Alaska Coalition

HIGHLIGHTED ALASKA COALITION MEMBER!

Admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:56:37 +0000

Kids Arctic materials – The Mysterious Arctic; Polar Bear Project; The Heart of the Arctic

THE ALASKA COALITION

Admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:50:47 +0000

Mission: To preserve outstanding wildlife and wild public lands and waters in Alaska for future generations; to coordinate with organizations and businesses through national campaign strategies and grassroots education to assure lasting protection for Alaska’s national public lands and waters. By speaking with a united voice, we demonstrate that Americans from all walks of life are dedicated to keeping Alaska wild.

What is the Alaska Coalition: The Alaska Coalition, a project of Alaska Wilderness League, is a partnership of nearly 1,000 groups from the conservation, sporting, labor, religious and business communities that has for more than 30 years worked together to safeguard Alaska’s public lands and waters - from the verdant tundra of the Arctic to the lush temperate rainforest of the Tongass National Forest.

In the spring of 2007, Alaska Wilderness League took on the responsibility of coordinating and facilitating the activities of the national Alaska Coalition. This integration enhances the broader conservation community’s grassroots capacity to protect Alaska’s wild places. The League and its staff now serve as the coordinators for the national Coalition as well as liaisons to state based coalitions.

Our member organizations and businesses work together with our regional organizers to build support in Congress by urging their elected officials to pass wilderness legislation concerning Alaska. Ultimately, we hope to add the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to our nation’s wilderness preservation system, to conserve and restore key areas in the Tongass National Forest, to protect special places in the Western Arctic within the National Petroleum Reserve -Alaska, and to keep the sensitive waters of the Polar Bear Seas—the Beaufort and Chukchi—off the North Slope safe from oil and gas development.

Some highlights for March:

v We’re really excited to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this December (and throughout the year) and would love your help. Please see below for more information on activities that you can participate in and sign onto a letter to President Obama asking him to work toward formal Wilderness designation for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. If interested, please send anna (at) alaskawild.org your organization/business name, city, state and name of a contact person.

v We still have lots of free videos on the Tongass National Forest, the Arctic Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve- Alaska and other materials (brochures, postcards, etc.) free for your use. If you’re interested in receiving these videos and other materials to share with your members, customers or employees, please email me at: anna (at) alaskawild.org

v Know an organization or business who might be interested in joining the Alaska Coalition? Please have them sign up here!

ARCTIC OCEAN (Beaufort, Chukchi, Bering Seas)

Admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:12:06 +0000

The Arctic Ocean is one of the most productive, fragile, and least understood marine ecosystems in the world. Unfortunately it is also one of the world’s most threatened marine ecosystems. Made up of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas America’s Arctic Ocean is facing accelerating and dramatic changes due to climate change and proposals for massive and risky oil and gas development at the same time. The actions of the Obama administration give rise for much hope but also much concern.

ARTICLE: Melting Arctic Ice Clears Way for Shipping, Fishing, Oil Drilling … and Major Problems
ARTICLE: Continuing challenge to Arctic OCS drilling
ARTICLE: Salazar closes in on offshore drilling decision
ARTICLE: Floridians protest offshore oil drilling
ARTICLE: ExxonMobil hits total depth at Point Thomson
ARTICLE: Alaska's Rogue Star: Spill Baby, Spill
ARTICLE: US Fish & Wildlife Service chief Sam Hamilton dies
ARTICLE: TransCanada defends gas pipeline project
ARTICLE: US misses deadline for drill study
ARTICLE: Obama reaffirms pledge of 'tough decisions' on new OCS areas
UPDATE: Ocean Policy Task Force and National Ocean Policy: On the side of hope, the Obama Administration’s Ocean Policy Task Force will soon submit final recommendations for a new National Ocean Policy, and an implementation strategy to President Obama. We anticipate these recommendations will remain strong and include environmental stewardship of Arctic Ocean as a “national priority objective.” We hope that President Obama will soon adopt the recommendations, which will provide the authority and framework needed to protect our Arctic marine and coastal ecosystems in a comprehensive manner.
UPDATE: We are concerned that while we await the outcome Secretary of the Interior Salazar’s court-ordered review of the Bush administrations oil and gas leasing plans for the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay the Department of Interior (DOI) is moving toward development in these waters. Recently DOI opted to defend the illegal Lease Sale 193 in the Chukchi Sea, held under the Bush Plan in 2008, and has approved exploratory drilling by Shell Oil on some of these leases.

ARCTIC REFUGE

Admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:21:54 +0000

The Arctic is all around us. Every year, birds that begin their lives on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge journey to all 50 states and across six continents, before heading back to the Arctic, where the cycle of life begins again. The Arctic is the origin of life for more than just birds – numerous species of mammals bear their young on this vast expanse of tundra including polar bears, caribou and more. As we mark the 50th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (established by President Eisenhower December 6, 1960), we must do everything we can to be sure that this last wild haven remains for generations to come.

ACTION: HR39 (Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act) – More than 90 cosponsors. Please check here to see if your representative has yet to cosponsor. If not, please encourage him/her to sign on now by clicking here!
ACTION: S231 (Bill to designate a portion of the Arctic Refuge as wilderness) - Currently 25 cosponsors. If your Senator hasn't already done so, please encourage him/her to become a cosponsor.
ACTION: Sign this petition asking President Obama to Protect America's Arctic.
UPDATE: The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 requires that a management plan is developed to explain, in detail, how a refuge will be managed for the following 15 years. This plan, called the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP), is necessary to ensure that biological integrity, diversity and environmental health is maintained or restored on each refuge and within the nation’s refuge system as a whole. Every refuge in Alaska, including the Arctic Refuge, must finalize its CCP by 2012. This process is scheduled to begin within the next year. We will let you know when the Department of Interior has finalized dates for the public comment periods and scoping hearings will be held, which will give people a chance to express their support for wilderness in the Refuge.
FREE VIDEO: Alaska Wilderness League has a new video about the Arctic Refuge, written and narrated by acclaimed author Terry Tempest Williams. If your organization would like a copy or would like to show it to folks, please email me at anna (at) alaskawild.org.

