AlaskaWild Update #267 - October 4, 2007
- Senate Asking Administration to Protect the Polar Bear Seas
- Wilderness Bill for the Tongass National Forest Introduced in the House
- Notes from the Field: The Field Comes to DC for Alaska Wilderness Week
Senate Asking Administration to Protect the Polar Bear Seas
On Monday, October 1, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) circulated a letter to his colleagues urging them to join him in asking the administration to protect America’s polar bears and their arctic habitat. In the letter, Sen. Kerry asks his colleagues to join him in voicing support for the administration’s proposal to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The letter also calls on the administration to postpone scheduled lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas until potential impacts to polar bear habitat can be determined. This request is significant because of the administration’s aggressive push to open arctic waters to oil and gas development. There are five lease sales planned in the next five years for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas that together will open more than 73 million acres of arctic waters to industry.
America’s two polar bear populations depend on the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas – together known as the Polar Bear Seas – as their primary offshore habitat. As the Polar Bear Seas continue to lose ice, polar bears are forced to travel greater distances to find food and to den. Cases of drowning polar bears and cannibalism have further illustrated the unprecedented challenges facing these arctic inhabitants. A recent U.S. Geological Survey report indicates that both of America’s polar bear populations could disappear by 2050. We must act now to change that outcome. As our nation moves toward implementing forward-looking solutions to reducing global climate change, it is important that the administration does not allow vital polar bear habitat to become overrun with industrial development. If unchecked, loss of habitat from expanded oil and gas development in and near the arctic waters could contribute to the polar bear’s decline.
Sen. Kerry will close the letter on Monday, October 15, so please take action now! Contact your senators and urge them to sign the letter and join Sen. Kerry in asking the government to protect America’s Polar Bear Seas.
Wilderness Bill for the Tongass National Forest Introduced in the House
Today, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) reintroduced the Alaska Rainforest Conservation Act, which would designate as Wilderness or otherwise protect much of what remains wild in the Tongass National Forest. The introduction marks the fourth time that Rep. DeLauro has sponsored this legislation.
Established in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the Tongass celebrated its 100th birthday in September. Well over 100 trees were planted around the country in honor of the Tongass, which, at nearly 17 million acres, is by far our country’s largest national forest. Many tree planting events were organized by Alaska Wilderness League field staff. Read more about these events and see pictures from across the country on our website.
Over the years, the Tongass has suffered from excessive clearcut logging practices. More than half of the most important old growth trees in the Tongass have been lost to clearcutting, fracturing critical wildlife habitat and scarring the land. With the Alaska Rainforest Conservation Act, Congress now has the opportunity to protect what remains of these old growth stands. Please take action and ask your representative to cosponsor this important legislation.
Notes from the Field: The Field Comes to DC for Alaska Wilderness Week
For five days in late September, 47 activists came to Washington, DC to learn about Alaska wilderness issues, meet other people in the wilderness community, and lobby their members of Congress.
The Wilderness Week activists formed an eclectic and accomplished group. Representing 15 states and a Canadian province, the group truly was diverse. There were business owners, writers, retirees, teachers, and students – including one impressive middle school student – in addition to Alaska Natives and a Canadian elected official.
After days of wearing suits and walking around Capitol Hill in 90 degree heat, the team of Alaska wilderness advocates succeeded in visiting over 100 offices in the House of Representatives and over 20 offices in the Senate.
With new leadership in this Congressional session and the opportunity to wage offensive campaigns for the first time in a decade, the primary goal of the Wilderness Week lobbying was to broaden the base of support for Wilderness designation in the Tongass National Forest and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. While many members of Congress have cast votes in the past to end taxpayer subsidies for new logging roads in the Tongass and to keep oil drilling out of the Arctic Refuge, there is no guarantee that these representatives and senators will also vote in favor of permanently protecting these critical wild lands as Wilderness. Thanks to the work of Wilderness Week advocates, the time that they spent and their passion, congressional support for these Wilderness campaigns is sure to grow.
Another goal of Wilderness Week was to raise awareness in DC about the Teshekpuk Lake wetlands in the western arctic and the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Each of these areas is critically important to wildlife populations and local subsistence communities. Unfortunately, each area is also facing threats from an administration eager to open public lands and water to oil and gas development.
Alaska Wilderness League wants to thank all of the Wilderness Week participants who gave their time and energy to come to DC, and everyone else who helped make the week a success!
