A Message from the Executive Director
Biden Moves to Reinstate Roadless Rule
Dear Members, I expect as you are reading this you are in the field and hard at work in our first almost-normal mining season since the pandemic hit. It is really good to just get back to work! And there is much work ahead. We have a challenging year, or years, before us. It has become clear now that the current administration in Washington D.C. is determined to undo many of the previous rule changes that benefitted the mining industry in Alaska.
political and legislative roadblocks and opponents with the same clear focus on the end result, rather than the interim hardships. It would be very easy to get frustrated with this “here we go again” situation. But that is another of our strengths — our ability to smile or even laugh in the face of adversity. Enough with the challenges! Here is some good news. As Alaska continues to reopen and we have more opportunity to meet and greet, we also have
more opportunities like our state fairs and other celebrations to put the best face of mining forward and reach Alaskans who do not know much about our industry. Please join us at these events, please volunteer wherever possible and please continue to speak up for industry. We also expect to be able to return to our traditional in-person annual convention in November 2021. Our committee has been hard at work already for several months creating an incredible program for this year’s event, celebrating 50 years of ANCSA, and the successes of our industry. I cannot tell you how much I look forward to seeing each of you again in person. Thank you is something I can never say often enough, for the financial, personal and emotional support you provide each other and our association as we move forward together. Until we meet next, we will be out there working on your behalf every day!
The hits keep coming. Changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (we’re back to looking at WOTUS). Changes to the Endangered Species Act, significant new management changes to wetlands policies. And, the recent announcement that the Biden Administration will work to roll back our hard- earned Roadless Rule exemption in Southeast Alaska. These are all just the latest in a series of attacks to restrict not just mining but all resource development in Alaska, and by extension our ability to protect our families and our way of life. More than ever, it is critical that we in the industry work together and proactively to face this and other future challenges sure to come. And it’s critical that we stay positive! We’ve been here before. Our greatest strength for most of a century has been each other, our teamwork and determination to do what’s right for the state of Alaska and those of us who work here. It is easy to forget where we were a year ago. We were successful working through the challenges of the pandemic and proved once again that Alaska mining is essential. We need to approach these new
Photo Courtesy Hecla Mining Company
The Biden Administration has continued its aim to restrict development of natural resources in Alaska.
The latest of a series of moves to reinstate limitations on Alaska mining came this month when the Biden Administration said in early June that it would “repeal or replace” a rule allowing roads and other types of development in more than half of Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Former President Donald Trump removed the roadless rule that had been in effect for 20 years. The White House has said this is consistent with the goals outlined in the president’s Jan. 27 executive order, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” After recent moves to suspend drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, this move to restrict access in much of the Southeast’s Tongass Forest continues the administration’s anti-development moves, in keeping with past Democratic administrations going back to Jimmy Carter. In April, it postponed the effective date of public lands orders allowing mining on 11 million acres in Alaska for two years. Before leaving office in 2001, Bill Clinton finalized the so- called “roadless rule,” which barred road construction in 58.5 million acres of national forest. George W. Bush held a handful of timber sales in the Tongass before a
federal judge reinstated the Clinton rule. Environmentalists have argued that roadless protections are essential to protect the Tongass, which ranks as one of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests. The forest was heavily logged in the 1960s and 1970s. Trout Unlimited and other tourism groups have advocated that there is no place for mining or timber in the Tongass. Alaska’s elected leaders have argued that the limits on roadbuilding impede not only logging but other industrial activities, including mining, that would bolster a region that has been battered by the pandemic. In a petition to the Agriculture Department during the Trump administration, the state wrote that the roadless rule and subsequent 2016 management plan “each independently restrict road construction and timber harvest to such a degree as to have devastating socioeconomic effects on Alaskans.” The Forest Service temporarily halted roadbuilding activities in the Tongass by issuing a memo in February subjecting them to a special review, it will still take months for the new proposal to be finalized. Alaska’s exemption from the roadless rule is now in litigation, so the courts could also intervene in the case. It’s unclear when the new rule may take effect. The Washington Post contributed to this story
Deantha Skibinski, Executive Director
Executive Board Bill Jeffress, President SRK Consulting, Anchorage Bartly Kleven, First Vice President Kinross-Fort Knox, Fairbanks Lorali Simon, Second Vice President Kim Aasand, Treasurer Aasand & Glore LLC, Anchorage
Branch Chairmen Ted Hawley, Anchorage Lorali Simon, Denali Jen Wieland, Fairbanks
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