Bigger the bigger differences.

I guess one of the biggest changes for me was you know even in a region like southwest Alaska where there's a lot going on you know whether it's you know certainly with fishing but tourism and you know the local the local politics of local issues you know the oil and gas stuff that happened years ago. I was amazed I was amazed by just the breadth and the depth of the issues state that I knew very little or nothing about the other. You know everybody gets this you know sort of a view of their own and their own particular view of the world and now being in this in this different office it's expanded that greatly greatly so much more to know to a lot of the other problems. And you know a lot of these problems are not easy to deal with at all. They're not they're not easy. The budget. The discussions that are going on down there and you know right now are a good example of that. Trying to get the state budget under control.

Well not. You know unfairly cutting out programs. Well not you know impacting particular areas over another. It's difficult it's difficult to you know to put it all together. How has the governor relied on your your expertise in southwest Alaska issues is that something you find you have a lot of input on when that comes to comes to the fore. We have a couple actually that you know there are several groups that do get together and when things have to do with fish I found myself getting called in quite a bit. And certainly when when stuff occurs affecting Dillingham in particular or Bristol Bay or southwest Alaska you know oftentimes the Gov's is looking you know call me and ask me what I think about it. You know little things you know. People they ask about you know for various boards and commissions you know we're thinking about so-and-so and so-and-so you know.

For this board and I'm going you know this guy what you think of him. You know they like to touch you know touch base get a real real feel. And there there's a good crowd of folks there in that I think. I think Knowles has put together a really good cabinet and a lot of experienced people. A lot of people with you know different experiences from all around the state. There are people from you know people from from the north from kind of to be you to Warrick from you know a cleat is one of the special assistants and it's you know and. You know when things are happening about the Norton Sound region or whatever you know Tim gets called into the fish meetings as well. The good representation I think is really good representation you know people from south east people from all over. And it you know the representation thing is stuff because there's so many different diverse areas

and different groups it's it's pretty difficult to get the you know everybody represented and and I think we have you know I think Tony's made a real good faith effort towards really bringing you know a good group of folks together. You're going to be asked this a lot the next couple days but so what exactly is going on down there in the legislature what can you assess what it what from the governor's point of view. How is how is going to be dealing with the different cuts that are coming on the bank. Well the governor still looking at formulating a strategy and he's been hearing from a lot of people and I've been hearing from a lot of people here about the need to take a strong stand about a lot of these cuts which seem just just so unfair. I know there's a lot of concern out there we're certainly concerned and we're aware from the phone calls we received in letters and faxes that have that have come in. That a lot of these budget cuts that are being proposed are going to you know impact rural areas in particular cuts to public

broadcasting cuts to. Cuts to Ratan it cuts the community jails that are being talked about cuts for fish and game management. The cuts to the safe water and sewer program for rural rural Alaska. And the governor is he's well aware of that and will stress that these are not his proposals. But he's dealing with a legislature that seems intent to push some of some of these agenda items through. Right now Tony's strategy has been to try to work with with people who seem to be reasonable and sympathetic. You know people who even though they may disagree with us on where budget cuts might fall are certainly willing to listen and listen to reason. Hopefully that will work out. If not we'll have to reassess the situation and decide where to go from there.

Because aside from having the veto pen that you talk about the red the red pen that comes in there it's poised what other kind of powers does the governor have at this point. Well the veto pen is the big big. And. And it's one he I think he's reluctant to use but it certainly is a tool that he will exercise if if need be. I think it's a little premature right now to talk about vetoing things because we haven't seen a lot of the specifics. And I think right now the strategy still is to try to work especially one on one with people who are people who do seem reasonable and and. And in trying to try to reach some kind of and accommodation Unfortunately there are some people down there you know who are not in the tent and do not want to seem to be reasonable at all. And notorious proposal to cut rural school districts and and funnel that money to urban school districts is just.

