Two last-minute anti-endangered species riders have been proposed
for a massive funding bill that could have drastic, damaging effects
on endangered species for years to come. Both riders are being considered
at the behest of pro-development and pro-industry corporate interests
without any public debate or advance warning.
One rider would undermine the goal of the Endangered
Species Act to recover species instead of just keeping them at the edge of
extinction, without any hope of recovery. The second rider
would exempt the Environmental Protection Agency and other government
agencies from regulations protecting endangered species from the
harmful effects of toxic pesticides.
Congress sometimes attaches harmful or controversial riders to large
spending bills that are necessary to keep the government running
in order to make it difficult for anyone to oppose them. If passed,
these stealth riders could spell disaster for the Endangered Species
Act and the imperiled fish and wildlife species that depend on it
to survive and recover.
What you can do
Please visit
alert #347 on the DEN action center and send a free fax
to your member of Congress and Senators and urge them to oppose
anti-endangered species riders to this year's final appropriations
bill. Let them know that you care about endangered species and
don’t want Congress to dismantle the Endangered
Species Act!
White worms and deadman's fingers were underfoot, and we had severe blue
tongue. We were not trapped in some hall of horrors but hiking over a
natural carpet of mosses and lichens on an early August trek through
the mountains and valleys of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The
blueberries were everywhere and irresistible.
We had seen wolves by day and heard their distant howling at night.
At the end of another long day, we watched for hours while a bear,
unaware of our presence, ate soapberries, laying on fat for a long
winter.
Most of the Porcupine Caribou Herd had moved east into the Old Crow
Flats before our trip began. The few caribou we did see were stragglers.
For a while it looked like we would see more bears than caribou, but
one or two sightings a day of the latter upped that tally.
We had humped heavy packs over roughly 50 miles of mostly open tundra
with far vistas amid wide mountain valleys.
President Bush appears more
determined than ever, with the election behind us, to try and bring
us energy salvation by a "drill 'em, spill
'em" policy for the refuge and the nation. Why embrace conservation
or do something about global warming when there is money to be made
on unrestrained consumption?
Omitted from the bogus claim that only 2,000 acres would be affected
is any mention of the impacts from hundreds of miles of seismic lines
that would precede drilling, not to mention those from a proliferation
of roads, pipelines and airports needed to support any development.
Two-thousand acres, maybe, but in many scattered smaller units with
far greater impact.
Visitors to Alaska come to see its wildlife and natural landscapes.
There is always that not-so-readily-described something that soaks
in from being in a wild place, away from the confines of four walls
and the abiding noise that is part of city life.
We were more connected with our roots in the Earth and the sense of
peace that brings. All around was a kaleidoscope of form and color
that soothes and heals. We all need places for rejuvenation and rest
in our lives.
The refuge and its coastal plain is America's premier Arctic wilderness.
Its greatest but intangible value lies in those ineffable qualities
that inspire and uplift the spirit.
Who finds inspiration in a sunset over an oilfield with all its sucking
machinery, clamor and pollution?
Allowing
oil exploration here is like having a lovely daughter who is a
virgin. An acquaintance comes to you one day, saying, "my son
is in love with your daughter and wants to marry her." You know his
son has a history of physically and sexually assaulting young women.
He pleads with you, knowing of your great love for your daughter, saying, "my
son has been cured of his violent ways using the
latest medication and is no longer a menace. He loves
your daughter very much and I can assure you their
marriage will be a happy one."
But you know from past experience that he has less interest in your
daughter's welfare and happiness than for the large dowry he covets
and believes will be his at their wedding.
For many
of us, the refuge is like a place of worship — sacred space
yet free from dogma or agenda. One does not enter
without a sense of humility and respect. It is not just another
place for desecration and taking.
In the wilderness of the refuge, from its tundra plains to boreal
forest, love and beauty intertwine in ways that leave one fumbling
for words. It is a sanctuary of peace and unity one can return to again
and again if only in mind's eye.
It reminds
us that the abode of peace is within. In wild places is the potential
for reconnection and an end to our separation from creation and
the Creator. We must save our virginal places for the healing power
of their "still waters."
If we affirmed life more than death, we would place greater value
on the spiritual than the material. We would take our rightful place
as healers and peacemakers, not as a culture still in diapers more
often dominating and destroying.
The American
people, so-called "extreme environmentalists," have said "No
more, not in this place" to the unalterable scarification of America's "Sistine
Chapel" to satisfy our energy gluttony.
May the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
remain forever wild.
P.S. "I'm
pulling for you, we're all in this together." — Red
Green
Don Ross is a Vietnam veteran and a longtime Fairbanks resident. He
flew for many years in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
