Izembek Refuge and Wilderness in Peril
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is a remote area in southwest Alaska
(near the end of the Alaska Peninsula, about 600 miles from Anchorage)
where the Alaska Congressional delegation has for more than ten years
been seeking to build a road to challenge our entire Wilderness
Preservation System. This Congress brought a new twist to the decade-old
issue – the delegation’s bill to mandate a land exchange with the state
of Alaska, that would allow the small part of the refuge which they covet
for constructing a road to go to the state (and thus be taken out of
designated wilderness, so that their road could be built.)
Sierra Club activists had hoped this bill—with its ominous precedent for
wilderness nationwide--would die in committee, but a last-ditch maneuver
by Alaska junior Senator Lisa Murkowski, as a member of the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee, has now put it back on the table.
Senator Murkowski used procedural tactics to assure this bill got
included in the Sept. 11 Committee mark up, and, since she had the vote
of Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), the majority in the Committee failed to
defeat the measure. Due in part to efforts by committee majority staff,
the bill was amended in mark-up to require that a road could not
automatically result from the land exchange; a full public involvement
process according to NEPA (The National Environmental Policy Act) would
first need to be followed.
However, this minor procedural improvement would be unlikely to alter the
final result—a road across wilderness. Sierra Club remains adamantly
opposed. Along with other bills marked up on the same day, the Izembek
bill was attached, to the large omnibus package of lands bills – mostly
good – that Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee chairman Sen.
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has prepared.
Sierra Club will continue to work with our champions in Congress to
oppose Izembek’s continued inclusion in the omnibus public lands and
wilderness bill that is likely to be taken up by a November “lame-duck”
session of Congress, after the election.
You can help by contacting your senators before the lame duck session
gets underway.
Here are a few talking points for letters – for further information and
more details about the ecological values of the Izembek wilderness,
contact Vicky Hoover, (415)977-5527, [log in to unmask])
**The land swap would sacrifice quality—206 acres of critical,
internationally recognized wildlife habitat—for quantity. The 61,000
acres of proposed exchange land does not offer comparable habitat for the
important wildlife species of the Izembek Lagoons Complex.
**A road through Wilderness is not compatible with the purposes for which
Congress created the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge: to conserve fish
and wildlife populations and their habitats; to fulfill U.S international
treaty obligations (such as the four migratory bird treaties and the
Convention on Wetlands of International Importance); to provide for
continued subsistence by local residents; and to ensure water quality and
quantity within the refuge.
** The globally significant wildlife values of Izembek National Wildlife
Refuge should not be compromised. A road would pose serious threats to
the vast waterfowl and shorebird populations, to the Alaska Peninsula
caribou herd, wolves, and extremely high densities of brown bears.
** Taking lands out of Wilderness designation for a road would set a
terrible precedent for America’s National Wilderness Preservation System,
which is intended to provide permanent protection.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please contact your Senators and urge them to do anything they can to
have the Izembek land exchange/roads bill removed from the omnibus public
lands measure. This bill is bad for Wilderness and bad for America; the
road would cost a lot of money and is not needed, as the present
hovercraft system for native community medical evacuation is working.
If this area can be taken out of wilderness for a development scheme,
then no designated wilderness area in our country is safe from attack. To
reach New Mexico’s Senators:
Sen. Bingaman:
(202)224-5521 [committee: (202)224—4971]
(505)346-6601 or fr. NM (800)443-8658
Honorable Jeff Bingaman
Suite 130, 625 Silver Avenue, SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Sen. Domenici:
(202)224-6621
(505)346-6791
Honorable Pete V. Domenici
201 3rd Street, NW Suite 710
Albuquerque, NM 87102
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