ACF Dispatch
The quarterly Dispatch newsletter provides ACF supporters with a long-term strategic view of the conservation concerns of Alaskans.
Government for Sale: Thanks to your support, a homegrown initiative reaches the ballot to take back Alaska government from big industry
Spring 2008
Sometimes a small investment can reap very large rewards. Such is the case with the Alaska Clean Elections Initiative. This local effort to clean up Alaska state government—after a series of investigations, indictments, and convictions involving the oil industry—looks like it may pay off in a big way for conservationists and Alaskans in general. Also, read about Friends of Mat-Su and their efforts to make sure growth and conservation go hand in hand, how the Bering Sea Elders Working Group is working to keep Alaska's oceans healthy, why the toxic possibilities of Donlin Creek Mine threaten fisheries and villages, Trout Unlimited's educational outreach efforts to reduce fatal human-bear encounters, the pros and cons of the revised Tongass Land Use Management Plan, and the cross-country Bristol Bay protection efforts of Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska!
Alaska's Clean Energy Campaign: Creating 20th Century solutions for climate and energy
Winter 2008
Alaska is at an energy crossroads. The intensifying impacts of climate change, mounting threats of coal development, and unparalleled opportunities for renewable energy and energy planning are all critical factors in the future of Alaska. With the assistance of ACF, the Alaska Clean Energy Campaign is emerging to address these pressing issues with a unified, coordinated aproach. Read about the "prongs" and goals of the Clean Energy Campaign, find out what's going on with the Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska and protection of the Tongass, learn how an ACF intern's business plan won a prestigious award, and get Nick Hardigg's insights on the "Four E's of Conservation."
The Rush for Alaska's Resources: Headlines Fade - Yet Demand for Development is Higher Than Ever
Fall 2007
Although high-profile threats to Alaska's wilderness have faded from national headlines, the race for Alaska's resources is accelerating. Alaska’s unique importance is clear, yet many Americans forget that even though it is distant and remote, it is a treasure that belongs to all of us. Alaska and Alaskans are not opposed to all development, but it is crucial to our collective future that we turn our attention to Alaska and realize that it is our legacy—and that caring for it properly is our responsibility to future generations around the globe.
Hope for Alaska's Future: Our Greatest Opportunity in Decades
Summer 2007
Alaska faces serious new threats from proposed oil and gas exploration, and climate change has already impacted the state in irreversible ways. Both are potentially catastrophic to Arctic waters, wildlife, communities, economies, and cultures. The Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, Bristol Bay, and other precious waters are particularly at risk as the pressure for extractive resource development increases and temperatures rise. Yet the conservation community is responding with renewed hope and vigor as a fundamental, common-sense concept of stewardship appears to be emerging.
Statewide Mining Boom: What Does It Mean for Alaska?
Spring 2007
Mining no longer has a low profile in Alaska. The Pebble Mine near Lake Iliamna makes the news on a weekly, if not daily basis--but it is only one of a number of new mining projects in the state. The mining of minerals is something that society has long demanded, and certain minerals are essential to our present way of life. But mining in Alaska has a long way to go before it meets its obligations as a good corporate citizen with regard to its environmental performance and economic contribution to the state. Also, read Executive Director Nick Hardigg's cover letter!
Alaska's Future: Taking Decisive Steps on Common Ground
Winter 2007
In order to be successful, conservationists must capitalize on issues and approaches that reach across partisan lines and ideological divides to speak to the values and interests of the public. They must form partnerships with non-traditional allies and diverse constituencies such as tribal organizations, labor, sportsmen, and industry to brainstorm ares of mutual concern and a long-term vision for a prosperous Alaska.
Protecting Alaska's Vital Treasures
Fall 2006
As the fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling rages on in Congress and around the country, other areas in Alaska also suffer imminent threat because of continued pro-exploration decisions within the Bush Administration. Wetlands around Teshekpuk Lake in the northeast section of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are about to feel the bite of the drill bit, despite adamant protests by environmentalists, wildlife management groups, Alaska Native communities, and concerned Americans to protect the critical habitat that lies there.
