Paint Donation
Dear Editor: A big thanks to Amanda and True Value for donating paint for a volunteer project. Folks like you make it possible for folks like us to Keep Sitka Beautiful!
Galen Paine, Sitka
Climate Change
Dear Editor: No matter what your political leanings, it would be easy to feel hopeless and bleak in these political times. No one seems to be working together to get things done in Washington. Whether Republican or Democrat, the struggle over creating a great healthcare bill has been exasperating and tiring. For many of us, and certainly for those affected, seeing the recent stories – Aug. 8 – “U.S. Draft Report on Climate Has Warning” and – Aug. 10 – “New Orleans Braces as Flood Looms,” “Heat Decimating Crops in Central, SE Europe,” and “NOAA: Weather in ’16 Record-Setting Extreme” could certainly make you feel hopeless about climate change and its effects.
And yet, I feel really hopeful! Why? Because Republicans and Democrats are working TOGETHER on CLIMATE CHANGE! Did you know there is a bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus growing in Congress? It is 52 members strong with 26 Republicans and 26 Democrats in the House of Representatives. With so many members the Climate Solutions Caucus has moved into taking action by supporting funding for climate change response and legislation.
And it is possible that Congress could actually take national, bipartisan action that would support the national economy, American families, AND begin to address climate change this year. The solution that is finding support among conservatives, progressives, and business is a fee on carbon with revenue returned to households.
Want to feel more hopeful and help support bipartisan action on this important issue? Encourage our Rep. Don Young, to join this caucus to support our fisheries, our families and our fellow Alaskans. And encourage our Senators to start a similar caucus in the Senate.
Unlike in the health care debate, on climate change (of all things!) we actually have potential legislation that members from both sides are getting behind. Have hope! And contact your legislators.
Michelle Putz, Sitka
King Salmon Closure
Dear Editor: Last Tuesday’s article (Aug. 8, 2017) on the devastating and unprecedented closure of the king salmon season has a glaring omission and a critical error. Though unclear the article quotes from an Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) Sport Division press release which states that, “The stocks with low productivity would have contributed about half of the remaining 2017 allowable catch…” In regards to the commercial harvest this is simply not true. Very few of the weak stocks in question are caught in the August commercial opening. I have no idea what stocks make up August’s sport harvest.
It is customary practice for journalists to include input from parties effected by momentous decisions such as this. Instead the Sentinel asked ADF&G what harvesters think. As a commercial troller I can say that, yes, the troll fleet is “mindful of conservation” but we do not believe that this is conservation.
This spring when the already exceptionally limited troll hatchery fishery was closed by Emergency Order (EO) king salmon derbies in the communities of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Craig, Pelican, and Sitka were allowed to proceed normally. In Wrangell and Ketchikan these derbies included targeting Stikine and Unuk River fish which are two of the systems that the Department claimed were below escapement goals. The Ketchikan derby folks are saying that more kings were entered in the 2017 derby than in any other derby in Ketchikan’s 70 year derby history. That’s not conservation.
What good is the additional loss of an estimated $9,000,000 in economic activity this summer, much of which would be in Sitka, when that sacrifice won’t add fish to the systems ADF&G is worried about? Canada and the Lower 48 are not limiting their harvest. In fact some areas, like Oregon, are liberalizing theirs. Transferring fish from Southeast Alaska to elsewhere is not conservation but it is reallocation. Why would Commissioner Swanton, who’s supposed to represent Alaska in the Pacific Salmon Treaty, do this?
This summer trollers were allowed only four days of king fishing. Compare that to the uninterrupted three and a half months enjoyed by the charter fleet. If this is truly an emergency why did Commissioner Swanton wait another two and a half months after ADF&G’s EO closure of commercial hatchery fishing in May before closing the chinook harvest generally? And why wait till just before the commercial harvest was expected to reopen to do that? It’s as if Deputy Commissioner Swanton wanted to allow as much sport harvest as possible before seriously damaging the commercial fleet. From his actions hurting the troll fleet seems to be Commissioner Swanton’s goal. From the evidence it appears that conservation of weak runs isn’t.
Four summer days of commercial king fishing are the fewest in the over 100-year history of trolling in Sitka. Instead of asking the allocators what the allocated think about having their season ruined the Sentinel might have asked fishermen.
Matthew Donohoe, Sitka
Confederate Flag
Dear Editor: In our lovely community, there are those who fly the Confederate battle flag. Those who do so have a tendency to claim that having it outside of their homes or on their trucks is not racist, but an expression of their pride in Southern heritage or some sort of muddled concept of freedom. Any half serious student of history knows that this was never what the stars and bars represented when white landowners in the South attempted to secede from the Union in order to preserve their heritage of owning other people (don’t take my word for it: go read the various declarations of secession, all of which list preservation of slavery among the main causes if not the primary motive).
Sitkans must no longer look to the history of previous generations to know that this flag is a symbol of hatred and racism. This weekend, Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville by a white terrorist driving a Dodge Charger. Her last words on Facebook were “If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention.” Before he murdered her, the man driving that car had been holding a white supremacist riot shield among crowds of others who were wearing white hoods, offering the Nazi “heil” salute, waving Nazi flags and, of course, carrying many Confederate battle flags.
If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention. Well, Sitka, a lot of us are paying attention now.
I call on all of my fellow Sitkans to immediately get rid of these racist flags. Take them off of your cars, your flagpoles, and your Facebook profile pictures. Previously having misguided understanding of what the symbol means is sad, but forgivable. Continuing to use it at this point means no less than sympathizing with domestic terrorism and is absolutely unconscionable.
Stephen Courtright, Sitka