Even the urban school district that stood to benefit you know came to the governor and said look this is just bad I mean just patently unfair and we don't we want you to know this wasn't her idea. You know we we don't believe in this either. And so I mean that that proposal is dead in the water. But some of the other cuts. You know the states wrestling with wrestling with with its fiscal fiscal gap as they call it. The state is you know is currently spending you know about half a billion dollars more than it takes in on an annual basis. And the governor agrees with the Republican led majority that we need to do something about it. We've got to bring things in order. And he proposed a budget which actually cut several programs. It increased others. It increased others. But in areas that he thought warranted increases particularly

education the school population and romance increasing costs are increasing education is important Tony said that was one of his priorities. And he said it warranted it and he agrees. You know probably a fairly modest increase overall the governor's proposed budget. It was was slightly last very slightly less than the previous years. Which is what he pledged to do during the during the election. And. And he also at the same time said we need to form a long range planning commission to work with the legislative leaders both Democrats and Republicans. And while we have reserve accounts that afford us a certain cushion for several years at least to figure out how we can do a soft landing. You know how we can how we can resolve this. This budget gap over the next several years and without you know

unfairly impacting you know different areas different areas of the state. Unfortunately some people don't seem to be favoring the soft landing approach and instead want to just auger as in. With some I think very. Ill advised ill advised budget cuts that I think will have some potentially I think theyre going to be cuts that people are going to feel. Notice its its not the point where were just. You know cutting excess bureaucrats or or whatever the state government has been contracting over the past several years now its at the point where budget cuts are going to come they're going to take down something like rent net or public broadcasting or they're going to be things that people feel. I don't think that it's the right approach. The governor doesn't either and he'd much rather work in the in the long term to resolve the fiscal the fiscal dilemma.

The different budget. Projects that were announced a couple of weeks ago. The 96 budget. Cap was cow back up you know budget rather lacnic road and there's a couple of other lot of meetings on the list are those things going to be affected by by the slashing that's going on. What's the status. I don't know the particular state. I understand that legislative leaders want to pare or budget of 135 million down to about 100 million. They haven't indicated where those budget cuts would would come. They said they were looking at eliminating programs that did not have matching grants from communities. A lot of those unfortunately involve many of the village safe water and sewer type projects where there is no tax base to provide a local community match. I think if legislative leadership were to go ahead with that it would be very unfortunate resolving this

sanitation and the problems that exist in rural Alaska. It was one of the one of the problems one of the other priorities of the novel's administration and we think this is a good a good first step towards addressing those. But you know there's a little too soon to say we haven't seen exact cuts where they're where they're going to where they're going to come down on there. Are. Any other things the political end of things how the how the ball rolls in chair. Yeah. How the ball rolls down and you know. Yes it's interesting. You know I would say that you know this new job I find myself in is endlessly fascinating in a lot of ways just to be down there while it is all the decisions are being made to be to be involved at a close level. It is just a it's real interesting you know for it for me personally. Make no doubt about it though these are very tough times coming in in the years ahead.

And I think that you know I would just encourage folks out in rural Alaska especially you know folks in rural lasted to continue a strong voice downwith with the legislative legislative leaders the local legislators Senator Hoffman Representatives Ivan and Moses and voiced their concerns and and protect the protect you know the things that are important. Important to them and I'd like people to know that you know me the knolls administration certainly wants to hear from you and I'm always happy for my secretary that I take all Dillingham calls and calls from Bristol Bay. It goes the same way that I'm always happy to talk with folks and I certainly return phone calls and I'd be more than happy to you know people. If people in this area even just need some help finding directions around the

bureaucracy and need to know someone who to talk to or whatever. My number down and down and you know it's four six five thirty five hundred and feel free to give me a call anytime. But it's an interesting job that's for sure and could be interesting. Interesting four years. What do you think agenda actually is a city like compared to dealing here. I actually prefer the pace of life back and doing it to be very much out of you know the political scene in Juneau is very much a pressure cooker especially right now with a legislative legislative session going on long hours at work. Sort of a beleaguered Tory social functions at night. You know going to endless receptions by you know by the Truckers Association of Alaska in India you have to you have to be there you know shake some hands and you know and you know and smile and do all that and it's a nice mission. This musing it's it's part of the job. But long hours and the like.

