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14/7/28 KNBA News - Allakaket residents oppose a 200-mile road to Northwest Alaska

Residents of Allakaket oppose a road that would span from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska over concerns about its impacts to already depleted hunting and fishing populations. A mining company estimates there are hundreds of millions of tons of copper, zinc, and lead in the Ambler Mining District.

The number of king salmon returning to spawn in the upper Yukon River have exceeded the minimum required by Pacific Salmon Treaty between the United States and Canada. The goal is 42,500, and sonar counts last week showed nearly 50,000 near the border.

As KNOM's Ben Matheson reports, commercial fishing on the Kuskokwim River is on hold as state managers assess the number of silver salmon, or cohos, returned to spawn. Long closures on king salmon fisheries, and a weak chum run, have subsistence fishers calling for federal management of the fisheries.

KYUK's Charles Enok reports the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the Metlakatla tribe in southeast Alaska are signing an agreement that will all the VA to make direct loans to Native Americans on tribal lands, the first such agreement in Alaska.