On a dreary evening late last week, dozens of people packed into the back of the Haines Public Library. Before long, two attendees broke into a chant.

“No road! No road! No road!” they shouted.

Their words captured the tenor of the gathering, which centered around a controversial effort by the state of Alaska to study what it would take to build a road that would – at least in theory – better connect Juneau, Haines and Skagway.

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced the study last spring, indicating that the plan was to assess options for the route along the west side of the Lynn Canal.

The agency organized last week’s open house-style event to provide information to the community and get feedback.

“We’re trying to show people what this project looks like, what potential benefits there are. We also want to understand everybody’s concerns,” said Greg Lockwood, DOT’s Southcoast region project manager.

Some locals have expressed support for the idea, noting that the state ferry system is unreliable and that a road could open up access for recreation and other purposes. But others are opposed, for a long list of reasons.

Attendee Shannon Donahue, who initiated the “no road” chant, is among them. In an interview, she said that as she sees it, it’s clear the state’s central goal is to “create roads to resources.”

“It’s unlikely that this whole thing is going to come to fruition,” Donahue said. “Pieces may come to fruition. Roads to logging, roads to mines, and you know, that can do a lot of damage.”

Others at the open house raised the same concern, particularly given that state officials recently unveiled plans to remove longstanding logging restrictions in the Haines State Forest and open up the entire area to logging. The potential west-side road would run through that forest and could provide better access for timber sales.

In a phone interview following the open house, DOT’s Lockwood said finding ways to partner with and benefit industry is an important part of the process. He added that the potential project “is just not purely a ferry terminal, and road to a ferry terminal.”

“If we can find added value, a freight dock, if we can find a way for mining trucks coming from the Yukon to use [a west side road] and stay out of town, or if there’s timber to be harvested, that would all be value added that would help support this roadway,” Lockwood said.

Critics of the idea have also raised concerns including the rugged terrain along the canal, which would complicate building a road and maintaining it, particularly during winter.

Other worries include implications for people traveling by ferry without a vehicle – and potential environmental impacts of the road itself.

“The Marine Highway is an excellent alternative,” said Sky Skiles, another attendee. “I think putting money into that to keep it in good shape is a better alternative than to cause so much damage to our environment.”

A new ferry terminal, route options

The idea of building a road between Juneau and Haines has been around for decades. But it’s never come to fruition, despite a smattering of earlier feasibility studies. This time around, the study will cost at least $1 million and is being carried out by DOWL LLC, a Washington-based consulting firm.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration says a road would create more cost-effective and efficient transportation for the region. That idea is that the road in Haines would reduce the length of ferry service between the two locations.

The contractor is studying two main route possibilities, which were illustrated in detail on maps set up during the event last week. Both rely on a yet-to-be-built ferry terminal at Cascade Point, about 30 miles north of Juneau.

The state signed an initial contract for that project this summer, a move that sparked criticism in the upper Lynn Canal but was welcomed by a mining company planning an ore shipping facility in the same location.

Under the first route option, travelers starting in Juneau would need first to travel from town to Cascade Point. From there, they would take a ferry across the canal to William Henry Bay, at which point they would drive north until they hit a bridge back into Haines.

In the second option, travelers would still need to get to Cascade Point and board a ferry. But the ferry would take them further north to Pyramid Harbor, near Haines. From there, they’d drive a much shorter distance to a bridge and then cross back into Haines.

Notably, neither option, as illustrated on maps, indicates how people would get to Skagway.

Lockwood, of DOT, emphasized that it’s still early days, and the agency is still purely gathering information.

“People need to understand this, this isn’t a done deal.” he said. “We haven’t made any decisions.”

The agency plans to have a draft report in December and a final version in January, which will be used to inform next steps. The public can ask for more information and provide feedback by emailing ChilkatConnector@dowl.com.

Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the Center for Community are hosting a community baby shower for all expectant parents and families with babies under one year. Santana Sumauang and Erika Apathy, with the Center for Community, join the Morning Interview to discuss the event, and how they hope to connect community members with each other and to community resources.

The community baby shower 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Listen to the conversation here:

Ladies and Gentlebears, welcome to Fat Bear Week 2025! 

