NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE ASSOCIATION
ACTION ALERT (www.refugenet.org)
Next week, on May 7, 2008, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to vote on a bill that would carve a road through the heart of vital wildlife habitat in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Urge your two U.S. Senators to oppose S. 1680!
Problem:
Members of the Alaskan Congressional delegation have introduced legislation that will result in a road carved through the biological heart of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the first wetlands area in North American to be recognized under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance. As such, the impacts to migratory bird species will affect global populations.
Congress rejected this ill-conceived plan in 1998, but Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) didn’t get the message. In October 2007, these Senators introduced S. 1680, a bill that would authorize a land exchange paving the way for the state of Alaska to build a nine mile road right through the refuge, a designated wilderness.
Established in 1960 to protect habitat for the Pacific black brant, the 417,000-acre Izembek NWR is located on the Alaskan peninsula – with 95% designated as wilderness. Wildlife here is abundant, from brown bears, caribou and wolves to seals, seal lions and sea otters. At the heart of the refuge lies the 150 square mile Izembek lagoon, containing some of the largest eelgrass beds in the world, which the Pacific brant and other avian species depend upon for survival.
On paper, the land exchange proposed in the legislation sounds good – the FWS would add over 61,000 acres to the Izembek NWR and nearby Alaska Peninsula NWR with over 45,000 of those designated as wilderness. In exchange, the FWS would grant a 206-acre easement to the state of Alaska to build the road.
However, these 206 acres are the biological heart of the refuge and its destruction would have a severe impact on the birds and wildlife that depend on the refuge. More than 98% of the world’s Pacific brant population fuel up on the eelgrass in the lagoon prior to their nonstop, 3000 mile trip to Mexico! And the nearby wetlands offer nesting sites for thousands of birds. A road through these sensitive lands will have profound impacts on wildlife and the proposed exchange lands would not provide comparable habitat value to compensate for this irreversible impact to fish, wildlife, and wetlands.
It’s not about quantity – it’s about quality.
The proposed road would connect the two small villages of King Cove (population 807) and Cold Bay (population 80). In 1998, advocates argued they needed a road through the fragile wilderness, but Congress ruled that such a road was not in the public interest. They instead gave the Alaskans $37.5 million to address their concerns with funding to upgrade medical facilities and the airport, and to buy a state of the art hovercraft that would be able to transport people in a medical emergency. More than $25 million has already been spent on construction of a road connecting King Cove to the hovercraft terminal.
Steep slopes and unstable volcanic soils have forced re-routing and contributed to construction delays and escalating costs. Extending the road, in some of the harshest weather conditions in America, is expected to cost you, the American taxpayer, countless additional millions for construction and maintenance.
Furthermore, the hovercraft, which travels on a cushion of air up to 58 MPH across water, ice and land is up and running and has so far transported over 1090 passengers, 110 vehicles and conducted over 27 successful medevacs.
Solution:
This absurd proposal, already voted down by Congress once, must be stopped in its tracks! Your U.S Senators might think this is a good deal – UNLESS they hear from YOU!
Action Needed:
Contact your U.S. Senators TODAY, time is of the essence with a committee vote expected as soon as Wednesday, May 7th, and urge him or her to oppose the Izembek and Alaska Peninsula Refuge and Wilderness Act of 2007, S. 1680.
Deadline for responding: Please take action by May 30, 2008.
TIA Submits Written Testimony to House Subcommittee
On April 25, TIA submitted written testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies in support of $514 million funding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Read Full Text of Testimony(PDF)
Read Full Text of Testimony(PDF)
Volunteer Cleanup at Tamarac NWR
House Committee Abandons Common Sense in Favor of the "Road To Nowhere"
For Immediate Release April 24, 2008
Washington, DC - Members of the House Natural Resources Committee yesterday abandoned common sense, approving H.R. 2801, legislation sponsored by Rep. Don Young of Alaska that would allow construction of a $30 million, U.S. taxpayer-funded road through the heart of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), AK, and its Congressionally-designated Wilderness.
"By paving the way for this $30 million taxpayer-funded road, Congress will help King Cove scuttle the 98-foot hovercraft medevac that has a 100% success rate, and put citizens' lives at risk" said Evan Hirsche, President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, "The full Congress should torpedo this latest version of the Bridge to Nowhere."
Road proponents argue they need a road for medical evacuations. Yet Congress in 1998 gave King Cove - a community of 800 - $37.5 million to upgrade their clinic and purchase a state of the art hovercraft which to date has proven 100% successful. According to the Mayor of the Aleutians East Borough, a road supporter, the hovercraft is a lifesaving machine, and it is doing what it is supposed to do. In fact, it has completed at least 27 successful medevacs since entering service.
"The Alaska DOT struggles to keep the 2-mile Cold Bay runway open in the winter snow; how can they conceivably expect to keep open a 30-mile gravel road?" said David Raskin, President of the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. "Historical wind data shows that the already successful hovercraft should be operational 99% of the time; it's time for King Cove to disclose the real reasons they are pushing for this unnecessary and costly road."
Izembek National Wildlife Range was established in 1960 and was designated a NWR in 1980 to safeguard the extraordinary ecological values and to protect waterfowl, shorebirds, and wetlands of national and international significance. The Reagan Administration in 1987 recognized Izembek as the first site named by the United States under the Convention on Wetlands of International Significance, a RAMSAR site. Numerous migratory birds depend on the Refuge, including the Stellers Eider, which is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and Pacific black brant, emperor goose, and dunlin, all of which are listed as declining and vulnerable in Alaska on Audubons 2005 WatchList.
The Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges educate the public and decision makers on local, national, and international levels about Alaskas National Wildlife Refuges; assist the refuges in accomplishing their missions through wildlife management and habitat improvement projects; and fund refuge-oriented projects through grants, memberships, donations, and other activities. For more information, visit www.alaskarefugefriends.org.
The National Wildlife Refuge Associations mission is to protect, enhance and expand the National Wildlife Refuge System, lands and waters set aside by the American people to protect our country's diverse wildlife heritage. For more information, visit www.refugeassociation.org.
View release online; click here.
Washington, DC - Members of the House Natural Resources Committee yesterday abandoned common sense, approving H.R. 2801, legislation sponsored by Rep. Don Young of Alaska that would allow construction of a $30 million, U.S. taxpayer-funded road through the heart of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), AK, and its Congressionally-designated Wilderness.
"By paving the way for this $30 million taxpayer-funded road, Congress will help King Cove scuttle the 98-foot hovercraft medevac that has a 100% success rate, and put citizens' lives at risk" said Evan Hirsche, President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, "The full Congress should torpedo this latest version of the Bridge to Nowhere."
Road proponents argue they need a road for medical evacuations. Yet Congress in 1998 gave King Cove - a community of 800 - $37.5 million to upgrade their clinic and purchase a state of the art hovercraft which to date has proven 100% successful. According to the Mayor of the Aleutians East Borough, a road supporter, the hovercraft is a lifesaving machine, and it is doing what it is supposed to do. In fact, it has completed at least 27 successful medevacs since entering service.
"The Alaska DOT struggles to keep the 2-mile Cold Bay runway open in the winter snow; how can they conceivably expect to keep open a 30-mile gravel road?" said David Raskin, President of the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. "Historical wind data shows that the already successful hovercraft should be operational 99% of the time; it's time for King Cove to disclose the real reasons they are pushing for this unnecessary and costly road."
Izembek National Wildlife Range was established in 1960 and was designated a NWR in 1980 to safeguard the extraordinary ecological values and to protect waterfowl, shorebirds, and wetlands of national and international significance. The Reagan Administration in 1987 recognized Izembek as the first site named by the United States under the Convention on Wetlands of International Significance, a RAMSAR site. Numerous migratory birds depend on the Refuge, including the Stellers Eider, which is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and Pacific black brant, emperor goose, and dunlin, all of which are listed as declining and vulnerable in Alaska on Audubons 2005 WatchList.
The Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges educate the public and decision makers on local, national, and international levels about Alaskas National Wildlife Refuges; assist the refuges in accomplishing their missions through wildlife management and habitat improvement projects; and fund refuge-oriented projects through grants, memberships, donations, and other activities. For more information, visit www.alaskarefugefriends.org.
The National Wildlife Refuge Associations mission is to protect, enhance and expand the National Wildlife Refuge System, lands and waters set aside by the American people to protect our country's diverse wildlife heritage. For more information, visit www.refugeassociation.org.
View release online; click here.
10 Million Years Old – or Even Older
Two geologists from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources and a student from New Mexico Tech discovered a fossil at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge that paleontologists says lived during the Miocene era between 10
and 15 million years ago. The fossil, found February 22 embedded in a rock face, is from an oreodont, an extinct group of hoofed ungulates found only in North America.
Dr. Dave Love and Dr. Richard Chamberlin, geologists with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, a division of New Mexico Tech, and Colin Cikoski, a New Mexico Tech graduate student, were conducting geologic mapping on the wildlife refuge when they came upon a fossilized upper and lower jaw and other fragmentary fossil bones.
“The closer we got, the better it looked,” said Dr. Love. The fossil was in a 10-million- year-old layer of sandstone and conglomerate of the Popotosa Formation of the Santa Fe Group. Dr. Love noted that it is the first known fossil discovered in this formation in the area. A team from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science excavated the fossil, which was first wrapped in plaster to protect it during transport to the museum, where it will be further evaluated.
The fossil consists of a skull, lower jaws and part of the skeleton. The animal belongs to a group of large oreodonts that lived in the latter part of the Miocene epoch between about 10 million and 15 million years ago, very late in the oreodont’s reign. The animal had a large head, a small trunk, rather short legs on a longish body, and resembled a cross between a pig and a camel. Oreodonts were herbivores that probably browsed on leaves in streamside forests — the Miocene bosque.
Fish and Wildlife Service Friends NewsWire
and 15 million years ago. The fossil, found February 22 embedded in a rock face, is from an oreodont, an extinct group of hoofed ungulates found only in North America.
Dr. Dave Love and Dr. Richard Chamberlin, geologists with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, a division of New Mexico Tech, and Colin Cikoski, a New Mexico Tech graduate student, were conducting geologic mapping on the wildlife refuge when they came upon a fossilized upper and lower jaw and other fragmentary fossil bones.
“The closer we got, the better it looked,” said Dr. Love. The fossil was in a 10-million- year-old layer of sandstone and conglomerate of the Popotosa Formation of the Santa Fe Group. Dr. Love noted that it is the first known fossil discovered in this formation in the area. A team from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science excavated the fossil, which was first wrapped in plaster to protect it during transport to the museum, where it will be further evaluated.
The fossil consists of a skull, lower jaws and part of the skeleton. The animal belongs to a group of large oreodonts that lived in the latter part of the Miocene epoch between about 10 million and 15 million years ago, very late in the oreodont’s reign. The animal had a large head, a small trunk, rather short legs on a longish body, and resembled a cross between a pig and a camel. Oreodonts were herbivores that probably browsed on leaves in streamside forests — the Miocene bosque.
Fish and Wildlife Service Friends NewsWire
Wolf Prints on Hwy 29
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