ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS

Bear Flat Dispatch. March 26, 2026 Every year the Canada Geese will consistently start showing up here at Bear Flat around March 15th give or take a couple days. That always worked out for them because even if the weather was nasty, they always had open water on the river. That changed with the flooding of the reservoir as it is now all frozen over. However, I guess old habits are hard to kick because the geese are still showing up here at the same time as before. Last year,

Bear Flat Dispatch. March 14, 2026. Occasionally my mind will wander somewhat as I wonder about things. This may prompt me to voice my curiosity or reflection with a somewhat rhetorical question such as “With all of this snow, I wonder what the spring melt and runoff will be like?” Ah yes, rhetorical questions, where there may not be an actual answer required. AI gave me this definition: “A rhetorical question is a question asked to make a point rather than to receive an a

March 1, 2026, We had some interesting interactions with ‘Flora and Fauna’ in 2025 and no, that is nothing like Thelma and Louise. Supplied photo The south facing hillsides here in the valley are home to prickly pear cactus that briefly flower normally around July 1st. The rain and heat must have lined up just right last year to produce the most prolific production of flowers we have seen that stretched out over an unusually long period of time. On October 12, a doe mule deer

Bear Flat Dispatch February 13, 2026 There are horrific tragedies around the world every day, but a mass killing of kids at a school is the worst. To have that happen not only somewhere in Canada, where such events are rare, but right here in the Peace is devastating.  We have all seen reporting on school shootings in the US, and how residents are often shocked that such a horrible event could take place in their relatively peaceful community and region.  Sadly, now we know h

The Hodgepodge March 12, 2025   There has been a firehose stream of news lately, and most of it is bad. I have refrained from writing lately for the sake of my sanity, but alas, one must carry on, so here goes on a hodgepodge of issues: Arlene has been on a disgusting winning streak with our crib games lately. I don’t understand it, because after all I am a better player, and I remind her about that all the time. Since watching the disastrous meeting between Trump, Vance and

January 8, 2025   Jimmy Carter passed away on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100.  Although just a teenager who was not very interested in politics, the 1976 US election of Jimmy Carter as President stands out in my memory probably because my dad was following it closely.  Being the youngest of eight kids, I was often exposed to political discussions and debates at the dinner table, and dad liked the relatively unknown humble peanut farmer from the south. As time moved on,

The year 2024 has been another crazy eventful year. On a local level, BC Hydro flooded the entire Site C reservoir in less than 2 ½ months, and the BC election resulted in a new candidate for a different party winning by a landslide here in the North Peace riding. Donald Trump won a decisive victory for the White House, democracy is looking shaky, things don’t look good for Ukraine, and trouble continues in the Middle East.  Meanwhile, measures to deal with climate change are

October 15, 2024. The ‘First Past the Post’ electoral system that we have is not the most democratic of electoral systems, but it seems that we are stuck with it for now anyway.  Both federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and BC NDP leader John Horgan campaigned on changing to some form of proportional representation  when they were in Opposition, but both successfully sabotaged any such change when they formed government.  That was easy for them to do when the new official O

September 2, 2024 A week ago, we lived on the Peace River here at Bear Flat, but now it is a reservoir. We had known for some time it would come to this, but it was always hard to imagine. The speed at which the flooding has occurred in the valley has been shocking for everyone. Bear Flat is the first place where the valley is visible coming from Fort St. John on Highway 29, and traffic has slowed down dramatically and often stopped as folks absorb the changing landscape. It