This annual, week-long competition from Katmai National Park is a celebration of a summer’s worth of hard work, a hat tip to a healthy ecosystem and a collection of survival stories. The bears have been busy feasting on salmon and stocking up on nutrients for their winter hibernation, and they’ve got the fall bods to prove it. 

What started as a one-day event in 2014 conjuring the attention of a few thousand nature conservancy social media followers has grown into a week-long event boasting 1.2 million votes last year. There are fat bear fans in every part of the country, fat bear curriculums in classrooms, fat bear campaign posters, fat bear Spotify playlists and, of course, fat bear bets on who will be crowned the champion. 

Similar to March Madness, Fat Bear Week is a bracket-style, single elimination tournament. New to the scene? I’m here to break it down for you: 

Who’s in the bracket? 

Not all the bears at Katmai are contenders. Rangers refill the roster largely based on the availability of spring and fall comparison photos, the bear being fat, and other unknown-to-us but reasonable reasons. The much-anticipated 2025 bracket was released bear-by-bear Monday live and on Youtube. You can find the complete list of all twelve competitors, before-and-after photos as well as short biographies at FatBearWeek.org. 

How does it work / How do I vote?

Fat Bear Week is Tuesday, Sept. 23 through Tuesday, Sept. 30. Each day, one or two matches will be posted on FatBearWeek.org. Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. AKST, you may vote for one bear in each match. The winner of each match is announced that evening and advances to the next round.

Which fat bear do I vote for?

The voting rubric is different for different people. Some folks believe you should only vote for the physically, empirically, literally, fattest bear. Some believe it’s a matter of weight gain. That is, you should determine which bear was most successful in becoming a fat bear between spring and fall. Others believe that fatness is a symbol of overall survival and that one should vote on a fat bear’s skills, success and story arc. Who here is giving off main character vibes? Vote for them! 

Personally, I love Fat Bear Week for the poetry: the 230 Ben dancer in us. The 128 Grazer fierce mama in us. I love Fat Bear Week for the stories: 32 Chunk eating with a broken jaw; 503, the adoptee, who befriends all. Above all, I love Fat Bear Week for the kinship between bears, and between us and the bears. 

Whether you’re a Fat Bear Week superfan or a newcomer to the scene, I hope you find a bear to throw your weight behind. We’re zooming in on a robust ecosystem that nourishes larger-than-life bears. Surviving was yesterday; today we’re thriving. Let’s celebrate!

Listen here:

Learning outdoors is nothing new for students in Juneau’s Tlingit, Culture, Language and Literacy program. That’s what they did on their first field trip of the year, where they learned about Lingít language and values through foraging and processing local foods. 

Students, teachers and families walk through squishy, mossy muskeg near the Eagle River United Methodist Camp north of Juneau. First grader Owen Roehl crouches over small, short bushes peppered throughout the area, putting green and yellow leaves into an empty yogurt container looped around his neck.

“We’re picking s’ikshaldéen, also known as Hudson Bay tea,” he said.

Owen said picking tea has been his favorite part of the day so far.

Seventh grader Cassius Allen is one of the older students picking tea. Cassius said he thinks the tea will taste good once they process it. 

“Probably gonna have to mix it up with some other flavors so it tastes not plain and normal,” he said.

Cassius got help from eighth grader Leighton Heppner to identify the tea leaves. Leighton said he learned from friends and teachers.

“They said, ‘always make sure it’s yellow at the bottom, like fully yellow or partially yellow, and it will still work,’” he said.

Overall, Cassius appeared to have some fun while picking tea, getting part of a leaf up Leighton’s nose when holding it out for him to smell.

This is part of a longstanding field trip for students at Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy, a Lingít language immersion school. It’s not just for the students. They’re joined by families and volunteers, as well as students from Haa Yoo X̱’atángi Kúdi, a Lingít language preschool. That’s a language immersion preschool where children primarily speak in Lingít.

Things have changed slightly after the program expanded to middle school. While it’s normally a day trip, it’s turned into an overnight field trip for the older students.

Naakil.aan Hans Chester is a biliteracy specialist at the school. He said getting students out of the classroom opens the door for a lot of learning. 

“In this context, it’s real living, and they hear us using the language with each other and communicating, or just even expressions, to say when you’re doing something, and it’s in context and it makes sense,” he said.

