hoosing to manufacture in Alaska can seem like a fool’s mission.

“From a purely cost-performance perspective, you should probably never build stuff in Alaska,” says Nick Ferree, vice president of Equipment Source, Inc. (ESI). “But Alaska is home for us. We understand it.”

ESI isn’t alone in taking on the challenge. Hans Vogel, director of Palmer-based TriJet Manufacturing Services, is keenly conscious of the difficulties posed by the state’s large distances and small markets. By vertically integrating a workshop capable of computer numeric control (CNC) machining, welding, and powder coating, Vogel aims to bring Lower 48 prices to Alaska businesses that might otherwise shop Outside for their manufacturing needs. Plus, manufacturing workers get to stay in Alaska and enjoy living in the state.

From steel fabrication to assembling all-weather equipment, these companies choose to manufacture in Alaska and offer their services to other businesses in need of an assembly line.

hen Megan Militello learned that the Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)—the state’s only organization dedicated to helping manufacturers—was closing its doors, she knew something had to be done. Part of a national public-private network, Alaska MEP operated through the UAA Business Enterprise Institute as a “one-stop shop” for support and advocacy. Militello was a supply chain optimization manager with the Alaska MEP team.

Seeing a void to fill, Militello and Lacey Ernandes, both with manufacturing backgrounds from their work with Elevated Oats, founded the Alaska Manufacturing Association (AKMA).

yber insurance can help organizations alleviate the financial impact of cyberattacks and the emerging liabilities related to AI-enabled software tools. But with AI-specific coverage still being developed, businesses should carefully consider cybersecurity and AI insurance options for the most appropriate protection.

Given the steady growth of cyberattacks—especially those powered by AI—cyber risk and AI insurance are becoming indispensable. Major data breaches have struck companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, and even credit reporting bureau TransUnion. And due to Generative AI (GenAI), more sophisticated tools help hackers carry out more complex crimes. For example, GenAI-fueled fraud is increasing incidents of synthetic identity and deepfake schemes. Deepfake perpetrators are using AI-generated images, videos, and voices to impersonate executives, infiltrate their companies, and steal money.

he first pilot to buzz through Alaska’s sky was James Vernon Martin in the summer of 1913. He took off in his open-cockpit biplane from a ballpark in Fairbanks, soaring about 200 feet above the town as folks watched wondrously from front porches.

Martin had barely two years of experience when he brought aviation to the territory. A merchant mariner by trade, he became interested in aeronautical engineering within five years of the Wright Brothers’ epochal flight in 1903. He then went to England in 1911 to learn to fly the first production-line biplanes. After his visit to Alaska, Martin secured a patent for retractable landing gear, a rather influential bit of hardware.

Today, Alaskans from all backgrounds and corners of the state obtain licenses to fly planes and helicopters, earning a golden ticket to freely explore the state’s 665,000 square miles of rugged and fascinating terrain. Alaska boasts six times the number of certified pilots per capita compared to the rest of the country, on average, with 1 in every 100 Alaskans qualified to fly.

or decades, the Red Devil Mine in the Middle Kuskokwim River area has leaked mercury from its site, but remediation is on its way.

“While it’s not clear if this is the largest mining remediation ever done in Alaska, it’s certainly a large remediation,” says Public Affairs Specialist Gordon “Scott” Claggett of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Alaska. “210,000 cubic yards of contaminated tailings and material will be excavated and consolidated in an onsite repository.”

The mine is on land managed by BLM, and the agency is seeking $40 million for the cleanup.

obert Fithian, co-founder and manager of Sundance Mining Group, eagerly highlights certain details of Dawson Mine, an underground gold and silver producer that’s been operating quietly for eight years near Hollis on Prince of Wales Island. It’s the only mine permitted for year-round mining and milling since Kensington mine began production in 2010, he points out. Its mill uses no chemicals, relying instead on a gravity-only recovery circuit. It’s financially solvent, has no lost-time accidents, and is Prince of Wales Island’s leading private employer.

Fithian doesn’t immediately focus on how much gold and quartz Dawson Mine has yielded or the ins and outs of daily operation. He’s proudest, it seems, of how the mine has gained and maintained the support of the local community.

“If you want to do business in rural Alaska, you need to have respect for the people, their way of life, and the natural resources you’re going to impact,” he says.

ome hotels welcome camera crews shooting Bering Sea Gold, the Discovery Channel series about dredging the glittering sands of Norton Sound. The series debuted in 2012 and drew an average of 3 million viewers in its first season. Gold sustains the families who hunt for it underwater and, indirectly, stimulates the economic activity of TV production, local hospitality, and so on.

