By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Young and old, men and women, the voices of Sitka and surrounding districts were heard Tuesday during the Alaska Roadless Rule Citizen Advisory Committee public testimony session at the Yaw Arts Building on the Sheldon Jackson campus.
And the voices said unanimously to the 12-member committee: “no.”
Clarice Johnson was born in Sitka. Her grandfather was a logger, her mother and father were commercial fishermen.
“I come from a family that has worked on the land for generations,” she said.
Johnson stated she was fortunate to grow up fishing, but also saw in her travels the damage to the Tongass.
Members of the Alaska Roadless Rule Citizen Advisory Committee take public comment at Yaw Art Center on the SJ campus Tuesday night. The group recorded one-and-a-half hours of comments on an Alaska-specific roadless rule for the Tongass National Forest. All commenters spoke in favor of maintaining the status quo. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“I saw evidence of Native corporations’ lack of respect for our land as well as the more regulated Forest Service cuts,” she said. “My regional Native corporation, Sealaska, has evolved... Sealaska recognizes that the land can have more value for its 20,000 plus shareholders if it is left intact. I would like the Forest Service and this committee to consider the effects of climate change included in the planning. Protecting the resources was essential to my father’s philosophy. He was a fluent Tlingit speaker and would often tell us we needed to care for the land in order for it to care for us. If my father were still alive I believe he would have supported the Roadless Rule staying in place. The Roadless areas of the Tongass are some of our most important places for protecting salmon and wildlife. They attract tourists from around the world who are drawn to our large areas of wild lands which are becoming increasingly rare.
“As committee members you have the opportunity to chart a vision for the future of the Tongass. Our climate and our economy are rapidly changing. This is not the time to go backwards to the old and outdated way of managing the Tongass. Alaska commercial fishermen depend upon a sustainable resource for their livelihood and culture. While I was fishing for over 25 years I knew that every season could be different. Perhaps the runs were weak, so restrictions would be added and days of fishing reduced. Although it was disappointing, we also understood the necessity of protecting the resource that was sustaining us. Fishermen had to make rapid adjustments to changes in the resource, markets and environment. Yet no one is advocating to go back to the time of fish traps which allowed salmon to be depleted rapidly and efficiently. It is long past time for the logging industry to realize that they will never be able to go back to the days when clear cuts went down to stream banks, where logging roads were built over salmon streams, and wildlife were not a consideration.
“The Southeast economy has been forced to evolve since the days of the pulp mills. Our remote location will always make it difficult to maintain industries like large scale logging. Eliminating the Roadless Rule will not bring back the logging industry, it will only endanger the other drivers of the Southeast economy that depend on intact watersheds and roadless areas for their businesses. Keep the Roadless Rule in place, protect the T77 watersheds and move our economy forward.”
All public testimony from nearly 40 speaking in person or over the phone voiced the desire to have the current rule stay intact, and maintain prohibitions for specific areas in the Tongass National Forest.
With a backdrop of ideas written across white boards from their working session earlier in the day, amid options labeled 1-5 and beyond, committee members listened intently, some taking notes and nodding.
Larry Calvin, a Sitka resident since 1941, took his turn at the microphone.
“I have nothing prepared,” he said. “They just asked me to speak because I have been here for a couple of days. My family came in 1941, I was seven years old. So I have been here for a while.”
Calvin recounted battles with roads before.
“One of the biggest battles was the crossing of the road right across my goat hunting terrain,” he said. “From Silver Bay over to Chatham. They were going to go through Mt. Bassie right up our routes. It was pretty dumb because it was very risky.”
Calvin noted his long life, including many years fishing and as businessman, and why he was still here.
“My wife and I searched the world to find out if there were any place else that was better to live and there is no place else for us,” he said, breaking down into tears. “This is my home. And building roads and that kind of thing, that shouldn’t be done. Anyhow, Sitka has been very good to me and I think if we keep the total construction of roads and everything down it would be considerate. And that’s all I have, I like it the way it is.”
The State petitioned the Forest Service to craft an Alaska-specific rule that would lean toward economic development in the Tongass.
The 12 committee members were appointed by Gov. Bill Walker.
They are:
– Robert Venables of Juneau represents regional community interests as the executive director of the Southeast Conference.
– Andrew Thoms of Sitka represents conservation and sustainable development interests as the executive director of the Sitka Conservation Society.
– Bert Burkhart of Klawock is president of the Alaska Forest Association (AFA) and the previous owner of a helicopter logging operation. He represents commercial timber interests in the Tongass.
– Trey Acteson of Ketchikan represents energy interests in his role as CEO of the Southeast Power Agency.
– Eric Nichols of Ketchikan is a partner with Alcan Forest Products and represents the timber industry.
– Jaeleen Kookesh of Juneau represents Sealaska, the largest of the 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations. She represents ANCSA and Alaska Native interests, which include such broad concerns as timber, hunting, and fishing. However, while she is a Native Alaskan, she does not represent overall tribal interests for the region.
– Michael Kampnich of Craig represents on-the-ground conservation and forest management as a Prince of Wales field representative for The Nature Conservancy. He has lived in Alaska since 1980, and has worked in a variety of sectors, including the timber industry through several years of work in logging camps, commercial fishing as harbor master for Craig for almost 20 years, and environment and conservation at the Conservancy.
– Mark Vinsel of Juneau represents commercial fishing interests as executive administrator of United Fishermen of Alaska, a trade association with 35 member organizations across the state that includes commercial fishing, hatcheries, and regional aquaculture businesses.
– Andrew Hughes of Juneau recently retired after 43 years of working in the transportation sector in Southeast Alaska. He represents broad transportation interests in the state.
– Jan Trigg of Juneau is a 21-year employee of Coeur Alaska Kensington Mine and a board member of the Alaska Miners Association and the Resource Development Council, and represents mining and resource development interests.
– Ralph Wolfe of Yakutat represents the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and has a strong network of Native Alaskan tribes across Southeast Alaska.
– Brian Holst of Juneau is executive director of the Juneau Economic Development Council, and represents tourism and other commercial interests on the committee.
The advisory committee has been meeting in Sitka since Monday and will hold its final meeting 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday in the Yaw Building.
This is the third gathering of the committee since its organization early in October. The Roadless Rule has been a source of continuous litigation since its inception in 2001.
The final decision on a special Roadless Rule for the Tongass will be made by the U.S. Forest Service.