In addition to tea, students also learned to fillet salmon and make jam. Chester said the jam was going to be given to guests at a Ku.éex’ – or potlatch – the next day.

“When we do our Ku.éex’, it’s to honor our lost clan members,” Chester said. “And so, you know, it’s really important for us to teach these skills to our kids, so when they grow up and they lose their mom or their sister or their cousin or whoever that’s in their family, they’ll have these skillsets to rely on so that they can do what we do.”

Chester said this field trip makes him feel like the school is in a stronger place than it was before.

“Hearing them use the language more, some of them stepping up and becoming leaders out here, is really awesome to see”

In the camp kitchen, Lingít language teacher Nae Tumulak portions out bowls of fish soup. The middle schoolers filleted coho salmon for it the night before. Tumulak said she likes getting to know the students more, both new and old.

“Just seeing them in their element, being able to witness a lot of their growths and everything like that, it’s been a lot of fun,” Tumulak said. “They’re also incredibly hilarious. So it’s been entertaining.”

Once they’re back at school, Chester said they will process the tea and give it away to community members.

With the sun shining and no-see-ums buzzing around, excavation contractor Troy Bayne cuts out pieces of tarp over a patch of muskeg.

“This is a barrier to keep the rock from sinking into the muskeg. It just adds stability to the rock,” Bayne explains.

Bayne has been hired by the Sitka Community Garden for the past few weeks to prepare the land for the next phase of construction. One of the main things he is working on today is building a layer of gravel that will serve as an area for street parking, as mandated by the city government. 

“So this will all be gravel for the timebeing, possibly a concrete slab underneath the shed roof. This will be the access from the parking lot to the garden beds right through here,” says Bayne. “We’ll have a dump truck here in a minute, and you can see the process of actually putting the rock on the fabric.”

This construction is being funded by a $345,000 grant awarded to the community garden by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Joel Hanson, the project manager for the community garden, is assisting Bayne in preparing the land for excavation. He found out the week prior that he won the grant he applied for. He says he’s been collaborating with Transition Sitka and the Sitka Local Food Network on this project for the past two years.

“It’s pretty exciting. I didn’t think we’d get this far along,” says Hanson. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but at least some number of community members will be able to start growing gardens in their rented plots next year.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Indian River, a 40,000 square foot area of muskeg has recently been approved to be the home of a new community garden in Sitka.

“We’re at the very end of Rudolph Walton [Circle], and the garden will be off to the right here, off the little cul-de-sac.” 

That’s Jeff Feldpausch, the resource protection department director for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The organization recently won a $385,000 grant from the Native American Agricultural Fund to develop a community garden to support their current traditional foods program, as well as to provide tribal members with accessible food, even potentially encouraging them to grow their own, much to the delight of Feldpausch. 

“I’m jazzed! As soon as we got the funding, it’s like my mind started racing about all the things we need to do,” says Feldpausch.

The Native American Agricultural Fund previously funded a collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service in developing raised beds for Tlingit potatoes and 100 raspberry plants, which inspired the development of a community garden. The Tribe is partnering with the Baranof Island Housing Authority, known as BIHA for short, which helped them scout and finalize the plot of land the garden will eventually be built on. The two organizations found themselves working with the same people. 

“BIHA plays into this a lot too, because they have renters who don’t have property, the ability to have gardens of their own at the same time,” Feldpausch says. “A lot of their clients are tribal citizens. So we felt it was a good match there.” 

The grant will be used to fund garden development, as well as the salary of three Sitka Tribe staff who will be supporting garden programming.

As they begin executing this project, their staff have researched what other community gardens across Southeast Alaska have done. Hanson, from the current community garden, also reached out to the Tribe shortly after hearing of their grant. What both groups have in common is their resolute belief in the importance of community gardens given the current state of the economy.

“I think home kitchen gardens are going to become more and more important to people in Sitka in order to get by with rising prices and wages stagnating,” says Hanson.

Additionally, BIHA executive director Cliff Richter argues that community gardens create an opportunity for residents to explore gardening when they wouldn’t have the space to do it at their home. 

“When you’re in apartment living or higher density, there’s usually not a lot of room to do this sort of thing on your own property,” says Richter. “And so this is going to provide an opportunity for people to spread out and do some things they may not be able to do, and get creative with it too.”

