  Fighting
a Path to Destruction
There is one community in the Copper River Delta--Cordova--and no roads lead there. Cordova residents have lived without road access since the earliest Alaskan Natives settled in this area. Because the community's livelihood revolves primarily around commercial fishing, there is no real need for a road. Ironically, it is the construction of a road elsewhere in this treasured wilderness that now poses the greatest environmental threat. WHAT'S AT STAKE There are few places left on earth that are still natural, intact, and pristine--places where the delicate balance of nature continues to thrive unharmed by human development. The Copper River Delta is such a place. It maintains an ecosystem of tremendous productivity and diversity. This crown jewel of North America's wetlands still supports world-renowned salmon runs, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, mountain goats, moose, mink, wolverines, otters, sea lions, harbor seals, 16 million migrating shorebirds and waterfowl, and a local community sustained principally by a traditional way of life. The Copper River Delta drains part of Alaska's Wrangell and Chugach mountain ranges into the Gulf of Alaska. As the largest contiguous wetland on the Pacific Coast of North America, the Delta is considered the most important shorebird habitat in the Western Hemisphere. It is a critical habitat for one of the most highly prized salmon runs in the world. A fresh filet of king salmon from the Copper River Delta fetches up to $25 per pound in U.S. West Coast markets.
More than 90 percent of the residents in the Copper River Delta town of Cordova continue to live by harvesting and sharing the sustainable natural resources. The area is home to the Eyak tribe, the smallest Native group in Alaska, with barely 100 living descendants. The Delta is the place where not only indigenous people, but all residents, thrive from the sustainable bounty of the land and the ocean. Road Building and Logging Chugach Alaska Corporation wants the land developed for a profit--first for timber cutting, and later on, for mining and oil and gas leasing. However, development cannot take place until a road to the corporation land is constructed. Such a road would run through the Copper River Delta and Chugach National Forest and would literally clear the way for wide-scale development and the potential loss of irreplaceable natural resources upon which the people and wildlife depend. In March 2000, the U.S. Forest Service granted a road easement to Chugach Alaska Corporation across Forest Service land. "This is my people's ancestral homeland. We believe the corporation has lost their wisdom because of greed," said Eyak native, Chief Marie Smith Jones. "It is only through loving the land and people that our culture can survive. Our way of life will survive if the land survives." The corporation road would cross up to 196 streams on national forest land, many of which provide critical salmon and trout spawning habitat. It would degrade thousands of acres of tidal marshes and wetlands, adversely affecting migratory birds. Clearly, a road across the Copper River Delta and hundreds of its tributaries would significantly damage the environmental and aesthetic values of the area. "My fight for the protection of the Copper River Delta is a battle to protect my way of life and one of the most beautiful, abundant stretches of wetlands that still exists in the world. The salmon runs of the Copper River and Delta are strong and healthy, providing a livelihood to hundreds of men and women, the economic base for the city of Cordova as well as the richest, most sought-after salmon in Alaska. The Delta deserves protection for the salmon and birds it gives birth to each year. And so that those of us that live here can continue to harvest salmon in the traditional way it has been harvested for the past century."--Thea Thomas, a longtime commercial fisherwoman in the Copper River Delta.
Today, The Wilderness Society and other Alaska environmentalists are trying to develop alternatives with Chugach Alaska Corporation and the Forest Service. Our goal is to help facilitate a conservation easement, whereby Chugach Alaska Corporation would forgo its development rights on the property, including road building, in exchange for money that could be invested by the corporation. Under this conservationist proposal, the Copper River Delta would remain wild, the corporation would retain ownership of the land, and the money the corporation would receive from such a resolution could go toward paying dividends to its shareholders. Click here for the latest on the Copper River Delta. Members of the public can help stop the construction of a new road through the Copper River Delta by contacting Secretary Dan Glickman at the Department of Agriculture. Write, telephone, or e-mail Secretary Glickman, asking him to ensure that the Forest Service makes this issue a top priority and pursues negotiations toward a conservation easement deal with Chugach Alaska Corporation. Secretary Glickman's contact information is: Secretary Dan Glickman Nicole Whittington-Evans Michael Francis |
