Yukon Flats, climate woes highlight closing day of Tanana Chiefs Conference
Published Friday, March 14, 2008
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Stumble It!Tanana Chiefs Conference directors re-elected Jerry Isaac as the Native consortium’s president Thursday and also asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the comment period for what has become a controversial proposed land swap with the federal government.
Immediately following the presidential vote Thursday night, a conference delegate from Fort Yukon took the floor following a suspension of the meeting’s regular agenda and successfully urged delegates to approve a resolution asking the government to extend, by 120 days, a public comment period on a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Tanana Flats land exchange, TCC members attending the meeting said.
The proposed land trade would give the consortium’s for-profit branch, Doyon Ltd., several thousands acres of land, thought to be rich in oil and gas, in exchange for property important to wildlife habitat within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
The proposal has caused rifts within the greater Interior Native community. Directors early Thursday afternoon killed a resolution from Fort Yukon officials that had sought to suggest oil and gas development in the area could “create potentially significant impacts” to wildlife.
Dacho Alexander, first chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in tribe in Fort Yukon, said Thursday night by phone that directors, voting late Thursday night, passed a different resolution that calls simply for a longer public comment period — the federal government is currently in the midst of a 60-day comment window.
Alexander said many of TCC’s villages are within the Yukon River watershed.
“If there was ever a spill or anything like that, those villages could be impacted. We feel those villages should have an opportunity to read that document and comment on it if they’d like to,” Alexander said by phone.
Today, one day after TCC’s meeting concluded, Doyon will hold its annual meeting. The agenda will include the election of five members to its board of directors.
Isaac re-elected
President Jerry Isaac, 53, first took over as president for an ailing Buddy Brown in 2006. Minutes prior to his re-election Thursday, he pledged to work hard for Alaska Natives, and announcement of his re-election drew strong cheers from the packed Chena River Convention Center.
Isaac said the multimillion-dollar Native consortium — which represents tribes across much of the state’s Interior region — has the resources to extend progress seen in recent years.
“I’ll do my best to develop these infrastructure needs for your tribes and your villages to survive,” he said.
Isaac will serve a three-year term. He beat Shirley May Holmberg and former Fairbanks Native Association executive Shirley Lee.
Climate change
Prior to the presidential vote, the conference’s board of directors also adopted a resolution that calls for a summit for Interior Alaska Native leaders to discuss the impacts Earth’s climbing temperatures could have on village communities.
The summit would consist of representatives from the Native consortium, its for-profit branch (Doyon), and its various tribes.
Curtis Sommer, a delegate from Tanana, said warming temperatures are noticeably changing the land. He said permafrost is melting and, in the process, changing vegetation. Biologists say tree roots are being damaged from changing weather, Sommer said.
“Even though the government doesn’t acknowledge it, we do have lakes and sloughs drying up,” he said.
Some delegates called the proposed summit overdue. Isaac estimated the summit could cost up to $100,000.
“This will address some great concerns affecting all of us,” he said.
TCC directors also passed a resolution aimed at developing a comprehensive strategic plan to help Native communities and organizations plan for impacts global climate change could bring to their economies, culture and habitats.
Villages
State Rep. Woodie Salmon, D-Beaver, also addressed the meeting, saying Thursday morning that representatives from Bush Alaska have made strides in Juneau. Salmon said House Democrats recently urged Gov. Sarah Palin to add an Alaska Native to the state’s Board of Game, a request she met by appointing Craig Fleener of Fort Yukon last month.
“I think that’s a little victory for the Bush caucus,” he said.
Community Discussion
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I really hope that everyone gets involved in this and realizes what could happen to the land if drilling for oil begins. What will happen to the wildlife?? There is already so much damage to the land from global warming. Things that are hard to notice unless you pay attention to the news a lot, like the salmon population being affected by the warming climate and their food supply being reduced. And the polar bears having less and less ice to live on, and all the villages by the coasts of Alaska which are being relocated due to erosion. It seems to me like naming this a "trade in land" is just a way to trick us into something that we're going to regret later on. What will our childeren's generation have to deal with when there is nothing left of Alaska??
You don't even need to watch the news to see what is happening locally, just pay attention to the land itself..The trees on the Rivers have not been doing well..Heck the trees in my yard are not doing well, and they have personal, all year, care!
The tops of the birch have major bug damage, the cottonwoods (my least favorite tree) look like they are mostly dead all summer from bugs! Last summer I looked at the hills around us and the Cottonwoods were all silver from dead leaves. I don't care for them...I think I would miss them if they dissapeared though.
We have bugs up here we never had before..Never heard of poisonous spiders around here till a few years ago, now we have at least 2 varieties, Hobo and Brown Recluse!
The news told us the (Spruce bud) worms that were/are attacking the spruce trees are a natural cycle and it has happened before but, I was born and have lived here my entire 41 years and have never seen anything like it before? I know people in their 80's that were born here that say they never saw it before, so "when" did it happen before?
Howard Luke and others like him are trying their best to teach what they know about how to, not just survive but, really live without all the gadgets of today & be happy.
More people should listen to him! He has been saying for years that all of this was going to happen, that our lack of respect for the land, air, water, is what this is all really about.
How are we going to be able to be self sufficient if the land we would need to do that is sullied with an oil spill? When all the rivers are polluted and all the fish are gone? When the air itself is unsafe to breathe?
All we really need to live well & prosper is clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and good unpolluted land to grow on, together with the tools and skills to make use of it!
We as humans should learn/know how to be good land stewards. We all need to know how to live if we get cut off from "modern technology". How to hunt, fish, grow our own veggies, cook (without using a microwave). How to fix what we have and make what we need! It is ok to use what the modern world gives us but, don't depend on it. We all should be able to do without it and not freak out! We should not be so desperate for the modern world that we would sell our souls for it.
"It is ok to use what the modern world gives us but, don't depend on it. We all should be able to do without it."
Wow, great inspiraton. I love this quote!
Doyon and its officials need to quit worrying about money and what WE will get today......... this is about our future generations..... when you make your decisions, think about THEM; they are going to have the live with the consequences of decisions made today. NO LAND TRADE, NO DRILLING! Keep the Yukon Flats undeveloped. We need our fish and animals to subsist on, unless USFWS or Doyon plans on shipping us all moose, caribou, ducks, geese, salmon, etc.... once an oil spill destroys our land!
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