Letter to the Editor
Wilderness threat
Published Saturday, March 1, 2008
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To the editor:
Imagine floating down Beaver Creek toward the end of a successful camping or hunting trip through the White Mountains. As the river sweeps around Big Bend and heads north toward the Yukon, the White Mountains’ chiseled peaks soar to the east.
But now imagine an industrial scene — a large pipeline, haul road, service vehicles — towers above you instead of this majestic panorama. The proposed land exchange between Doyon and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service guarantees this ugly result. USFW and Doyon’s preferred proposal will slash a 37-mile road and pipeline through the some of the wildest land in the White Mountains. And USFW does not foresee this road being open to Alaskans — industry only.
USFW’s proposal mandates a pipeline across Beaver Creek and contemplates oil spills within the normal range for North Slope production. This means spills of roughly 11,000-59,000 gallons per decade. While the proposal suggests that a spill prevention boom would be staged at the confluence of Beaver Creek and the Yukon River, USFW’s plan completely fails to contemplate the nightmare of a spill entering the Yukon due to either spring floods, site inaccessibility or mechanical error. This is unacceptable, given the Yukon’s significance to all Alaskans.
USFW’s proposal outlines many other downsides to this plan for Yukon Flats residents — a short lived “boom economy” in the region, increases in alcoholism and suicide to name a few — but local Fairbanksans also should be aware that this plan is a direct attack on one of our most precious local recreation areas and most easily accessed rivers. Please oppose the Yukon Flats land exchange and voice your opposition.
Community Discussion
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Thanks for your letter. This is a raw deal being proposed. Doyon, an entity supposed to be representing the indigenous peoples with rights to this land, seems to have a rogue board that does not represent shareholders (from the sentiments expressed by some here in NM forums).
The USFW has betrayed everything it stands for in this stunning proposal. Here is who they are supposed to be (from the USFW website):
"SUBJECT: Mission Statement
A. What is the mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? Our mission is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."
This land swap is completely counter to any conservation, protection, or enhancement. HOW can they even propose this legally?? Why do they betray AK, eh?
Good letter!! As a "pro development" Alaskan, I have changed my mind on this land swap. I have spent time in the White Mountains and flew around them for years, and as the letter states, it is a very remote, but yet accessable, piece of land. Its beauty is unmatched anywhere around it! If if were to be soiled, it would probably be lost forever. I do believe that Alaska and Alaskans cannot afford to lose this area to industry. Pick a different spot. Pick a spot that is similiar to ANWR or in some other remote tundra somewhere, not the White Mountains.
How would you like to be able to fill up a 5-gallon propane bottle for a buck per gallon in the Yukon Basin by walking up to a big funny lookin' fireproof birch tree and popping open a hidden door in the tree trunk, then pull out a fill-hose, keypad your club-card number, then pass gass???
Then, you'd be able to heat your tent without having to make a big mess chopping firewood.
It's now possible to sneak Clean-Gas out of the wilderness without building roads.
You can use little plastic noodle pipes.
http://www.soluforce.net/
RTP-gaslines can be manufactured from Alaskan-Gas in Fairbanks.
http://www.extrusion.com.cn/esp/product/...
Did you know that modern coil-drill rigs capable of drilling crooked wormholes 10,000feet can be deployed with a helicopter?
And the remaining oil in the Doyon reserves can be converted to gas underground, and at the well-head using this technology >>
http://www.peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...
Why is Dirty-Crude always developed before Clean-Gas?
When they were making plans for TAPS in 1970, I was shouting at all the old know-it-alls that for the sake of the wilderness environment they should focus on passing gas to the rest of the economy first. I knew back then that when drillers looked for oil they almost always hit gas first. But until now the big-shots always considered gas to be a nuisance because it wouldn't just sit by itself in a hog-cauldron in the back of the truck while they hauled it off to market so they could come home at night with a bottle of whiskey just like they all did back in wildcat TEXAS...
When it comes to oil, the big grey elephant under the rug in WARshington is the NAVY.
The whole oil market pivots on the Navy.
The bulk of the oil in Alaska belongs to the Navy.
The Navy started claiming the oil in Alaska in the 1890's, but it wasn't until 1923 that the Naval Petroleum Reserve #4 was officially established.
Even today the mindset of the architects designing the planned developments for Big-Oil rely on long institutionalized industry standards based on secretive strategic military dictations.
forget the NuclearNavy, because the Navy now knows how to propel all of their toys, big and small, using seawater as fuel..
..but you can be certain that come Hell or Highwater they will won't loosen their grip on when, how, and why Alaska manages it's own Heritage Resources..
..because all of the pentagooniebirds have their stock portfolios loaded with BIG-OIL stocks.
They are all tap-dancing across the stage in the theater of war while trying to convert "strategic resources" into personal gain.
So, if Doyon wants to get into the Oil-Game in the Yukon Basin..
they have to please the Army Corps of Engineers...
...ergo, BIG-Steel, big roads, big everything because the BigShots like it that way.
Comment to Yukonjohn....when you say "Pick a different spot. Pick a spot that is similiar to ANWR or in some other remote tundra somewhere" you are implying that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a wasteland. Far from it! I have visited the coastal plain of the refuge and during its brief, fragile summer season, it teems with wilflife, from the Porcupine Caribou Herd to grizzly bears, polar bears, arctic foxes, wolves, dozens of species of birds and even an occasional moose! With its backdrop of the Brooks Range looming close by, it is indeed a beautiful setting! I worked in Prudhoe Bay for eight years ('87-'95) and do not want to see the same environmental damage happen to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! Let's keep it wild!
gotta develop something. what's it gonna be?
Why do we HAVE to develop something? As a person who realizes that we as a species are a part of the global ecosystem, I also realize that we will suffer due to the effects of global climate change. That suffering may be worse than we are prepared to deal with. It is time that we divest from the same old technologies to which we've become addicted. Americans used to be the most ingenious of all peoples and Alaskans especially. Let's harness our great American intellect, ingenuity, and persistence and invent the renewable resource technology which will subvert the need to use fossil fuels, will create awesome jobs, and may limit the effects of global climate change instead of accepting this tired and false notion that we "gotta develop something".
While I firmly believe America should invest time, money and talent towards finding and developing new technologies such as alternative fuels, Article 8 of the Alaska Constitution states that we should develop our natural resources...that is why we should be looking at development of them.
I'm 1/4 Athabaskan, but not a member of Doyon, maybe someday, I dunno.
If you are interested in preserving this wilderness area, maybe it would be a good idea to take the time to support the Doyon organization with some volunteer time to get a feel for
the real inside issues in the 1stNations culture..
we have our problems like any other organization..
but we are all human, and dream to share the spirits of our hearts together.
Russel Means of the Lakotah Nation has some wise words to share on youtube this month, enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm0JIgVHy...
Just because you have a pipeline running through an area does not mean that the area is suddenly an industrial wasteland. Animals are not bothered by pipelines, especially gas pipelines which are usually buried.
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