So in that respect you know it's great to be back in Dillingham and be able to you know take my tie off for the first time in in a while. I do what's nice about Juno though in particular is that it is that very pretty town you know nestled down in the mountains. It's nice too. I'm staying over I got a little apartment in Douglas and it's nice to go across the bridge and see the fishing boats there are more and up in the in the harbor and it makes me feel a little a little closer to home nice to the nice thing about you know is that it is that it's a town of about 30000 people and it's still relatively small. You know all of Alaska is just one big small town of course but. But Juneau itself has much more of a small town feel than say Anchorage does. And it's an easy town to walk around it's a pretty little pretty little town. But it still has a small town feel I was just joking I was in the food only and a big supermarket

there that you know. In downtowns you know in the first days I was first days I was there. And. And someone. In the produce section just happened to run into someone I knew and actually every time Im boodle and you run into run into people invariably you know this guy said oh I hear you had moved into so and so's old apartment and it which is right you know to go. How did you know that. And it's not you know it's it's a small town and you know people people people who wear that and actually that made me it made me kind of smile and think of doing him because he's in Dillingham you know everybody everybody knows everybody in there and it was kind of nice. Good. Well it's nice to meet you Bob. Well it's a pleasure to be here Alexia. And it's good to be back. Good to be back and keep my fingers crossed and you know the administration certainly working hopefully.

And you know Katie OGL and the other public broadcasting outlets and you know the communities will will will they will maintain their presence on the on the airwaves in the years to come. We're pull and we're pulling for for the communities as well so good you want to sign up for all times good luck and good fishing. Welcome to neighbors I'm Alexi Rubenstein fisheries education is a major theme of the Bristol Bay fish conference taking place in Dillingham this week. Organizers of the conference agree that to plot a course for the future of Bristol Bay kids need to be involved. On Saturday afternoon at 1:30 in the middle school gym teachers parents business owners state and federal agency workers and others will gather for a roundtable discussion

addressing how resources can be mustered to meet the needs of fishery education in the Bristol Bay part of the round table discussions will concentrate on a new integrated fisheries education programme being designed for dealing him kids. It's a pilot program one of two in the state that has received initial federal funding. I spoke with a few of the program's organizers last week Cordova educator Belle Nicholson Laurel Devaney a U.S. Fish and Wildlife education coordinator from Fairbanks in Markley sick of dealing him fish and wildlife branch. I asked Belle Nicholson about her background and how the integrated fishery education program came to be. I guess this is my second trip out of Dillingham to try to help. Getting education going to school actually my or third trip. I came initially with the elementary school see River week program and spent a couple times doing teaching workshops and when the teachers in the school's on field trips and then I came back to try to get a high school program going. And this

time. I've been thinking about state wide fisheries education. And we've met up with the Fish and Wildlife Service to get some initial funding and we're planning to do two pilot communities in Galena and in Dillingham. And I guess one reason we picked Dillingham was because there was already if much of fisheries education kind of things started and people wanted to do more. And so that's why this trip out here is to try to get together and maybe I can give some of the experiences from other parts of the state and then I'll get some great ideas that we can take statewide once the Dillingham program and Bristol Bay region program is fully developed. So anyway that's kind of why I came here. Did you write right away to Laurel and kind of you took it from there as education coordinator for fish and wildlife or what happened. I came up to this job from Oregon and I was hired by the Fairbanks

fisheries office with the U.S. mission Wildlife Service and I was hired by a man who's really had a dream of environmental education for many many years he's. The goal of his office has mainly been biological research and management efforts with area refuges. But he has always felt that education was extremely important. So even when I was still down in Oregon he mailed me Bell's proposal and said This is what I think Alaska needs fisheries are one of the top. Concerns these days fisheries hire more people than any other industry in the state and this is what people are excited about. This is where our concerns are and this is where our kids really need education. So that's how it all got started. Pretty much was through my supervisor in my office so I got connected with them we started working together. So this has been in the works for quite a while. Well how long have you been watching this. It's been years.