Discovery Channel also airs Gold Rush (titled Gold Rush: Alaska in the first season), which follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies in Alaska and the Klondike region of Canada. As of 2024, the show had run for 15 seasons and more than 170 episodes. It has also spawned various spin-offs, including Gold Rush: White Water, which features miners diving and suction dredging in the icy waters of McKinley Creek and Porcupine Creek near Haines. More than 2 million viewers tuned in for that show’s debut.

Television is the modern echo of newspaper bulletins that lured fortune-seekers North to the Future during the original Gold Rush days. And the ancillary economic activities the metal inspires are just the outer ripples of resource development that shows no sign of fading into Alaska’s history.

he Tongass National Forest, recognized as the world’s largest contiguous temperate rainforest and the largest national forest in the United States, features old-growth Sitka spruce, rugged mountainous landscapes, and extensive coastlines. Its ecosystem supports a variety of fish and wildlife species. The lands and waters of the forest also play a vital role in supporting the livelihoods and cultural practices of thirty-one communities and nineteen federally recognized tribes.

Southeast communities are intertwined with the forest, beyond the trees, according to Andrew Thoms, executive director of the Sitka Conservation Society.

“One of our top industries is commercial fishing, and our fishermen know they have to take care of those fish and the ocean because it’s what fuels their business. It puts food on their tables and money in their pockets. Finding that balance between how much fish to catch and how much to leave so that the business perpetuates year after year is necessary for continued success,” says Thoms.

ith the fewest farms of any state, Alaska has immense potential for increased production. The US Department of Agriculture’s census of the industry, based on data collected in 2022 and released in 2024, counted 1,173 farms in Alaska with a market value of agricultural products sold totaling nearly $91 million.

The market value of vegetable crops grown in Alaska, including the state’s significant nursery and greenhouse industry, totaled nearly $40 million in 2022. Just over half of that total ($21.6 million) came from nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod crops. The market value of livestock, poultry, and their products—including beef, pork, chicken, dairy, and eggs—totaled more than $51 million.

eaching a balance in Alaska’s natural resource-based economy means finding the point where sustainability meets profitability. The state Carbon Offset Program is one revenue source with the potential to contribute to Alaska’s economy while preserving natural resources and helping businesses accomplish carbon reduction goals.

able TV went dark this summer for customers of GCI, Alaska’s largest telecommunications provider. The blackout was hardly a surprise; the company warned last November that it would end the service by mid-2025. In its place, GCI directed customers to video streaming—in practice, not a big change from the set-top boxes GCI had leased to customers since acquiring several cable TV companies in the ‘90s.

CEO Ron Duncan co-founded the company in 1979 as a long-distance telephone provider, using satellites to reach remote Alaska communities. Even as the company entered the local phone market, Duncan had his eye on bigger data pipelines, notes Senior Vice President of Corporate Development Billy Wailand. “Ron saw there were already wires that would support high-bandwidth data in these communities, so he began to purchase cable companies throughout the state,” Wailand says.

hips at sea have something in common with military officers and sales representatives: they all earn commissions. Same goes for buildings. Commissioning ensures all the structural elements and complex systems of an inhabited space work as intended. That type of work entails a specialized analysis done by building commissioning engineers.

Dave Shumway earned his dolphins in the US Navy submarine service, and now he’s a certified building commissioning professional at AMC Engineers in Anchorage. Drawing upon his nautical experience, he notes that each ship commences a “commission log” the moment the vessel formally enters service. When something breaks, Shumway says it’s logged as “out of commission” until the error is fixed.

With buildings, commissioning more often occurs during design and construction. “It allows you the time to go out into the field and actually, you know, operate the systems and make some recommendations and adjustments to the system… so they operate at their peak potential,” Shumway says.

s any parent knows, raising kids is a humbling, fulfilling, and never-ending process. It begins with high hopes as parents envision raising bright, well-adjusted, kind human beings who will change the world. They picture themselves as patient, wise, and always ready with the right thing to say.

Reality quickly appears. Parenting is messy, unpredictable, exhausting, and overwhelming. It is relentless and demands more than expected. It tests one’s character but is deeply rewarding.

As kids get older, parents’ perspectives shift. They see where their own strengths and weaknesses have manifested in their child’s personality. There are missed opportunities they wish they could revisit, memories they will never forget.

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