Ketchikan has job potential. Alaska had 21 years of job gains up until 2009. After a year without, Alaska added 1,800 jobs in 2010 and 5,200 in 2011, according to the Alaska Department of Labor.

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Former Ketchikan resident Mike Thomas, 47, died Dec. 20, 2011, in Mohave, Ariz. He was born in Salem, Ore., on Nov. 25, 1964, but was raised in Ketchikan.

Sometimes, the best way to solve a problem is to avoid it.

That certainly is the case when it comes to controlling invasive species. If we can keep non-native flora and fauna from gaining a foothold in the first place, we never would have to worry about them displacing our local plants and animals.

Unfortunately, it's a bit late in some cases. We already see plenty of brown European slugs, for example; many of us have witnessed first-hand how the fast-growing Japanese knotweed can choke out our hardy native salmonberry bushes; and then there are those pesky Atlantic salmon that keep escaping from Canadian fish farms.

There are many more potentially dangerous species that aren't here now, but if introduced would be difficult to eradicate. They would travel here with humans - most often as seeds stuck in shoe and tire treads, or as stowaways in boats and cargo containers. Since we are the ones who bring them here, it's up to us humans to minimize the impact.

Lots of information about invasive species, including ways to manage them, is available on the Internet through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses, and more.

In addition, Rep. Don Young recently introduced an Invasive Species Emergency Response Fund Act, which would provide loans for groups to address and prevent invasive species. The loans would be available to organizations and municipalities in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

According to Young's office, the loans would focus on protecting unique habitats, averting the spread of aquatic invasive species within the Colorado River, promoting better wildfire strategies, reintroducing native species and reducing changes in wildlife habitat.

As annoying as salmonberry bushes can be to people trying to clear space for a garden, knotweed is much more difficult to kill. On top of that, the invasive knotweed doesn't produce anything edible for us or for our local birds and bears.

We need to take a little time and trouble if we want to keep our community and surrounding forest full of all the natural resources on which we've come to depend.