Well yeah I was involved after we got our Cordova commercial fisheries program going into high school I began writing state wide fisheries curriculum for the Department of Ed and so that's kind of how I got interested in fisheries that I didn't write at all by myself by any means we had a lot of help from other teachers and other educators. And so anyway. We I did write this proposal and got initial funding for the safety aspects of the proposal from the legislature and so all the legislators have been real supportive and I don't know I think fisheries education seems like an obvious thing in Alaska where it is our most important natural resource. So anyway I hope we can get something going in the schools and compliment you know little things here and there the teachers are doing and make it into a broad based thing with a lot of community support and I think that's the biggest key to keeping a program going is the community interest that I know with this the river week program. When I

came in did workshops out and back Alaska one of the local teachers John Payne Guy X picked it up and they do it to this day because he took it on as his program and took the kids out for a week of it. Coming in and boats and skiffs and getting involved in really seeing the resources of the sea and taking the kids out on these trips and bringing one time I guess they got a beluga whale and brought it back and everybody in the village helped cut it up and they had a big party and. And so I mean I just kind of think of it that's the kind of thing that we're looking for is something that local people really get involved with and and take and make their program and we can keep it from year to year as people come and go but the program will still still remain and. And I think if we can get local kids really involved in helping to make wise resource decisions because they know so much about the fisheries that's that's the kind of thing we're looking for and also when they're talking about

math and science and language arts if they have real life examples from right here on the you know. Bristol Bay region then they're going to be so much more interested in this kind of a thing and hopefully to that they will become some of the resource managers of the future working for Fish and Game and Fish and Wildlife Service because they'll get this initial interest from right here and realize how important is to get their math and science and go on to the university and succeed and and they'll be managing the resource. So either as professionals or as voters and people involved in the fishery So anyway I guess that's what we're counting on is that the kids are well hopefully get involved and take over kids growing up in Bristol Bay they probably already have fairly good knowledge of fisheries and they're going to thing and most of them I imagine probably work on the boat to do that kind of thing. How would this be different what kind of things would be different what would have they would have been missing out right now that this this program would would provide them with.

Well I think it would give him a real good biological basis. And also too even though kids may hang around elders and so forth they may not get a chance to really sit down and talk with him and be out in the field with them. As they look over fish and show him where the fish are caught and the types of fisheries that they used to have in the past in the Bund and so the fish. And so I hope you know given the kids a chance not only to get in closer contact with biologists but also with the elders and commercial fishing is becoming so technical logically oriented that I think it's really important that we give our kids the best training possible not only in techniques of navigation and electronics but also fish business fish seafood marketing and taxes and all this kind of paperwork applying for a boat and a permit and how come they can save to get the capital together to get their own boats and permits and how

they can get involved in the Bering Sea fishers that they want to and basically give them a lot of economic opportunities right here in the region so that they can either make money to go get. Further education somewhere else but that they have the option of staying here and really making a good living from the resources and that the resources will still be there for their grandchildren and great grandchildren. So that's what you mean by integrated. It will involve quite a bit of everything that's kind of the hot hot thing education is trying to integrate integrate other topics some kind of involve everything together. What has been the fish and wildlife so background and education programs most people when they think about fish and wildlife they don't really have too much experience with education I don't usually think of education programs is a large large portion of fish and wildlife activities are. I think it's something that's rapidly growing in the Fish and Wildlife Service we started out as land managers and resource managers. But I think more and more we're finding that. We need to work with our partners in the

community that Fish and Wildlife Service can't conserve. And create a sustainable resource on our own. We need to work with all the agencies and we need to work with the communities and instill a sense of stewardship in the next generation coming along so we might not have started out with a strong education role but it's becoming stronger all the time because we're finding really beginning to feel that that's the way to make long lasting change and that's the way to have a strong impact on our resources. Regulations are part of it research is part of it so we understand that resource better and can manage it better but we also need to instill in the community and families and parents a stronger sense of their own role and research resource stewardship and so I think I think that you're seeing more and more positions like mine are actually being created and there's a lot of people that their job might actually be working as a wildlife biologist but they're so interested and so committed to education that they're making it part of what they do about policy come about is

that something that's kind of coming from above or just something that's generated on its own or it actually is coming from our director Molly Beatty has stated that environmental education resource education is something we will do that it is important and that the future of our natural resources across the country isn't guaranteed unless we get kids committed to helping with that preservation. You know I think on a local or regional level who we are. I had some successful programs that you kind Delta use management plan and that whole calendar program in the education program in the schools made people realize that through that involvement the Fish Wildlife Service and the other agencies who can really make a difference. And as far as the fisheries curriculums have gone you know we've done a little bit of piecemeal sort of work in the schools different village schools and locally here in Dillingham and we started it a year ago

