Davey Lubin
Last fall, I had the great privilege to travel through New Mexico on the Alaskan Rainforest Roadshow – sharing a virtual tour of beautiful Southeast Alaska, and the famed Inside Passage, with New Mexicans in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos. The roadshow raised awareness about the spectacular Tongass National Forest – a wild, rare and intact coastal temperate rainforest.
In addition, I had the opportunity to meet with Senator Jeff Bingaman’s Field Representative Pablo Sedillo, whose family goes back many generations in New Mexico and who, himself, has a strong land ethic.
Senator Bingaman is currently refereeing a congressional fight over a corporate land grab in the Tongass, the country’s largest national forest.
Bingaman is the key player in this one, since he chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee… and the battle could affect his ability to push through a public lands bill for New Mexico and other western states.
Here’s the issue. A private corporation in Alaska wants Congress to give it new land selection rights in the Tongass National Forest, the country’s largest collection of old-growth temperate rainforest and an absolute national treasure. Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall played a key role in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which authorized the creation of the Sealaska Corporation and guaranteed lands to the Alaska Natives.
Sealaska Corporation now wants to pick public land outside the boundaries that were mutually agreed upon in that landmark legislation.
Bingaman allowed committee hearing
The Sealaska Corporation has already received 80 percent of the Tongass forest land it is due under the 1971 settlement. By clearcutting the valuable old growth and selling the logs, unprocessed, to Asia, Sealaska has already made millions of dollars.
But now, because of their short-sighted clearcutting practices, the corporation claims to have almost run out of old-growth trees to cut. Sealaska Corporation wants Congress to bail it out by handing over choice timberlands, rare wildlife habitat and priceless recreation sites from throughout the Tongass.
The bill’s chief supporter is the ranking Republican on Bingaman’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. It also has a handful of Democratic co-sponsors, including Alaska’s freshman senator, Mark Begich.
The Sealaska Corporation’s bill is the kind of raid on public land that Sen. Bingaman would normally resist. He has consistently high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters – 100 percent on the group’s latest scorecard.
But Bingaman gave the Tongass land-grab bill (S. 881) a hearing last fall, and Sealaska Corporation is now aggressively lobbying the committee for a vote as soon as possible. The bill could move out of his committee at any time.
Efforts to pass another omnibus lands bill
Chairman Bingaman is very interested in putting together a public lands package that would include wilderness bills for New Mexico, including Rio Grande del Norte National Conservation Area in Northern New Mexico, and potentially Idaho, Montana and other western states. Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski will undoubtedly insist that the Sealaska land grab is part of this package.
Undoubtedly, Senator Murkowski is engaged in an all-out effort to dispose of public wildlands in Alaska. Very much unlike the Sealaska bill, though, the other bills have strong constituent support.
Alaskans of all walks who live in and around the Tongass have been complaining loud and long about Sealaska Corporation’s attempted land grab. Conservationists are making a pretty big ruckus about the bill in D.C., too. They would prefer Bingaman drop the Tongass land grab from any omnibus lands bill.
Failing that, concerned citizens in Southeast Alaska and beyond want Senator Bingaman to direct Senator Murkowksi to work with the local communities, fishermen and conservationists on a scaled-back version that steers clear of controversial areas and includes new protections for lands throughout the Tongass. Citizens have repeatedly stated that they want a true public process, complete with other members of the Natural Resources Committee, including Senator Bingaman’s own staff.
Defusing this controversial Alaska issue would undoubtedly help Bingaman’s efforts to pass another public lands bill this session and could go a long way toward creating a long-term solution to what has historically been a very divisive public lands issue.
Lubin is a boat captain who lives in Sitka, Alaska. He has worked as a commercial fisherman, fisheries biologist and a U.S. Forest Service botanist. He has been teaching Alaska natural history since 1986.