While there are still development logistics to work through, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska hopes to begin construction on their garden next spring. 

If you are looking to get involved in either community garden, you can reach out to Joel Hanson at sitkajoel@gmail.com or call at 907-747-9834. For Sitka Tribe of Alaska, contact Sienna Reid at sienna.reid@sitkatribe-nsn.gov or call at 907-747-7111.

Cody Two Bear, who is Standing Rock Sioux, served on his tribal council during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2017. Growing up in a community powered by coal, the experience was transformative. “I’ve seen the energy extraction that has placed a toll significantly on tribal nations when it comes to land, animals, water, and sacred sites,” said Two Bear. “Understanding more about that energy, I started to look into my own tribe as a whole.”

In 2018, Two Bear founded Indigenize Energy, a nonprofit organization that works with tribes to pursue energy sovereignty and economic development by kickstarting clean energy projects. Last year, with nearly $136 million in federal funding through Solar for All, a program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, the nonprofit launched the Tribal Renewable Energy Coalition, which aims to build solar projects with 14 tribal nations in the Northern Plains.

But when President Donald Trump took office in January, those projects hit a wall: The Trump administration froze Solar for All’s funding. That temporarily left the coalition and its members earlier this year without access to their entitled grant (it was later released in March). However, the EPA is considering ending the program entirely. 

The coalition is back on track with its solar plans, but now tribes and organizations, like the ones Two Bear works with, are bracing for new changes.

When President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, or OBBB, became law last month, incentives for clean energy projects like wind and solar tax credits and clean energy grants were cut — a blow to the renewable energy sector and a major setback to tribal nations. Moves from federal agencies to end programs have shifted the project landscape as well. The current number of impacted projects run by tribes is unknown. According to the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, at least 100 tribes they have worked with have received funds from federal agencies and the Inflation Reduction Act; however, those figures could be higher. “Without that support, most of, if not all of those projects are now at risk for being killed by the new unclear federal approval process,” said John Lewis, the Native American Energy managing director for Avant Energy, a consulting company. 

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The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, for instance, has planned solar projects reliant on federal tax cuts. The projects were designed to power a community health clinic, schools, and a radio station that broadcasts emergency notices during winter storms. However, with the passage of the OBBB, the tribe must now begin construction by July of next year or lose credits, a feat that doesn’t account for the time it takes to secure capital in various stages, seek a complete environmental review, and navigate long permitting timelines through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

“Some of these projects, at a minimum, have stalled, or they’re having to be reworked in some way to fit within the current parameters that have been laid down by the administration,” said Verrin Kewenvoyouma, who is Hopi and Navajo, and a managing partner at Kewenvoyouma Law that assists tribes with environmental permitting, cultural resources, and energy development. “We have clients that are looking at creative solutions, trying to keep them alive.” 

In June, the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, a joint organization representing 12 federally recognized tribes in the state, joined a class-action lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, alongside a tribe in Alaska, arguing that the agency illegally froze access to promised project funds from the Environmental and Climate Justice block grant program. The now-defunct program promised $3 billion to 350 recipients to fund projects addressing pollution and high energy costs. Plaintiffs hope the program will be reinstated so that pending projects can be restarted.

Tribes are now seeking philanthropy, short-term funding, and conventional financing to cover delays and gaps in project costs. After the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians in California lost access to a $3.55 million BIA award to the tribe for solar microgrid development in March, the BQuest Foundation, which specializes in covering expenses needed to continue housing or climate-related projects, gave the tribe $1 million to resume the project’s timeline. 

Currently, the self-funded Alliance is covering tribal projects that have experienced a sudden loss in tax credits, rescission of federal funds, and uncertainty of direct pay. “We’re helping try to navigate this challenging period and continue on their self-determined paths, whatever it looks like for them — to energy sovereignty,” said Shéri Smith, CEO of the organization. At the moment, the Alliance is offering a mix of grants from $50 to $500,000, and loans up to $1 million, which will be converted to grants should a tribe default. 

“Tribes need to build up internal capacity to carry that out and to have control of their energy situation, for their at-risk members, and members in general,” said John Lewis. “ At such a critical stage, access to affordable, reliable electricity is paramount. The country is getting hotter. The world is getting hotter. It’s warming.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Tribal nations scramble to save clean energy projects as federal support vanishes on Aug 11, 2025.