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT (BLM)

Admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:22:30 +0000

It is our hope that the Obama administration will soon take decisive actions to protect Bristol Bay. The administration has acknowledged that the wild salmon fisheries of Bristol Bay are unique and contain an irreplaceable global resource. While they have recognized that recommendations to allow mineral development on these lands should be postponed, we can not afford to wait on amending the existing plan in its current form. By not taking action at this time, the door is left open for a future pro-development administration to implement this flawed plan. Please consider sending a letter to BLM Director, Bob Abbey or Click here to tell Secretary Salazar to create responsible management for public lands and our wild fisheries.

ACTION: Click here to tell Secretary of the Interior Salazar to direct the BLM to create a real management place for Bristol Bay
ARTICLE: Obama Proposes Funding Increase for BLM
UPDATE: 14 New National Monuments Considered by Obama Administration
UPDATE: Eastern Interior Resource Management Plan – the draft plan release is now postponed to April. Stay tuned for more information or contact the BLM Wildlands team.

Alpine Adventures Owner Dan Oberlatz, Alaska Wilderness League's Jeremiah Millen, National Parks Conservation Association’s Melissa Blair and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:20:55 +0000

EPA Announces Environmental Justice Video Contest: Faces of the Grassroots

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sponsoring an environmental justice video contest that challenges amateur and professional filmmakers to create videos that capture the faces of the environmental justice movement. The Faces of the Grassroots contest is an opportunity to publicly exhibit creativity, environmental justice stories, and connect with others working to raise awareness of the movement.

“Faces of the Grassroots will help EPA expand the conversation on environmentalism and work for environmental justice,” said Charles Lee, director of the Office of Environmental Justice. “Participants can make a difference for the historically underrepresented in their community by using motion pictures to show the struggles and triumphs they have endured to advance environmental justice.”

Videos can focus on any environmental justice activity, issue, or topic. Examples would be a music video about climate change, or a video recording a successful environmental justice project that has made a community a healthier and happier place to live.

Awards will be given to the winning submissions in each category. The videos will also be featured on EPA's website and may be used as public service announcements. Entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on Thursday, April 8th, 2010. EPA will announce winners in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Click here for more information.
ARTICLE: Native hunting rights argued in Pt. Hope caribou trials
ARTICLE: Barrow, Alaska: Ground zero for climate change
ARTICLE: A letter to my people: Oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean
ARTICLE: Faith leaders speak up for Clean Air Act

TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST

Admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:20:33 +0000

We oppose the “Sealaska bill” (S. 881) which would transfer to private ownership some of the richest and most biologically productive lands in the Tongass National Forest. These lands are targeted for clearcut logging, threatening the intricate ecosystem and its small forest-dependent communities and thriving local industries. This bill has sparked widespread controversy and may undermine the ongoing collaborative dialogue on the future of the Tongass. The Sealaska bill only serves to reaffirm the old, divisive way of doing business. Any congressional action on the Tongass must include the strongest protections possible for valuable, intact old-growth and restore important fish and wildlife habitat damaged by past logging.

ACTION: Tell your senators to stop the "Sealaska bill!"
UPDATE: Right now there is a tentative hearing set on the Sealaska bill in the House Natural Resources Committee on March 17^th. There will be a full committee heading in the House, but will not vote at this time. There may soon be a vote in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee sometime in March.

Alaskans Visit Capitol Hill to Voice Concerns over S. 881

(Pictured from left to right: Davey Lubin, Johnnie Laird, Scott Newman)

ARTICLE: Murkowski: Public will be heard on Sealaska bill
ARTICLE: Alaska Native corporation’s land deal draws ire
ARTICLE: Sen. Murkowski Announces Sealaska Lands Bill Meetings
RADIO STORY: Assembly asks senators to hold local Sealaska hearings
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Stop Sealaska's land bill; Prince of Wales Hearing; Sealaska land bill has many problems; Southeast communities have much to lose from Sealaska's land bill; No to Sealaska; No to Sealaska; No to Sealaska; A bad history for a bad bill; Murkowski should pull Sealaska bill and listen to communities
FREE VIDEO: We have a new Tongass video that we would love to have Alaska Coalition groups use and show to your members. If you're interested in receiving a copy of the video, please let me know via email at anna (at) alaskawild.org.

WESTERN ARCTIC/THE RESERVE

Admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:20:13 +0000

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is one of Alaska’s best kept secrets and one of our nation’s greatest natural treasures. The administration and Congress must work to keep important habitat areas within the Reserve protected from destructive industrial development. Over the coming months we will be working to ensure these areas are not included an oil and gas lease sale planned for August 2010.

ARTICLE: Corps' NPR-A decision leaves some steamed
ARTICLE: Army Corp Denies Conoco Phillips NPRA Permit
ARTICLE: Corps denies Conoco permit for NPR-A access
FREE VIDEO: We have a new Reserve video available for viewing. If you, your group or business is interested in showing the video, please contact anna (at) alaskawild.org to receive a copy!