Changes coming to Adak

Repair4

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Hey folks, I didn't want to hijack wllm1313's thread on his hunt in Adak. Great writeup and pics by the way. There are definitely changes coming to Adak in the near future, the military is reactivating a hangar and some of the housing on the island to house a squadron of P3s I believe, I'm not sure on the actual aircraft model. It'll be probably around seventy personnel plus contractors, so it won't be a giant footprint as of now, but will definitely change the makeup of the settled portion of the island. It doesn't sound like it will have much impact on the hunting on the south side of the island, but could effect the area on the north side around the airport.

As far as the LNG port, it sounds like it's highly dependent on the cost of oil, the political view on arctic drilling leases, and the viability of shipping in the northwest passage. If it goes through and they manage to setup a viable deep water port out there I could see it markedly changing the island, how I'm not sure, but it definitely will. There has been talk about the port from as far back as a decade ago, so how serious this go round is I'm not sure. The port will require a host of personnel to make it work which will mean more people on the island which will be good for the local economy and hopefully for folks willing to leg it out it will still be a quality hunting experience. I'm sure there's hundreds of small towns throughout the world that have grappled with this same issues, how to keep the town viable without destroying what makes it a unique and wonderful place. As someone with a deep seated love for Adak I sincerely hope all of the competing can come to the table and find a model that allows for the hunters, anglers, business people, Native corporation, military, and the town itself to thrive. Time will tell.


To everyone headed out to Adak in the future, enjoy, it truly is an amazing, albeit occasionally harsh place. Here's a video from back in October, note the constant howling of wind in the background, be prepared for it if you're heading out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smk8uqUbnos
 
Very interesting... I would assume the LNG port also depends on NIMBY around AK and the lower 48, Adak would be a less than ideal location to say the least.

Sweet video, sorry about the door on Scott's expedition if it was still broken when you got there... that was us.
 
It sounds like the LNG will mostly be for fueling ships since it's coming down in price to refuel using that vs bunker fuel and the environmental impacts are far fewer. It is convenient in that it's an out of the way place with good commercial airline access and a lot of infrastructure compliments of the US Navy, from an environmental aspect it's a very fragile ecosystem that does not respond well to outside pressure and hopefully will not see a large scale accident like there was in Valdez. There's also the political angle, with Russia upping the ante with it's recent seizure of Ukrainian ships in the Sea of Azov Adak may very well become "a place of strategic importance" to the US which could mean more infrastructure projects and possibly more funding for the deep water port, but time will tell.


As far as the door, don't sweat it, it took a little doing to get it fixed, but it's functional now. I really appreciate you owning it, that was very cool of you guys. I really hope you guys can come back out there again soon!
 
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