Apparently Sierra Club's position is based on an outmoded view of
"wilderness" that has been appropriately deconstructed by, among others,
Gary Snyder, William Cronon, Jim Igoe, and many others. Humans have been
using resources on most of the world's landscapes for millennia. The
essential problem is to distinguish sustainable from nonsustainable
practices. Is there any demonstration that native egg collection will
cause harm to the gull population? That species of gull is one of the
most plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. A carefully managed (by native
religious views or otherwise) resource use is not necessarily a bad
thing.
Leland Searles
Air Quality Program Director
Iowa Environmental Council
521 E. Locust St., Suite 220
Des Moines, Iowa 50309
515-244-1194 ext. 204
www.iaenvironment.org <http://www.iaenvironment.org>
www.facebook.com/Iowa.Environmental.Council
<http://www.facebook.com/Iowa.Environmental.Council>
About the Iowa Environmental Council:
The Iowa Environmental Council actively works in public policy to
provide a safe, healthy environment for all Iowans. We focus on public
education and coalition building to give Iowans a voice on issues that
affect their quality of life. For more information contact the Iowa
Environmental Council or visit www.iaenvironment.org
<http://www.iaenvironment.org> .
Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary. Spread
environmental awareness.
From: Iowa Discussion, Alerts and Announcements
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Phyllis Mains
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 8:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Sierra Club Alert-Glacier Bay
Senate hearing July 28 on bill (S.1063) attacking Glacier Bay National
Park-Your support for the park needed now.
Along with the National Park Service (NPS) in Alaska, Alaska's Senators
Lisa Murkowski (R) and Sen. Mark Begich (D) want to let members of the
Huna Tlingit tribe of SE Alaska collect glaucous-winged gull eggs in
Glacier Bay National Park. Their bill, S. 1063, would authorize this
subsistence practice in a park long closed to the extraction of
wildlife, including subsistence hunting, trapping, fishing, and
gathering by Alaska Natives.
Glacier Bay is one of the nation's finest wilderness national parks and
wildlife sanctuaries. It is a World Heritage Site, a major component of
an International Biosphere Reserve, and a critically important summer
feeding ground for endangered humpback whales. It provides essential
security for Steller sea lions. It fulfills Congress's mandate to be
one of the national parks in Alaska that "...are intended to be large
sanctuaries where fish and wildlife may roam freely...without the
changes that extensive human activity would cause."
The Sierra Club strongly opposes S. 1063. Opening this park would
inflict harm on the gulls-by reducing the number of fledglings in the
park by 22%, according to the National Park Service (NPS)-and it would
likely result in proposals for additional subsistence practices in the
park. The tribe is on public record as wanting the park opened to
subsistence hunting for mountain goats and seals.
If Congress were to approve S. 1063, other federally recognized tribes
in Alaska could ask for the same privilege and other perhaps other
subsistence practices in Alaska's other three sanctuary parks, Katmai
National Park, the old Mt. McKinley part of Denali National Park, and
Kenai Fjords National Park.
And the potential unraveling of the park sanctuary standard might not
stop in our 49th state. If enacted, S. 1063 could trigger similar
Native American demands for subsistence access to national parks in
other states. As Glacier Bay goes, so goes Rocky Mountain, Yosemite,
Yellowstone, North Cascades, and other premier national park
sanctuaries?
Opening Glacier Bay to egg gathering is also completely unnecessary.
Just outside the park boundaries and within Huna Tlingit traditional
territory are a half-dozen traditional gull egg collection sites of the
tribe. In a demonstration project in 2001 and 2002 the National Park
Service assisted tribal members to successfully collect gull eggs on one
of these non-park sites. This proved that NPS facilitation of such
non-park collection trips is a "reasonable and feasible" alternative to
opening the park.
Please act to defend the park - one phone call
Members of the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks and the full Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee need to hear from Sierra Club
members from throughout the nation:
If your senator is listed below, please call his/her office before July
28 and urge opposition to S. 1063: explain you oppose this Glacier Bay
National Park gull-egg collecting bill because:
(pick one or two)
**You care about continuing the proud tradition of Glacier Bay National
Park as a wildlife sanctuary and one of our national treasures, a
world-renowned park which John Muir explored in the late 19th century
and which is a park dear to the heart of Sierra Club members.
** You support Native subsistence in Alaska but not in this national
park long closed to wildlife extraction, especially as there are
alternative proven egg-collecting sites outside the park.
** You fear the precedent would lead to similar extractive uses in other
Alaska national park sanctuaries and maybe in famed national parks in
other states.
** If you have visited Glacier Bay National Park - let them know.
If you do not have your Senator's direct office number, call the Capitol
switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator.
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