Global Climate Change: The Heat is On
Summer 2006
Global warming is hot. Over the last few months the issue has made the covers of Time, Wired, and Vanity Fair. It’s been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, HBO, and is the star of Al Gore’s new movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Unfortunately, Americans still don’t think global warming is a crisis. According to a Time/ABC News/Stanford University poll, 54 percent of Americans believe global warming is a problem for the future.
Defend Alaska Now: The Power of Grantmaking
Spring 2006
Since its inception in 2003, ACF’s Defend Alaska NOW! (DAN) program has provided critical grants at both the state and national levels to safeguard Alaska’s national treasures. DAN monies are targeted to specific Congressional and state legislative actions where both substantial threats and also proactive legislative opportunities arise. These grants are discreet and additive to other on-going efforts and closely coordinated with partner conservation groups.
Offshore Drilling Threatens Bristol Bay
Winter 2006
Energy companies and some members of the Bush Administration are aiming to bring oil and gas rigs to the pristine waters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Their efforts mark the latest chapter in a 20-year saga of energy development in the bay—specifically, an area between three and 200 miles offshore that is under federal jurisdiction and is known as the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
Alaska At Stake
Fall 2005
Hardrock mining is poised to increase greatly in many parts of Alaska over the coming years. This potential is bringing together an unprecedented variety of people—sport fishers, commercial fishers, environmental groups, Native tribes, subsistence users, and others—to protect the places that they value.
Twenty-Five Years After ANILCA: The heroes, the victory, and the opportunities ahead
Summer 2005
Twenty-five years ago, an extremely diverse group of citizens from across the United States crowded into the East Room of the White House. They gathered on December 2, 1980, to watch as President Carter signed into law the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA)—the greatest piece of land conservation legislation in the history of the United States.
Oiled Again: Responding to Alaska's second-worst spill ever
Spring 2005
On December 8, 2004, in the middle of a fierce winter storm, the 738-foot freighter Selendang Ayu hit a shoal off Unalaska Island, in the Aleutian chain, and broke in two. In addition to the 60,000 metric tons of soybeans it was hauling from Tacoma, Washington to China, the ship was loaded with nearly half a million gallons of fuel, which began to seep from the wrecked hull into the Bering Sea. Nearly 360,000 gallons were eventually lost, making the accident the second-worst oil spill ever in Alaska waters, surpassed only by the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.
Four more years: Preparing for the assault on Alaska's environment
Winter 2005
Is there hope for Alaska’s environment in the aftermath of November 2nd? According to Alaska Conservation Foundation’s grantees and program leaders the answer is an adamant “yes.” “While this is the toughest political framework we have ever encountered, we have the tools, the experience, the track record, and the will to protect America’s natural treasures in Alaska,” notes Deborah L. Williams, Alaska Conservation Foundation’s Executive Director.
Saving Alaska step by step
Fall 2004
In 1980, Alaska’s conservation movement was comprised of a number of small organizations, working on shoestring budgets. These dedicated volunteers put their time, energy, and passion into identifying Alaska’s special places and calling for their protection. But while these groups were effective in their work, limited financial resources hampered their ability to address many pressing issues. This situation, coupled with Alaska’s extraordinary conservation opportunities, spurred the creation of the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF).
Alaska's Forgotten Lands
Summer 2004
The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) currently controls 86 million acres of land in Alaska—more than the National Park Service and the Forest Service combined. BLM lands include marshland nesting habitat for threatened spectacled and Stellar's eiders (Somateria fischeri and Polysticta stelleri, respectively), the lake at the terminus of one of the largest glaciers in the world, and craggy peaks that harbor one of the nation's last substantial populations of mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus).