sat down with middle school science teachers Dennis Dean Susan Foster and Daniel Shawn and started to outline a more comprehensive program starting with the sixth graders maybe going all the way through 12th and pick on some local areas that we could apply some of the. The science techniques to and and put it right in their backyard use the squat quick drainage as an example and just begin dissecting that drainage. You know everything that's in it. And develop a long term database so that every year the sixth graders would do a certain portion of that and has all sixth graders turned into 10th 12th 11th graders. They would have gone to all the steps. And then after 10 10 years or so we'd have quite a database there and the kids would feel more of an ownership than an realize what their local

resources are all about. So it was the squab Creek project that you started is that going to be kind of dovetailed with this integrated fisheries project. Is that going to work hand-in-hand. How does that going to develop. We really see the Squaw Creek project as a really powerful building block. This whole program is in its infancy it's a pilot program. So our great goal is to have a fisheries education program throughout Bristol Bay and eventually throughout the state. But we need to start somewhere. And Dillingham in the community of galena on the Yukon rivers where we're trying to pilot a pilot to fisheries projects where we get the community excited about their local wetlands their local fisheries resource. Then we start integrating fisheries issues into the existing classroom curriculum. And over time we want to build that to a regional and state level. So what we're doing here I think if it keeps going the way we want it to we're going to see it spreading continuously throughout the region and throughout the state.

Can you describe a little bit for me the camp that is being planned for this fall. Well I think that the camp concept is still kind of up in the air but what timeline we're looking at now is finishing up the curriculum develop Manning and get the commitment from the teachers and do a teacher scientist sort of field trip get more of the agency people involved for this spring with hopes of next fall getting the actual water sampling of vegetation mapping and land use mapping program going with the kids. That's as far as a squat Crick program goes. And then also we would have Bell and Laurel come back and hold and in service with the teachers on the other aspects and I'm not I don't think anybody's real sure yet whether we're going to end up with a weeklong camp and what that would entail.

Well I guess it's up to the school and the kids and the teachers. As far as what they plan I guess what from my standpoint I've been pushing camps it sounds like there's already quite a few camps going here in Bellingham but I just think that those whether they're after school summer time or during school I think camps are incredibly valuable for the local students and local people and it's a great way to transfer information. And I guess it's the traditional way of learning in this area to have this go out to fish camp and so maybe it might not be happening right away but I hope that that will be part of an integrated fisheries program is some kind of fish camping experience where the kids get out and really experience. What kinds of things people do in fish camps the kinds of things people did in fish camp a hundred years ago or whatever. So anyway that's what I think when you're talking about kids that's the kind of thing that you want to do is some of these long term projects either

a long term biological investigation like Squaw Creek but also a long term camping in damp camping experience. One thing I would look forward to is trips to for some of the older kids as they get involved going out to Dutch Harbor seeing the kind of fisheries they have here the people are really excited about coming here to visit the Bristol Bay fisheries and in turn going to clean and see what they've gotten here go to Cordova see the kind of fisheries here get to go to the legislature and some of the fish board meetings and kind of really get a picture of the whole thing. State wide and global fisheries issues going to fish Expo I've always thought that would be such a neat thing to take a group of kids down there and I think all these trips are something that would be a lot of preparation beforehand they could be some of the most meaningful part of the whole Their whole education one trip that we did in Cordova was we took the marine biology teacher and I took 11 kids to y

e over spring break and we took 90 pounds of salmon and the kids wrote a little brochure telling about Alaskan salmon and of course pushing Cordo salmon. So I'm really expecting great things from you know rest of waking you know to push. But basically the idea that Lask wild salmon are the best you can get in and what we did was we not only had a written little written brochure that we put together telling people about the five kinds of salmon and I mean a lot of people may not realize that how great reds and kings and silvers are and you know the different uses the different tastes of the types of salmon and different recipes. A lot of people don't know how to cook fish I remember my mom as a kid growing up and she had broil that fish and it was hard as rocks you know no wonder I didn't like it. She did. But anyway I think we have a lot of education to do and these kids put a program together for Kapiolani community college they're calling every arts program and cooked up all these little things for the chefs and they had a little