Ketchikan students who don’t speak English as their first language got a win recently. The Ketchikan School Board voted to restore its English Language Learning department at its most recent meeting.

School board member Ali Ginter said that reestablishing the department is a matter of dedicating resources. She said it wouldn’t add an extra cost to the district. 

“We can provide sustainable support for our ELL students without financial strain. We’re focusing on the pivotal role of the superintendent’s appointment of an ELL department head,” she said at the meeting.

PJ Ford Slack is the interim Ketchikan school superintendent. The school board’s vote means that she is tasked with reestablishing the department and organizing ELL instructors. Ford Slack said at the meeting that she wasn’t yet sure what that entails. She said that the district has lost a lot of staff in the last year.

“I am just nervous about not being able to do a good job, especially in light of getting certified people to do ELL. I looked at our numbers, and I understand why that might be a good thing. But I just I need to hear a little bit more about how the committee thought that this would work here,” she said.

English Language Learners’ programs are federally mandated in schools. They support students who are navigating school in a new language. But Ketchikan schools have seen a sharp decline in these resources over the last decade. The department dwindled from half a dozen staff to none. Teachers have reported that the non-native English speakers in their classes have begun to fall behind. 

Board member Paul Robbins Jr. said it was a “no brainer” that resources should be restored but he disagreed that it would be “at no cost.”

“We have to task an administrator to be the head of this thing, which means we have to either pull them from another program or overload already overloaded administrators, because this board has removed so many administrators from the district that we are now so low on them that’s what’s going to happen,” he said.

The vote to restore the department passed unanimously after debate. 

The post Ketchikan school board to restore English Language Learners department in schools appeared first on KRBD.

Sunshine and warm temperatures brought a heat advisory to Juneau and surrounding communities on Monday.

The National Weather Service issued the advisory for Juneau, the Upper Lynn Canal, Gustavus, Hoonah, Tenakee Springs and Yakutat – where temperatures were expected to reach 80 degrees.

It’s the first-ever heat advisory for Juneau and much of the region, though the Weather Service issued similar advisories for the Haines Highway and Klukwan earlier this summer.

Heat advisories are new for Alaska. National Weather Service Forecaster Grant Smith says they started issuing them this year after establishing localized criteria that allows them to distinguish extreme heat conditions in Alaska from the Lower 48.

“We’re just not used to those warmer temperatures, and so we were starting off just working with our state climatologist and local management,” Smith said. “We have a threshold of 80 degrees is our starting point, and then we’ll adjust as need be going forward.”

Smith says Alaskans generally are not used to such high temperatures since they don’t happen very often. That can make it more dangerous for people with health issues and for pets.

“When we get to these warmer temperatures on sunny days, a car parked in a parking lot in the sun, an 80 degree temperature, the inside of the car can reach over 100 degrees in 15 to 30 minutes,” he said.

He also said that many people who have spent time outside Alaska notice that it often feels much warmer here than what thermometer shows. Part of that has to do with the sun’s angle.

“It’s so much more direct on us because it’s so much higher up,” he said. “It’s just all that sun’s energy is beating down right on you more directly, and so it feels warmer.”

Cloudy conditions are expected to return in the coming days, but while the warmth persists it’s important to stay hydrated, wear sunscreen and keep an eye out for heat exhaustion.

Last month’s commercial salmon harvest in the southern Alaska Peninsula was the lowest in four decades, according to the state’s preliminary data for the management region known as Area M.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, fishermen in the Shumagin Islands and South Unimak areas harvested about 720,000 salmon through the end of June — the second-lowest June on record since the 1980s.

Technically, the lowest harvest occurred in 2001, but Area Management Biologist Matthew Keyse said that year was an outlier due to a price dispute that kept many boats off the water.

“There was almost no fishing, so I would say, with fishing occurring, this is probably the lowest harvest in June,” he said.

Now, additional restrictions are further limiting the July harvest in an effort to conserve king salmon. A section of Area M where roughly 65% of the king harvest takes place was closed this week after the fleet harvested 1,000 fish, the limit for kings in the area.

Sockeye salmon, the primary target species, came in at under half a million fish last month. That’s less than a third of the 10-year average.

