The Mudflats

Photo by Florian Schultz

OK, Juneau… Are you ready to rally?

Remember how much fun you had last fall standing in the rain with your fellow rational humans protesting the nomination of Sarah Palin to become our Vice President?  The surest cure for frustration is to get out and do something, so here’s your chance to howl a bit and protest Alaska’s newly enacted extreme predator control practices.  Things are changing fast, and we MUST take action.

The world’s eyes turned to Juneau, as Alaska’s capital last fall when people wanted to know how Alaskans were feeling about Sarah Palin.  The extreme practices, and unqualified people who are being put on boards and commissions with a specific narrow agenda mean that all eyes will once again be on Juneau.  Already there are organizations in the Lower 48 who are organizing boycotts for Alaska travel.  We cannot afford that, and we can’t afford politicians who cannot understand this, or who simply do not care.  Alaska is more than what you can kill and eat, or kill and hang on your wall.  We need balance, and we do not have it.

So it’s up to you again Juneau-ites.  What you do has an impact far beyond what happens anywhere else.  Do us proud.  Make signs, take pictures and stand up.

Alaska Wildlife Alliance is hosting an event and rally that looks like it’s going to be really amazing.  Here are the details, and as always, photos and write-ups of the event are welcome from boots on the ground!

Managing Wildlife in Alaska:
Predators, Prey & Politics

THE EVENT: Hosted by Dr. Alex Simon, Professor of Sociology at UAS Friday, March 26, 7:00pm, Juneau Arts & Humanities Center

Talk and slide show by Nick Jans: Alaska’s Wolves: The Essence of Wilderness

Presentation by Greg Brown: Want to Run a Billion Dollar Business? Look at Wildlife!

Additional presentations by Vic Van Ballenberghe and John Toppenberg

Come early for book signings by Nick Jans, Vic Van Ballenberghe, Mary Willson, and Bob Armstrong, including the release of Bob’s new book Photographing Nature in Alaska, and a wildlife slide show by Jos Bakker.

Premiere event to view a Tongass Partners Documentary Trailer Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest. This film will immerse you in the cultural and ecological issues surrounding the Tongass.

Be a part of a living solution – Come see our presentation: Introduced via tape by the International Spokesperson – Jim Fowler … and meet Naturalist/Film Maker/Author Jim Valentine

Hollis French, state senator and Democratic candidate for Governor, will be making a special appearance at both the Event and the Rally

THE RALLY: Saturday, March 27, noon in front of the Capitol

Free hot dogs for the first 100 people!
Masks, costumes, and signs are encouraged!
Door prizes!
Singing with Juneau’s own Kit Petersen!
Blessing of the Animals by Reverend Kim Poole of Northern Light United Church
Speakers include Joel Bennett, Greg Brown, Andrea Doll, Alex Simon, John Toppenberg, Vic Van Ballenberghe, Rep. Beth Kerttula, and Sen. Hollis French

For more information: info@akwildlife.org or call Tina at 523-5402.
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
www.akwildlife.org
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance Presents

Here’s a great clip of Adam Green talking to Ed Schultz about Senatorial support for the Public Option, if the House puts it in the bill.

24 have signed a letter to Harry Reid asking for a public option in reconciliation. 19 have given statements to us, reporters, or their constituents. 4 more have made statements on video. And 4 are extremely likely based on their previous support for the public option and Senate leadership, even though they haven’t made an official statement yet.

“I want to be crystal clear: Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over.”

—Senate Whip Durbin’s spokesman, Joe Shoemaker

Kudos to Adam Green and the people at The Progressive Change Campaign Committee.  Click HERE and find out where your senator stands!  I want that health care ticker in the corner of the screen up there to start scrolling backwards!  This will likely be the most important bill of our life time.  We cannot continue to be the only modern industrialized country that does not consider health care a basic right of its citizens.

I know you’ve signed petitions before, and made calls and sent emails.  Do it again – for your kids, and someone else’s kids, and the kids that aren’t even born yet.  Let’s get it done.

CLICK HERE to add your name, and find out how to contact your senator.

This letter to the editor in the Juneau Empire caught my eye.  It’s a further discussion of resources that we all enjoy being put in corporate hands. I touched on this issue and the inherent conflict of interest of a legislator who not only serves the area affected by this bill, but who sits on the board of the corporation who stands to benefit from it.  You can read that article HERE.

Sealaska should be held to the deal made in ‘72
Juneau Empire

The Sealaska Corp. lands bill would change the character of Southeast Alaska more than any other land use decision since the Long-Term Timber Sales of the 1950s. Those huge timber sales impacted vast areas of land, but at least most of the logging avoided sites that were heavily used by the public and the land remained in public ownership, hunting and all the other uses we enjoy.