slide show they had put together in a video that they'd gotten from the Alaska seafood Marketing Institute and each kid had three or four lines or paragraphs that they had written up and told and they were so proud of themselves of what they accomplished by talking to adults and hopefully Of course the people love the salmon hopefully some of these guys when they get to be chefs and major hotels serving millions of people year they will request Alaska salmon. So it was and of course they did it we did a lot of marine biology and a little body boarding and snorkeling and yes it was definitely. But you know for kids in court Oh I'm sure it's just like kids around here. I mean they don't get a chance to travel that much. And Hawaii is like a whole nother world with a whole different culture. And it really opened up their eyes to what the world is interested in. And you know when you think about 90 percent of Alaskan salmon

being bought by Japan you know kids need to know about these other cultures and appreciate them and be interested in learning their languages and so. I think it's it was just great for all the kids and I'm I want to do some follow up but I would imagine that was probably the highlight of the whole high school career was just this one trip and so I there's a lot of neat trips in the state and out of state that we can organize but I would like to see that kind of thing happening. So one thing I think a lot of my views on what I'd like to see in officiers education program in Alaska come from where I've been. I moved up here from Oregon where a huge number of the wild fish stocks are devastated to the point that they're being listed as endangered her threatened. And I was talking to a man and he said Isn't it odd that we tend to jump on the bandwagon to get excited. Late in the game he said there are so many fisheries curriculums in Oregon and Washington State talking about endangered fish but we don't have a good education program in Alaska where we still have

a nearly pristine fishery. And so what I'd like to see is us to start educating people now and getting them excited and realizing the worth of what we've got. But also the dangers I think there's definitely warning signals that we need to be thinking about how we're managing our fisheries we need to be really. Taking a hard roll or hard look at education so that what we've got will always have. We need to develop some foresight here so that kids get excited about the fisheries before they're in trouble so that we'll always have them. I think that's our big goal and our big dream. The Bristol Bay fish conference there's a round table discussion on fisheries education and things like that. What kind of place is this program going to have and that is there anything that's coinciding with that. Well I think in preparation for that conference a number of agencies here in town got together and we're going to have a goal

statement. And it what we want to have is a statement that summarizes all of our views on the needed components for fisheries education. I think we we've all decided that you need to start somewhere so we will put forth what we see among this group as our goal statement. And then it can be discussed and modified and refined to be an umbrella goal that will start to guide us as we build this regional fisheries education program. Will my understanding of the fish conference. Education roundtable on that in the past has bene discussed more that it's needed and what what needs to be done and I think this year one thing they're going to attempt to do differently is have students and parents and teachers come in and talk about you know what they want to see what really needs to be done. And I think if if the mission or the goal statement that we come up with in our little working group here is

acceptable to to the rest of the panel members there or whoever is there the community. We can settle on that then the next thing we need to discuss is this approach is this going to work. Will people commit their time to be on this team commit there maybe some of their staff time to participate on the team and to coordinate some activities and be involved. But you know I think a lot a lot of the agencies us included. Would be willing to be more involved with the school programs knowing exactly what it is we need to do. And part of the team is identifying what those components are. Getting those curriculums that already exist implemented I think just the summation is that Alaska arguably has the one of the best fisheries in the entire world and we're in the heart of all that's good about it here in Bristol Bay So it's really time to get the kids excited about fishing to get a

good fisheries education program in the classrooms. And I just close by saying even though we have this wonderful coppery red face Real over in Cordova and lots of wonderful people I'll tell you I've been incredibly impressed by the people that you have here in the Bristol Bay region and I guess as I said at the meeting last night if you guys can't develop a incredibly fantastic model program I don't think it can be done. So I I'm really expecting great things because of all the outstanding people here and all the resources I mean we just started listing the amazing amount of things that are available here that could be used in a school program and both human and non-human in boats and gear and all kinds of equipment so I'm I'm really looking forward to what comes out of here and I think it will be an incredibly outstanding. Thank you for tuning into neighbors if you have ideas or suggestions for the show. Please give us a call here at KTLA G 8 4 2 5 2 8 1. Or you can also drop us a card at Katy LG neighbor's box 670