Guarding the Crown Jewels
Spring 2004
Today the unparalleled treasures of Alaska's national parks are at a crossroads. Development interests want to build roads and railroads into the center of numerous pristine parks. Motorized recreation enthusiasts are carving all-terrain vehicle trails through fragile tundra wilderness. And the State of Alaska wants to turn old hiking trails into highways and pipeline corridors.
Warm Hearts in Cold Water
Winter 2004
The waters surrounding Alaska are home to one of the richest assemblages of
marine mammals in the entire world—more than two dozen species of whales, seals,
walruses, and their relations, as well as polar bears and sea otters. These species are
intelligent, complex natural treasures—exquisitely adapted to both life in the water
and life in the cold.
Defending Alaska Now
Fall 2003
Recent administrative actions and legislative efforts have abolished long-standing checks and balances in state government, erased local control of vital resources, shut out public input, and taken science out of environmental management. Most of the changes so far have been procedural or structural in nature, but the challenges could get much worse, with initiatives that would cause immediate, on-the-ground harm to the Great Land’s intact ecosystems.
Saving Alaska's Old-Growth Coral
Summer 2003
Contrary to popular belief, fishing is Alaska’s top job-producing industry—not oil production. Each year, over $1 billion is infused into the Alaskan economy by commercial fishing and fish processing. Moreover, fishing provides valuable food for subsistence cultures and is an important draw for sport fishers to the state. Fisheries are important not only to Alaska, but to the entire U.S.—a full 50 percent of seafood consumed in America is produced in Alaska’s waters.
Alaska Under Severe, Stealth Attack
Spring 2003
Americans care deeply about protecting Alaska. That is why those members of Congress and the Bush Administration who want to despoil the Last Frontier are trying to employ stealth tactics to circumvent the public’s will. These undercover attacks represent an assault, not only on Alaska’s natural heritage, but also on America’s basic democratic principles.
Protecting Alaska's Magnificent Temperate Rainforests
Winter 2003
Stretching in a 1,000-mile arc along the coast from Ketchikan to Kodiak, Alaska’s temperate rainforest is home to thousand-year-old trees, stunning mountain peaks, tidewater glaciers, and the healthiest remaining populations of grizzly bears, bald eagles, and Pacific salmon in the world. The more than 22 million acres in the Tongass and the Chugach may seem vast, but temperate rainforest is one of the rarest environments on Earth, covering just 0.2 percent of the planet’s surface. The Alaskan rainforest represents a full 40 percent of the planet’s remaining temperate rainforest. And because the total acreage of remaining temperate rainforest in the world is shrinking, the importance of protecting this land and all that it contains cannot be overstated.
One Salmon, Two Salmon, Red Salmon, Blue Salmon?
Spring 2002
No wild animal is more important to Alaska's environment and Alaska's economy than salmon. But now Alaska's salmon may be approaching a crisis.
Alaska's Winged Ambassadors
Winter 2002
Migratory birds are Alaska's most numerous and spectacular trans continental ambassadors, bringing joy and inspiration to Americans in all fifty states.
Alaska's Marine Ecosystems: Poised to Thrive or Collapse
Fall 2001
The Great Land at Risk: Alaska Under Fire
Spring 2001
Now more than ever, Alaska's great treasures are threatened. This edition of the Dispatch explores current threats to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska's rainforests and public lands, among others.
Royalty of the Wild: Alaska's brown bears and polar bears
Winter 2001
Alaska holds a unique treasure in its bear populations. Actions we take today will ensure the survival of these wonderful creatures. This issue focuses on our effects on bears as our boundaries expand into their habitat.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: A Monumental Choice
Fall 2000
In the northeast corner of Alaska lies one of America's treasures, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), one of the only places on Earth that protects the complete spectrum of subarctic and arctic habitats. But, oil development plans threaten the critical 1.5 million-acre Coastal Plain of ANWR.
Toxic Pollution in Alaska
Summer 2000
Toxic pollution is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Alaska. But hidden in our pristine images of mountain peaks, unspoiled waters, and vast forests is a legacy of pollution from activities both inside and outside of Alaska itself.
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