Two Matanuska Crewmembers positive for COVID-19
No close contacts between crew and passengers
Tuesday PM (SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - On Saturday, April 17, while underway from Bellingham to Ketchikan, a member of the Matanuska s engineering crew began showing symptoms of COVID-19. The ship s captain followed the AMHS COVID-19 mitigation plan and quarantined the crewmember in their cabin with the ventilation system turned off. When Matanuska arrived in Ketchikan on Sunday, the crewmember was transported to Ketchikan Hospital, where they tested positive for COVID-19.
AMHS coordinated with the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center and Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to conduct additional testing and contact tracing. No passengers were identified as close contacts, and testing located one additional positive case among the engineering crew.
Conservation and climate groups call on USDA to end taxpayer subsidies for Tongass logging
Tuesday PM (SitNews) Washington, D.C. - A coalition of conservation and climate organizations have submitted a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, asking his agency to “take the fiscally responsible step of prohibiting federal funds from being used to pay for, subsidize, design, study or construct roads for logging in the Tongass National Forest.”
The Tongass National Forest is the cornerstone of Southeast Alaska’s economy, attracting people from around the world for world-class recreation, hunting, and sport and commercial salmon fishing. In recent years, the tourism and commercial fishing industries that depend on a health Tongass have generated $1 billion apiece in annual economic benefit. The timber industry, on the other hand, presently provides less than 1% of jobs in the Southeast economy. Despite that reality, the Tongass timber program h