SENATOR FRANK MURKOWSKI POISED TO ATTACK
ALASKA'S RAINFOREST AND RAID PUBLIC LANDS
At 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest is three
times larger than any other U.S. National Forest. It encompasses
an area the size of West Virginia and 80% of the land in
Southeast Alaska. Stretching 500 miles along the southeastern
coast of Alaska, the Tongass embraces hundreds of islands,
majestic mountains, sparkling glaciers, and deep fjords. Nestled
in this rugged country, along the beach fringes and river valleys,
are magnificent stands of temperate rainforest. Huge Sitka
spruce and western hemlock tower over a lush understory.
The Tongass is a unique national treasure. It is the only
National Forest that is an oceanic archipelago, and scientists
have recognized its global significance.
Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski is poised to re-
introduce in Congress a new Alaska Native land claims bill that
would be an economic, environmental, and cultural disaster for
all the users and communities on the Tongass National Forest.
The bill--S. 2539--would undermine 20 years of legislative
compromise, from the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act (ANCSA) to the 1990 Tongass Timber Reform Act. The bill
would jeopardize long-term community economic stability,
sacrifice historical subsistence uses, destroy some of the richest
wildlife habitat areas and commercial fishing watersheds, and
ruin community recreation areas dear to the hearts of Southeast
Alaskans--including areas that Congress permanently protected
just four years ago in the Tongass Timber Reform Act--all to
create a short-term bonanza for the Ketchikan Pulp Company
and other private timber corporations. Murkowski is using
Native claims as a pretext to raid the most vital public lands
from the Tongass.
The Tongass Timber Reform Act passed the Senate by a
vote of 99-0 and the House by 356-60. Senators Murkowski and
Stevens both voted for it. Permanent protection of key areas as
legislated LUD II roadless areas was widely supported by
Southeast Alaskans, including the Governor of Alaska; Sealaska
Corporation (the regional Native corporation); the Alaska
Native Brotherhood; the Southeast Conference (a regional
business and civic coalition); and many Southeast Alaska
communities. Now, Murkowski's bill would cut those areas,
gutting the Act and the balanced solution it represented.
Murkowski's bill is not aimed at bringing justice to
Alaska Natives. It is really a raid on the public lands, and a
grave injustice to all concerned.
If a fair examination of this issue shows that redress is
needed, it should be done in public, with a solution that
involves all the people of Southeast Alaska and respects all the
users of the forest. Valid Native claims should be addressed in a
manner that maintains the integrity of the Tongass National
Forest and all it stands for: multiple use and sustained yield;
hunting and sport fishing; commercial fishing, recreation,
tourism and subsistence.
Murkowski's bill would:
Create five new Native village corporations in the towns
of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Haines, and Tenakee. These
communities did not meet the criteria established by Congress
for formation of village corporations under the 1971 Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Instead, residents
enrolled as at-large shareholders of Sealaska, the regional Native
corporation for Southeast Alaska.
Give the new corporations the right to select a total of
around 645,000 acres from the Tongass National Forest.
Currently, the ten village, two urban, and one regional Native
corporations in Southeast have combined holdings of around
550,000 acres. The new selections would more than double
current private corporation holdings.
Give each new corporation three to seven times the
amount of land allocated to each Southeast village corporation
under ANCSA. Because of the earlier, 1968 Tlingit and Haida
land settlement, ANCSA entitled Southeast Alaska village
corporations to only one township of land each. MurkowskiUs
bill would give each new corporation between three and seven
townships, using a formula that ANCSA applied only to villages
outside Southeast. This inequity could lead to a landslide of
additional claims from existing Southeast village corporations,
as well as from villages throughout Alaska that did not qualify
under ANCSA in 1971. The bill opens a Pandora's box of new
land claims and re-opens the fundamental decisions of ANCSA.
Limit new corporate land selections to areas of the
Tongass currently managed as off-limits to logging by the Forest
Service--including those "roadless" (Land Use Designation or
"LUD" II) areas permanently set aside by Congress for their
habitat, subsistence, fishing and hunting values only four years
ago in the Tongass Timber Reform Act. The new private
timberlands would not be subject to sustained yield
requirements, and all timber would be sold to the Ketchikan
Pulp Company or another Alaska mill. (This timber would be in
addition to subsidized timber provided to KPC under its
monopolistic and unprecedented 50-year contract.) The
selection criteria have nothing to do with traditional use or
cultural ties. They have to do with logging.
Directly threaten the following areas:
Naha*; Deer Mountain and Clover Pass; Eagle River;
Berners Bay;* Idaho Inlet; Anan;* St. James Bay; Seal and Long
Bays (Tenakee Inlet); Lake Eva; Bay of Pillars; Rocky Pass; Sarkar
Lakes; Farragut Bay. The following areas are also at risk:
Kadashan;* Trap Bay;* Nutkwa;* Lisianski;* Point Adolphus;*
Upper Hoonah Sound;* Calder-Holbrook;* Mud Bay;* Noyes,
Baker and Lulu Islands;* Salmon Bay* and others.
*Areas permanently protected by Congress in the Tongass
Timber Reform Act. Southeast Alaska communities judged
these to be among the most important subsistence, recreational,
wildlife and fish habitat areas in Southeast Alaska.
Allow new Native corporations from one end of the
Tongass to select lands on the other end of the Tongass--
including areas traditionally belonging to another Native group.
Areas that are traditionally used for hunting and fishing by a
local Native community could be extensively clearcut by Native
corporations with no traditional ties to the selected land.
Guarantee road access to selected timberlands--even
across Wilderness areas--and exempt access roads from public
review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
If history is any guide, selected lands will be closed to
public hunting, fishing, tourism, and subsistence, and
extensively clearcut within 20 years. This will create another
boom and bust timber cycle while at the same time devastating
those areas most important to Southeast Alaskans--both Native
and non-Native--for wildlife, fish, recreation, and subsistence
hunting and fishing.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: WRITE OR FAX
Please write now! Write your member of Congress or
Senator: Tell them you oppose Murkowski's raid on the
public's--your--forest, and that you support addressing questions
surrounding the bill and its consequences in a full public forum.
Please send or fax a copy of your letter to SEACC.
Please also write:
Senator Frank Murkowski
Chairman, Energy and Natural Resources Committee
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
fax 202/224-5301
For more information, contact:
Jeremy Anderson
Grassroots Coordinator
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
419 Sixth Street
Juneau, AK 99801
tel. (907) 586-6942
fax (907) 463-3312