One possible factor is that the purse seine fleet has been voluntarily avoiding areas with high chum concentrations to support conservation goals. That’s because of record low chum returns in parts of western Alaska.

“They’ve been doing an excellent job of self-imposing these restrictions, and trying to avoid high, abundant chum areas, curtailing their own fisheries,” Keyse said.

Still, he said those efforts alone don’t fully explain the steep drop. The fleet has followed similar voluntary practices for the past three years, and the June harvest has never been this low.

On the other side of the peninsula, Bristol Bay is seeing a strong run that’s right on par with preseason forecasts. That contrast has Keyse scratching his head.

“Unfortunately, my fish crystal ball is pretty fuzzy,” Keyse said.

Fisheries on the southern peninsula include salmon stocks from multiple regions, so Keyse said it’s difficult to pinpoint a single cause. Factors like ocean conditions, migratory routes and stock origin could all play a role.

July numbers, so far, are looking much stronger, but Keyse said it’s still very early and didn’t make any predictions.

Among the 22 mushers who have signed up so far for the 2026 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a longtime backer competing under modified rules.

Norwegian businessman Kjell Inge Røkke’s entry is drawing mixed feelings from the dog mushing community.

“My initial reaction was a billionaire just bought his way into this race,” six-time Iditarod finisher Mille Porsild said.

Companies and subsidiaries owned by Røkke have sponsored the Iditarod since 2018. Røkke has even mushed sections of the trail with dogs trained by 2020 champion Thomas Waerner.

The Iditarod’s new Expedition Program will allow Røkke to race with outside support – unlike other competitors. Porsild said the announcement, which was released at midnight on June 14, caught her by surprise.

“What is it he bought himself into? Where are the rules? What is this?” Porsild said.

In the announcement, the committee’s CEO, Rob Urbach, called the creation of its Expedition Program a “new chapter in Iditarod history.” He claimed it would enhance the sport’s “global visibility, financial sustainability, and cultural outreach.”

Røkke will receive a modified “Expedition Class Finisher’s Buckle” for finishing the race, but is ineligible to actually win.

A spokesperson for the Iditarod Trail Committee said in an email that Røkke’s exemptions from the rules “mostly pertains to no outside assistance.”

Røkke will also skip the requirement to qualify by competing in shorter races like the Yukon Quest. Porsild said that troubled her the most.

“Anybody is not going to go, you know, participate in the Olympics,” Porsild said. “He needs to qualify, like any other musher, and show that he can actually manage a team of 16 dogs.”

Saturday signups

At the June 28 sign-up event in Wasilla, 2024 and 2025 runner-up Matt Hall said Røkke’s name didn’t come up.

“It was a fun day, and that’s how it should have been. I take that as a really good thing, you know, that whatever the little initial drama over it was and et cetera, has kind of passed,” Hall said.

Hall said he was holding out for more information, like how many snowmachines may be running support for Røkke.

“This gentleman isn’t there to take the first-place prize,” Hall said. “We don’t even really understand if he’s gonna be listed officially as a position or just a finisher. It’s information I want to know closer to date so that I can plan accordingly.”

Nic Petit, an 11-time Iditarod finisher, said he hoped Røkke’s inclusion would benefit mushers at the back of the pack.

“I understand you can’t hold volunteers over forever, but the biggest problem is that they can’t keep vets there forever,” Petit said. “But if this guy’s gonna be traveling with his own vet crew, then it’d be great for his vet crew to sign on to helping the back of the packers not have to go home.”

In exchange for being exempted from the full rulebook, Røkke is adding $100,000 to next year’s race purse and pledging $10,000 each to 17 villages along the race’s route. He also halved the registration cost for mushers entering the race and sent some cash to Iditarod HQ too.

Røkke’s contributions only apply to next year’s race, unlike other multi-year sponsorship agreements the Iditarod has brokered. In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Urbach said he hoped the Expedition Program would attract the likes of Elon Musk, Richard Branson or Snoop Dogg. But Petit said he took issue with that model.

“That’s one of the things about this guy, he’s been around the dogs,” Petit said. “I don’t think that you should be allowed to just hop on a sled you lease because you got some money and you know nothing about what you’re doing.”

Røkke declined a request for an interview, but told Norwegian news outlet VG that planning for next year’s race had been underway for over three years.