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Editorials
Up one levelEditorials on issues and concerns of SEACC.
Sealaska Lands Bill's Meeting Cancelations Leave Community Members
The visit to Port Protection by Senator Murkowski's Resource Committee staffers was called at the last minute by weather. "Maybe now they understand why sometimes subsistence is all we have," quipped one of the Point Baker residents who skiffed over despite the weather.
Big thank you to Sitnews
I just want to thank Sitnews for their lack of bias in running articles and letters which present various points of view, THANK YOU!
Sealaska Land Swap bills
As a resident of Edna Bay, one of the 3 communities most affected by this bill, the major reason that these bills are bad is that the lives of the residents of our 3 towns were not adequately taken into consideration.
Lands Sealaska wants NEVER belonged to Sealaska
The lands Sealaska wants on Kosciusko Island and Northern Prince Of Wales Island have NEVER belonged to Sealaska.
S881 Sealaska Lands Bill: Port Protection & Point Baker
Port Protection and Point Baker residents deserved the common courtesy of notification that their meeting was canceled.
Sealaska Bill listening sessions on POW
The Sealaska Bill listening sessions on POW proved the bill is controversial and splits our communities. But they did not serve the stated purpose of letting affected communities be heard.
The Need to Stop S.B. 881
Ketchikan resident foresees the impacts of closing public access to many choice areas on the Tongass.
Tell Senate to leave pristine Alaska alone
Opposition to the Sealaska legislation voiced from New Hampshire
S 881 meeting set for Ketchikan
A Ketchikan-based bear guide encourages residents to speak out against Sealaska's bill at community meetings.
SB 881: No Lands Bill Meeting for Ketchikan
A big game/bear guide from Ketchikan decries the Sealaska bill and the lack of public hearings in Ketchikan.
A bad history for a bad bill
If S. 881 passes out of committee next month, Southeast Alaska and the nation will be worse off. Here is an untold story.
Why are S 881 meetings being rushed through?
A former commercial fisherman and director of the Salmon Bay Protective Association questions the haste of community meetings and whether they should be rescheduled to allow more people to comment.
Sealaska land bill denies years of public investment
A long time Ketchikan resident and Prince of Wales Island landowner responds to the Sealaska CEO point by point.
Tell Senate to leave pristine Alaska alone
Sealaska controversy spreads to New Hampshire. Alaska is truly the last frontier where massive old growth forests still exist. The Sealaska Bill (S.881) targets for clear cut logging, some of the most beautiful, pristine and biologically productive roadless areas within the Tongass National Forest — America's largest.
Sealaska bill
Earnest Watson from Port Protection on North Prince of Wales Island asks for Sealaska to select its remaining outstanding lands from the areas currently allowed for selection.
Corporations are not tribes (Sealaska)
It is my understanding that corporations are legal fiction with no brains or morals. Tribes are families. Corporations have to put money above all else. Sometimes that just equals greed.
Sealaska bill (J. Laird)
A Ketchikan bear guide tells how the Sealaska bill will negatively impact his life and the lives of others near Ketchikan.
SEACC provides counterweight
A Juneau resident defends SEACC and thanks us for providing "a counterweight to the companies that simply want to profit off Alaska."
This Southeast 'local' supports SEACC
In Monday's article on Southeast Alaska Conservation Council's community outreach program, Sara Chambers is quoted as saying, "So are they local, are their friends? People should find that out." In answer to her question, I have been an Alaska resident since 1973, and have been a strong supporter of SEACC ever since I moved to Juneau in 1984.
SEACC ad story not worthy of front page
A Juneau resident questions the accuracy and relevance of attacks on SEACC's local standing and funding.
Open Letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski: Sealaska Land Grab Bill
We read your latest news release this morning in the Juneau Empire, "Public Hearings in Southeast region to begin in early March". Everyone is once again disappointed by what appears to be stubborn indifference to formally addressing our concerns.
An Open Letter to Senator Bingaman: Sealaska Land Grab
Can you hear the growing chorus of voices sounding the alarm throughout all of Southeast Alaska? One by one over the last few days, city after city within the Alexander Archipelago, and nearly every town in between, have come forward with formal resolutions of opposition or requests for formal congressional hearings.
Environmentalists tried to compromise on timber sale
The claims by Sara Chambers that Southeast Alaska Conservation Council did not negotiate in good faith the Logjam timber sale is malicious and wrong.
POW hearing (Sealaska)
POW resident and SEACC organizer expresses why Prince of Wales Island residents' deserve official hearings in Southeast Alaska on Sealaska's big ask.
