(Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News) Sheri and Craig Loomis show off the hillside of their property on April 1, 2025, in Haines, Alaska. Loomis, a Haines borough assembly member, was cited recently after firefighters responded to his property to put out a fire he started to burn brush, he maintains that it was never out of control.

On a recent sunny, dry Sunday afternoon between downtown Haines and the airport, a column of smoke rising from…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...