This week Interior Secretary Sally Jewell makes her first official trip to Alaska. Her tour includes some of Alaska's most wild and beautiful places, like the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the village of Barrow, which is our nation's northernmost community overlooking the Arctic Ocean and located in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Department of the Interior is charged with managing lands and waters in Alaska that are some of the most wildlife-rich in America. These places are home to vast caribou herds, wolves, brant, musk oxen, moose, whales, walrus and all three species of bears.
Many decisions that will impact Alaska's wild lands and waters are currently before Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Early this year, former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the first area-wide management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which protected 11 million acres of land in the Reserve. He stated at the time that the plan would, protect the "outstanding and unique resources that are critically important to the culture and subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives and our nation's conservation heritage." Secretary Jewell on her first day on the job reiterated that these values were important to her and the Department of the Interior in making decisions for our public lands and waters, stating that "...we have vast responsibilities to the American people, from making smart decisions about the natural resources with which we have been blessed, to honoring our word to American Indians and Alaska Natives."
Secretary Jewell will visit the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, fulfilling a pledge that she made to Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did an exhaustive and detailed study and rejected the proposed road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which is an area teeming with wildlife. Izembek is one of the most ecologically unique of Alaska's refuges. Much of the refuge is designated Wilderness and home to a diverse array of wildlife species and migratory birds, including: five species of salmon, Harbor seals, sea otters and Steller's sea lions; wolf, caribou, brown bears, and hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and seabirds. Nearly the entire population of Pacific black brant stops at Izembek during their annual migration cycle, a species important for subsistence in many Alaskan villages. The American taxpayer has already provided $37.5 million for a seaworthy hovercraft system, and the proposed road is estimated to cost taxpayers $75.8 million, with a total cost of more than $80 million. Senator Murkowski is asking the Secretary to override the Fish and Wildlife Service findings and approve the road which would greatly impact the Izembek ecosystem and irreparably harm its Wilderness.
Secretary Jewell has been very clear that she will support the Obama administration's opposition to oil exploration and development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As Secretary Jewell tours Alaska, the Gwich'in people are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first Gwich'in Gathering at which the Chiefs and Elders signed the first resolution to work to permanently protect the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For more than 30 years the Gwich'in Nation has been working to protect the Coastal Plain, which is the birthing and nursery ground of the Porcupine caribou herd. The Gwich'in people's spiritual and cultural connection to the land and the Porcupine caribou herd dates back thousands of years. Conservation groups have asked Secretary Jewell for the strongest possible protections for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and now she will see with her own eyes why this birthplace of wildlife is so special to Alaska Natives and Americans across the nation.
Secretary Jewell also will be visiting Barrow, located on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. Shell generated controversy with its failed attempt to drill in this risky area. In fact, according to former Interior Secretary Salazar, Shell "screwed up" in the Arctic Ocean last year. The Obama administration now has an opportunity to reassess future leasing and development, overhaul current regulations, and address Arctic drilling impacts on climate change and the Arctic ecosystem.
Quotes:
"Alaska's wild places, many on public lands, draw millions of migratory birds from across the globe during nesting and migration," said Nils Warnock, Executive Director of Audubon Alaska. "It's key that the Secretary see some of these significant Important Bird Areas such as Izembek Lagoon and the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because management decisions for these globally important places will have incredibly far-reaching effects."
"We welcome Sally Jewell as she makes her first trip to Alaska as Secretary of the Interior," said Cindy Shogan, Executive Director of Alaska Wilderness League. "Secretary Jewell has many tough calls in front of her, but protecting some of America's most beautiful and wildlife-rich places is the right decision. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its Coastal Plain provides crucial habitat for some of our most beloved species of wildlife. We appreciate the Obama administration's refusal to even consider drilling in this sacred place, and we know that once she visits the Arctic Refuge Secretary Jewell will appreciate first-hand why we must keep it 'off the table' for drilling and development."
"Congress has explicitly held that Izembek should be preserved for its wilderness values—for its ability to support the brant, eiders, swans, caribou, bears and otters that rely on it," said Kiersten Lippmann, Conservation Biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "To remove these permanent protections for the sake of a short-sighted and costly road is to devalue the wilderness that Americans have been investing in for decades."
"The proposed Izembek road is a Trojan Horse in the guise of emergency medical transportation," said David C. Raskin, former President of Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. "The underlying reason is commercial development, not medical evacuation. King Cove, Governor Knowles, and Senator Murkowski have all stated that the road is for commercial purposes and hauling fish for the Peter Pan cannery. The projected cost of more than $80 million for a completed road is a wanton waste of scarce taxpayer dollars to punch an unnecessary road through the biological heart of the Izembek Wilderness."
"Protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a human rights issue to the Gwich'in Nation," said Princess Lucaj, Executive Director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. "Our way of life is being threatened by proposed oil development on the birthing grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. We hope Secretary Jewell is able to see with her own eyes the beauty of this land and come to understand our spiritual connection to the caribou and our ancestral land."
"We welcome Secretary Jewell to Alaska and hope she will understand how critical it is for the federal government to protect Alaska's wildlands and the indigenous peoples who depend on their environment for food security," said Kevin Harun, Arctic Program Director at Pacific Environment.
"We thank Secretary Jewell for her visit to Alaska to meet with Alaskans and experience some of the Interior Department's most vitally important public lands and waters," said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska Regional Director at The Wilderness Society. "Her visit will no doubt strengthen her resolve to protect globally significant resources, such as in the Izembek and Arctic National Wildlife Refuges, as well as Special Areas within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska."
"On the eve of the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell will consider a decision to approve a road through the heart of the Izembek Refuge Wilderness," said George Nickas, Executive Director of Wilderness Watch. "She can choose to protect and defend the integrity of the Izembek Wilderness and the National Wilderness Preservation System, or she can side with the despoilers demanding a road, thereby setting a devastating precedent for wilderness in America."
Contact information:
Beth Peluso, Audubon Alaska, 907-276-7034, [@bpeluso]
Corey Himrod, Alaska Wilderness League, 202-266-0426, corey@alaskawild.org
Kiersten Lippmann, Center for Biological Diversity, 907-793-8691, klippmann@biologicaldiversity.org
David C. Raskin, (Past President) Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, 907-299-2420, davidc.raskin@me.com
Princess Lucaj, Gwich'in Steering Committee, 907-687-0440, princesslucaj@gmail.com
Pamela A. Miller, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, 907-441-2407, pam@northern.org
Kevin Harun, Pacific Environment, 907-440-2443, kharun@pacificenvironment.org
Nicole Whittington-Evans, The Wilderness Society, 907-272-9453 (x103), nicolewe@tws.org
George Nickas, Wilderness Watch, 406-542-2048, gnickas@wildernesswatch.org