Sealaska land bill has many problems
A Fairbanks resident brings up a new problem with Sealaska's big ask legislation.
Stop Sealaska's land bill
Senate Bill 881, the Sealaska landbill, should die in committee. Sealaska's selections should only occur within the area specified by ANCSA in 1971. This bill in front of the Senate Natural Resources Committee stands to devastate the transitioning economy of Southeast Alaska.
No to Sealaska (Joe Sebastian)
Southeast fisherman from Kupreanof decries Sealaska's ask for more of the Tongass. "S881 is a bad deal that harms too big a cross-section of Southeast Alaska's population."
No to Sealaska (Gretchen Goldstein)
Southeast Alaska land owner questions the benefits and costs of granting more Tongass lands to the Sealaska Corporation.
Sealaska Lands bill
Recent events in Craig have made the Sealaska Lands bill a front page headline story, prompting Senator Lisa Murkowski to announce she will hold, quote, "a field hearing on Prince of Wales Island". For the residents of Point Baker and Port Protection who will be surrounded by Sealaska Corporation land if this bill passes, it has been front page headlines news for over a year. We have sent letters, petitions and have given personal testimony to all of our representatives absolutely opposing this bill. Right from the beginning, we have asked for public hearings in affected communities.
Open letter to Senator Bingaman: Sealaska Bill
Former Alaskan fisherman writes why he thinks Sealaska's land legislation is a bad idea.
Our view: Huh? Sealaska decides not to get it
Chris O'Neil, president of Sealaska Corp., had a classic response to the criticism of Sen. Albert Kookesh for his threats to the Craig City Council if it opposed a Sealaska land claim before Congress.
Our view: Threat or promise? (Sealaska)
If there's an ethics complaint in the works against Sen. Al Kookesh of Angoon, then due process will take its course. But the senator's comments before the Craig City Council can't be read as anything other than no-veil-at-all threat to play ball with Sealaska, the senator's regional Native corporation, or pay the price when Craig brings its wish list to the Legislature.
Our view: Election power shift (Sealaska)
Alaska state Sen. Albert Kookesh's pressuring the Craig City Council on behalf of Sealaska, the powerful Native regional corporation is an example of the election mischief the U.S. Supreme Court made possible with last week's corporate "free speech" ruling.
Survival without public lands?
Myla Poelstra, owner of the Sunrise Lodge and General Store in Edna Bay, Alaska, writes about how Sealaska Corporation's big ask for more of the Tongass would negatively impact her community.
Logjam: Give Peace a chance
SEACC executive director, Lindsey Ketchel, discusses how resolving the Logjam timber sale can set the stage for more collaborative and less confrontational Tongass management decisions.
Light in the Forests
NY Times editorial applauds Ag Secretary Vilsack for commitment to finding better balance in National Forest management.
An Alaskan logger branches out
This editorial in the LA Times discusses the possibility of transitioning Tongass logging to second growth.
My Turn: Clean Water Act now in Obama's hands
Editorial by Lindsey Ketchel, executive director of SEACC on SEACC's intentions regarding the Kensington mine.
One More Threat to Clean Water
Thanks to the Bush administration’s industry-friendly rulings and a Supreme Court determined to ignore the plain language of the Clean Water Act, America’s waterways are at risk of becoming industrial dumps.
Court muddies water act
USA Today editorial states "It's difficult to believe that a law called the Clean Water Act could be twisted to allow a company to destroy a small Alaskan lake by filling it with mine waste, but that, in essence, is what the U.S. Supreme Court held Monday in a 6-3 decision."
Kake: Have your forest and eat it too
Sarah Campen, SEACC community organizer, writes about the Kake Community Alternative to the Central Kupreanof timber sale.
Region on track for a greener, cleaner future
The recent sunshine is just one thing for Southeast Alaskans to smile about. In the past few weeks, both the Alaska Legislature and U.S. Congress have taken bipartisan actions that will boost the Southeast Alaska economy and steer our region toward a greener, cleaner and more sustainable future. By Lindsey Ketchel, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
Transportation department road stats fail to illuminate
Alaska state Senator Kim Elton comments on DOT's failings to fully inform the public on the proposed Juneau Road.
Ball is in Coeur's Court op-ed 10-21-08
SEACC wants the Kensington to be developed responsibly in a way that protects our clean water and Berners Bay. This is why we worked with Coeur Alaska and the regulatory agencies for over a year to develop a paste tailings plan that would be a win-win for both Coeur and Berners Bay. It's also why we still want to help move that plan forward.