LOOKING BACK: RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL FOR ALASKA THROUGH THE PAST 50 YEARS
VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 4 | FALL 2025
Sympathetic private, state and feder- al land-use experts helped our members identify critical resource-related areas and potential access routes, typically meeting late at night for some to protect their jobs. As the preservationist demands grew ever larger and more specific, our dedicated multiple-use organizations banded together (RDC with the same board and staff as its predecessor) to prevent what we called the “Lockup Limbo.” The gas pipeline experience trained a generation of Alaskans in grassroots advocacy, skills they have used on mining, logging, opening ANWR, the Ambler and King Cove Road, marine sanctuaries, buffer zones, wetlands classifications and countless other challenges across the decades. Your editor asked me if I had any advice for the Resource Development Council go- ing forward. Only this: RDC’s work is once again under siege from every direction. The organization clearly needs more help. More paid staff, carefully-targeted volunteer teams and real commitment from statewide industry and labor. If companies have attor- neys, lobbyists, communications experts or
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We sold commemorative plaques con- taining oil from the first barrel to reach Val- dez for $250 each. We hired a DC lobbyist who called daily at 3:30 a.m. (thanks to the five-hour time difference) before he left for Capitol Hill. With long-distance telephone rates sky-high, we relied heavily on the U.S. mail, perfecting the art of envelope stuffing with an army of dedicated volunteers. Local businesses donated many meals to keep the crews working. It was an exhilarating, all-hands-on- deck effort, and all those involved in the Alaska and Washington, D.C. coordination had every reason to be proud. Then-Pres- ident Jimmy Carter decided the gas line should be routed through Canada, not Alaska. Almost overnight, the OMAR board and staff found themselves mired in the D(2) lands withdrawals and the potential loss of countless multiple-use lands and resourc- es. For anyone wanting to live, work and build families in the Last Frontier, that was beyond alarming.
other professionals they can loan or second to RDC when the fights intensify, they need to recognize what’s at stake ... and just do it. There has never been a more urgent time than right now. PAULA EASLEY SERVED AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF OMAR/RDC FROM 1975-1987 Paula Easley has been instrumental in helping shape Alaska's resource industries.
Paula and Tom Lovas share a moment together at the RDC Conference in November.
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ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW FALL 2025
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