AlaskaWild Update #269 - November 1, 2007
- The Fight to Include Tongass Subsidy Amendment in Final Interior Appropriations Bill
- Alaska Natives Travel to DC to Challenge Drilling Plans
- Notes From the Field: A Polar Bear at the New Jersey EcoFair
The Fight to Include Tongass Subsidy Amendment in Final Interior Appropriations Bill
Although the congressional session is nearing its end, Congress has yet to send any of the 12 mandatory spending bills to President Bush’s desk. As the House and the Senate continue negotiations over these appropriations bills, questions remain about the fate of several key Alaska provisions. In particular, it is unknown what will happen to the Tongass subsidy amendment, a wildly successful bipartisan provision that would stop wasting taxpayer money to build new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest, our country’s largest and wildest national forest.
The Tongass subsidy provision passed in the House of Representatives on June 26 as an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill. The amendment was agreed to by a vote of 283 to 145, marking the widest margin of victory that the measure has ever received. The House has now passed this amendment three times, and yet not once has it been included in the final appropriations package.
Reps. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) and Steve Chabot (R-OH) offered the Tongass subsidy amendment as a way to both restore fiscal responsibility to Washington DC and improve management of the Tongass, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. For decades American taxpayers have been forced to subsidize clearcut logging in the Tongass, averaging an annual loss of $40 million since 1982.
As part of an effort to ensure that their popular amendment is included in the final version of the Interior Appropriations bill, Reps. Andrews and Chabot are circulating a letter of support to their colleagues. Please take action and urge your representative to sign-on to this letter and help take a step towards improving the management of the Tongass.
Alaska Natives Travel to DC to Challenge Drilling Plans
Sponsored by Alaska Wilderness League, a group of four Alaska Natives traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to meet with congressional leaders, administration officials, and members of the press. The group traveled from Point Hope and Nuiqsut – two Inupiaq villages located on Alaska’s North Slope – to raise awareness about the threats that current oil and gas exploration plans pose to their way of life and key subsistence areas on land and offshore.
Concerns in Native communities about offshore exploration and development have been exacerbated since the administration’s aggressive 5-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan took effect over the summer. Through scheduling five lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, the plan has opened nearly all of the arctic waters off Alaska’s coast to the oil and gas industry.
Earl Kingik, acting as a spokesperson for the Native Village of Point Hope, came to D.C. to explain the threats that these offshore leasing plans represent. The largest threat surrounds the possibility of an oil spill, as there are no proven ways to recover a spill in Alaska’s icy waters. But even seismic surveys – the initial activity designed to evaluate which areas have the highest potential for oil and gas development – could significantly affect wildlife populations, either displacing them or negatively impacting their well-being. Either way, impacts to wildlife pose great harm to the subsistence culture and way of life of the Arctic’s coastal communities.
Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, who traveled to D.C. from Nuiqsut, brought attention to the human health impacts of widespread industrial operations on Alaska’s North Slope. Ahtuangaruak, a community healthcare practitioner and the former Mayor of Nuiqsut, noted the increasing number of asthma cases that have occurred in her community since the development of the Alpine oilfield, a sprawling network of pipelines and drill pads just four miles away from her village.
While citing the importance of the nearby Teshekpuk Lake wetlands for local wildlife populations and her community’s subsistence needs, Ahtuangaruak also warns of the negative heath impacts that additional development would pose to her community members. Unfortunately, the Bush administration still seems intent removing 30 years of protections for the Teshekpuk Lake wetlands and opening the area to the oil and gas industry.
Elijah Lane and Daisy Sage from Point Hope joined Kingik and Ahtuangaruak on the trip to D.C. Together, the four helped illustrate the human rights component to issues largely known for their energy and environmental implications. The Bush administration will not back down easily from their aggressive oil and gas leasing plans, but Lane, Sage, Kingik, and Ahtuangaruak educated influential members of Congress and helped generate good press in the process (if you click on the link to the article, scroll down to the section, “Oil and gas leasing challenged”). They helped achieve some good momentum in a fight that they have promised will continue.
Notes From the Field: A Polar Bear at the New Jersey EcoFair
On a recent Saturday in Livingston NJ, Field Organizer Julia Millan Shaw participated in the first ever Livingston EcoFair. The fair, which was held in the Memorial Park Oval Gazebo, featured dozens of interactive and educational exhibits and activities focused on teaching children how to “live green” in their daily lives.
Exhibitors at the EcoFair included wind and solar energy providers, N.J’s Clean Energy Program and the Turtle Back Zoo. Opening remarks were made by Councilwoman Arlene Johnson, who is also a member of Livingston’s Environmental Council and one of the planners of the event. Speakers included Joe Fiordaliso, Commissioner of NJ Board of Public Uitilities, who highlighted New Jersey’s commitment to clean energy and forward thinking legislation aimed at combating climate change. The keynote speaker, Gray Russell, Montclair Township’s Environmental Affairs Coordinator, shared his experiences of educating people with Al Gore’s climate change slideshow.
Julia was joined by Alaska Wilderness League’s polar bear, Ice-P. Ice-P was a big hit with both the young and old fairgoers as he handed out Alaska Wilderness League stickers. He also collected postcards to Secretary Kempthorne asking him to protect Teshekpuk Lake. Ice-P was so popular that he and Julia did two on-camera interviews! One interview was with “Green By Design” hosted by Greg Mattison and one was with TV-37, a local channel. These interviews allowed Julia to discuss the threats that polar bears face from both climate change and proposed oil and gas exploration in America’s Arctic. Also present at the fair were a group of local boy scouts earning their civic badges. The boy scouts loved Ice-P and were interested in doing their part to save the dwindling polar bear population.
Special thanks goes out to Chris Bickel who was instrumental in planning the event and invited the Alaska Wilderness League to participate. Julia first met Chris while tabling at the Essex County Environmental Center’s Octoberfest. Chris approached the table to express his concern for protecting Wild Alaska. Coincidentally, Chris was a colleague of NJ Alaska Activist Ann Marchioni at Bloomfield Middle School. Like Ann, Chris wanted to use his classroom as a place to educate the next generation on the importance of conservation and protecting the earth’s special places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Chris has continued to work with Julia in advocating for all of Alaska’s wild lands and doing his part to combat climate change.