Dillingham 9 9 5 7 6 4 Katy LG. I'm Alexa Rubenstein. This is my carter. I'm a 737 pilot from Ark air from Dillingham and I wanted to explain in part to all of you what we are really trying to do. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan has been proposed to the Alaskan industrial development and Export Authority for the acquisition of a majority holding of Mark air. Great deal of examination of the company its finances and operations is being done and has been done to assure ourselves the pilots mechanics customer service representatives flight attendants accountants all of us at Merc air that what we are attempting to do is reasonable good business impossible. We have

had very able financial legal and business assistance in the development of this plan. In order to acquire a majority share of market share the employees are taking significant pay reductions and using the funds to finance a loan for the acquisition of the company's stock. In order to do this. We have been advised that we will need a guarantee in addition to the collateral. This is why Ada has been approached to provide the guarantee. Of. A guarantee just like Chrysler Corporation once obtained. From Congress when it also established an employee stock ownership plan. I think that supporting an Aesop. Is a very legitimate utilization of Ada. I would like to see other Alaskan corporations make similar opportunities available to their employees. In the airline industry it has worked and is working at United Airlines. I think it's an idea a concept of

employee owner a corporate participation whose time has come. A great deal of effort has gone into developing the Aesop proposal and structuring the Aesop document by some very able financial legal and technical staff personnel as well as Mark air employee groups. Its design has as its intent to ensure to the greatest extent possible that the objectives and purposes of an Aesop are assured that the company operate with corporate responsibility that it be managed profitably. It is my hope and expectation that we can retire these up financing not only through our salary and work contributions but from an improved operating results. We have collectively and diligently examined and are examining any and all of vailable financial and operational data on the company to assure ourselves that what we are attempting to do is a reasonable good business and possible. We will not and would not request the ATR involvement unless the structure of the Aesop

plan the business plan for the corporation and the financial projections indicate a reasonable expectation of being able to perform successfully. What I'm really trying to convey at this point is that I think we have a viable proposition which deserves a fair open and thorough evaluation. I hope that in the weeks ahead we can discuss this matter and weigh its merits carefully. I have done business with Mark care and I'm flying the 737. While very much enjoyed and been challenged by the flying end of things the business aspects at times have required some efforts and attention. There are many times during the bankruptcy proceedings when things were looking very tough. But we've made it to date and I think we stand a chance of really turning it into a very special and successful company whose home really is in Alaska. Thank you very much.

Hello my name is Dan Sieberg and I'm the Dillingham station manager for painter. I'd like to present our view of the proposed loan guarantee to mark here. First of all there should not be any special financial assistance given to any firm competing in the free market system by special assistance. I mean a loan given without adequate collateral or the ability to repay ADA has assisted Alaska interests into types of loans. Number one is participation in loans to companies with adequate collateral and repayment capability markers first loan from Ada in 1901 met this criteria using hangers for collateral. Number two is speculative ventures which include the Delta barley project point McKenzie farms and the Red Dog Mine. You know these speculatory ventures they have been projects the private sector wouldn't finance and there was no competition to displace. The current request for a loan fits this speculatory type in an area where there is already proven enterprise to provide

competition on January 20th. Ada issued a preliminary term sheet this document called for five and a half million to be repaid to Article Aska drilling which is own any normal lender would insist that if he is so sure of success he could certainly stake his own money on himself. Mark Eyre has a total of fourteen hundred and seventy seven employees with currently about seven hundred fifty in Alaska. When we shut down in 1905 with no warning there was no overnight loss of 900 jobs of which many were absorbed by competitors. There are far more jobs at stake from the competing in lines which number three thousand one hundred employees whose jobs would be in jeopardy if Mark Eyre receives an unfair advantage in competition. As for the employee stock plan that would be fine except shouldn't the employee

stock plan be formed first and have them request the loan with markers backing in approval. The way it is now the loan may be given and then if the employee stock plan fails. Who is going to get the money. Everyone is concerned about service. So let's address that. Marc your express is not named in the loan so we are only looking at Mark air. They have a total of 14 737s only two of which cover their interest Alaska routes 8 rural points in Alaska no longer receive marker 737 service. This includes Dillingham and king salmon. I would like to point out that marker is not the only airline in Alaska and history will repeat itself. We have seen many companies that do not survive due to economic factors that they place on themselves. We have also seen that when it appears someone is making money in a market or segment another company will step in for a slice of the pie and that

won't change. Therefore prices will continue to stay competitive because of the competition provided by the many airlines operating in Alaska. In closing I would urge everyone to call or write your legislature and support this opinion. Thank you.