Rob Goldberg recently traveled to the Acoustic Alaska guitar camp, which has been happening for 22 years in Wasilla. He said it was his 10th year, almost consecutively except he skipped one during the pandemic. For a long time, Goldberg said he was the only person from Haines traveling to the camp. But this year he saw Marian Carlson, who came with her ukelele as well as Burl Sheldon and Tom Heywood. While the camp brings in world-class instructors and many people enjoy hearing each other play, Goldberg said he doesn’t get much of a chance to play himself because he’s too busy fixing everyone’s instruments. “It’s kind of a working vacation for me,” he said. “I fixed or adjusted about 40 instruments over the week.”
Kathleen Menke recently spotted a gyrfalcon, her first time seeing one in the area. She said there was the blood of a recent kill showing on its claws. Menke and photographer Kim Clune were traveling back from Haines Junction on a two-day venture into the Yukon to see fall colors when they spotted the bird. They stopped their car, got out with cameras and worked their way toward it, photographing it against the autumn tundra. Menke said they left without disturbing the bird. Chris Anne Niemela, an ornithologist, later helped ID the bird. Menke also said the fall colors in the Yukon are beautiful and suggests residents take the time to head up and see them.
The pickets on the weir on the Chilkoot River have been pulled out of the water. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports counting nearly 65,000 sockeye swimming upriver this year.
During Tuesday’s assembly meeting, Mayor Tom Morphet said 114 people have signed up to receive bear proof trash cans which the borough is offering in partnership with the nonprofit Defenders of the Wildlife. “Obviously we’re in the thick of bear season. The bears are in town in increasing numbers,” said Morphet. He asked that residents remember that there are a number of options available including electric fences through the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, a program through the Takshanuk Watershed Council where volunteers will pick fruit trees for residents, a pre-paid garbage bag program which allows residents to pick them up for free and clear garbage that could be bear attractants.