The Sealaska lands bill is different. If the bill is passes, hundreds of the most important and beloved sites on the Tongass would be transferred from a public trust to the hands of a for-profit corporation. Many of the sites are immensely valuable, containing millions of dollars of public investment in roads, docks, second growth thinning, recreation cabins and trails. They are arrayed in a dense pattern across the region and they would have few permanent restrictions to ensure public access or responsible development.

The small businesses that rely on these sites would be displaced. Even more incredible, under the law, Sealaska would have the right to select 1,200 more acres at a future time, without the public’s approval. This could easily mean hundreds of more places in corporate hands.

I believe that Sealaska should be held to the deal they made in 1972 and select their lands from within the established selection boundaries. I do not trust Sealaska’s claim that they will be good stewards of the land because I have seen firsthand how Sealaska has managed their previous selections – clearcut right up to the property lines in all directions, with no concern for wildlife and only very minimal protection for fisheries.

Take a look at the map of the proposed selections and contact Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich if you have concerns. This is a land allocation issue of momentous importance to the future of Southeast Alaska.

Barth Hamberg, Sitka, Alaska

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Senator Mark Begich 202-224-3004
Senator Lisa Murkowski 202-224-6665

Shannyn Moore has come up with some more information on Al Barette, Alaska’s newest appointee to the Board of Game.  It is not to late to strongly oppose this appointment, as he has not yet been confirmed by the Legislature. You’ll find a call to action at the end of the post.  Tell your legislators that not only do you want people who make game management decisions based on science and not the Old Testament, but that you want people who do not stand to benefit financially at the expense of others, from the decisions that they make on the board.  Please help send a strong message that we care who sits on these boards, and that the National Park “resources” that they manage matter to all of us.

****Please also heed the authors warning about the embedded video, which is graphic and disturbing.  If you don’t watch it, I urge you to listen to the audio and look away. 

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Skinning the Truth

by Shannyn Moore

Wolves have been in the news lately. In today’s Anchorage Daily News, there was speculation that a wolf might have killed a young school teacher in Chignik. Last week, the Alaska Board of Game voted 4-3 to eliminate the buffer zone around Denali National Park despite the wolf population plummeting to a 23-year low. Late biologist Gordon Haber fought to his early death to protect those wolves. Governor Sean Parnell appointed Al Barrette to replace Bob Bell on the Alaska Board of Game.

Who is Al Barrette? Mudflats wrote a great post that you can find here. Barrette, who has an obvious and unambiguous conflict of interest, cast the deciding vote to open up the northeast periphery of the Denali National Park to wolf trapping. Barrette owns both the Fairbanks Fur Tannery and Alaskan No. 9 Trap Company. The latter manufactures the Alaska Wolf Trap. Apparently, Mr. Barrette didn’t think he had a conflict of interest-despite casting a public vote to bolster his personal bottom line.

There is much we don’t know about Governor Sean Parnell’s ethically-challenged appointee to the Alaska Board of Game. I think Al Barrette best reveals Al Barrette in this short video shot by Backpacker Magazine a little over a year ago. At that time, Barrette was on the Fairbanks Advisory Council to the Alaska Board of Game.

I’m Just a Girl from Homer, and I grew up trapping animals with my father. That said, this video disturbed me. If you feel like you can’t watch it, at least LISTEN to it. Listen to Al Barrette wax poetic about his philosophy on religion, science and wolves…

WARNING! THIS VIDEO IS GRAPHIC AND CONTAINS IMAGES MANY COULD SHOULD FIND OBJECTIONABLE!

For those of you who couldn’t watch or listen, I transcribed Mr. Barrette’s comments at the beginning of the film:

Al Barrette on the bible and man’s role in game management:

“…it specifically puts out in the first book of the bible, in Genesis, that we should, uh, subdue nature and control it. We should be the managers of the animals and through the…the sin of Adam and Eve is what brought it on, and, uh, in fact, the first, uh…the first clothes that were made for Adam and Eve were skins of animals…by God.”

VITAMIN DEMOCRACY!

Al Barrette still must be confirmed by the legislature. Find your legislators and tell them to reject Al Barrette for the Alaska Board of Game. Contact your state senator and representative.

Email Governor Sean Parnell or call him at 907.465.3500 tell him to withdraw his conflicted nominee from consideration.

Email the State of Alaska Boards and Commissions at boards@alaska.gov or call them 907.465.3934 and express yourself.