Nonprofit forms to dispel local, regional development myths

Juneau banker Tom Sullivan rose at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday and said his daughter had come home from fourth grade telling him she was playing an environmentalist in the school play. Among the facts she had learned along the way: Mining kills fish, clear-cutting destroys streams, and free-floating fishing nets wrap around whales and kill them.

Group says tourism, mining, fishing, timber vital to economy

Juneau banker Tom Sullivan rose at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday and said his daughter had come home from fourth grade telling him she was playing an environmentalist in the school play. Among the facts she had learned along the way: Mining kills fish, clear-cutting destroys streams, and free-floating fishing nets wrap around whales and kill them.

"I'm all for [citizens creating the FTF Foundation]," [SEACC spokesman] said. "I encourage an open, public dialogue. I think Alaskans are smart enough to understand the facts."

"Yikes," murmured someone in the audience.

Perhaps there is another side of the story, Sullivan said. For the moment, he was horrified at the lesson his daughter had taken away. Where was the talk of the jobs mining has created, the sustainability of Alaska's fisheries?

He urged the luncheon's speakers, founders of the nascent advocacy nonprofit First Things First Alaska Foundation, to take their education project into the schools.

First Things First aims to weigh in on tourism, mining, fisheries, timber and transportation in Juneau, to explain that responsible development is vital to Juneau's and Southeast's survival. The embattled Kensington gold mine is first on their Web list of issues.

Get the complete story at the Juneau Empire.