Anchored Down in Anchorage

by Søren Wuerth

As far as I could tell, straining to turn my head as far as the Kryptonite lock would allow, Dave Allen looked nervous. Here were six activists locked back to back in a "daisy chain" at the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) headquarters in Anchorage, howling, chanting and eating pizza.

Besides the uncomfortable anticipation of a whole lot of bad PR, Allen, the FWS' top cheese in Alaska, now had to deal with a couple of persistent critics. Activists began spouting statistics about wolves and goshawks in the Tongass and elaborating on the agency's chronic refusal to list endangered species all over the nation.

"Why is it every time there is a decision whether to list an endangered species, it takes a court order to get the FWS to comply?" asked Kieran Suckling, the executive director of the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity. Allen stammered something about his agency's noble record of listing endangered animals across the United States and bringing many back from the brink of extinction. "Why even here in Alaska, we've listed the um, ah, Stellar sea lion... and... what's that other one? The curlew?"

We hardly expected Allen to rattle off the state's endangered species, when it's obvious he knows so little about the Alexander Archipelago wolf and the Queen Charlotte goshawk. Federal biologists estimate there are between 750 and 1,500 wolves left in Southeast Alaska. The Alexander Archipelago wolf is a distinct subspecies of wolves that once roamed the entire Pacific Northwest. The Queen Charlotte goshawk, one of three subspecies in North America, is secretive and its population hard to determine. With population estimates ranging from 100 to 800 birds, Allen agreed that he made his decision not to list the goshawk and wolf as endangered (threatened?) on a significant degree of scientific uncertainty.

Petitions to list the old-growth dependent animals were filed five years ago; listing would require more intensive management of logging and roadbuilding. Early on, the FWS found that "substantial information" existed to warrant listing both species. But, with the upcoming revision of the 10-year Tongass Land Management Plan, politics interfered, and the agency changed its mind.

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and Sitka parties won an early court battle in late 1996. The case was remanded to Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt, who was asked to reconsider the decision to list and make a decision based on the "current forest plan," rather than on promises made by the Forest Service to provide protection in the future. What did Babbitt decide?

But after Allen caved into politics again last August, we went to his front door September 29 wearing Kryptonite necklaces. Before his appearance in the ground floor lobby, we held a mock trial putting impersonators of US Sen. Frank Murkowski, Allen and Gov. Tony Knowles on the bench before the "big, bad wolf" and six sitting jurists. "Guilty!" came the pronouncements, followed by howling that echoed throughout the building (and later across the state on radio and television networks).

Meanwhile, a TV reporter interviewed 76-year-old Helen Drury, of Sitka, as she sat with her back to the others. "I'm so sick of politics wiping (out) the trees, all the beautiful old-growth forests and the wildlife in them. I just don't know how a human being cannot do something about it," she told nightly news watchers. Supporter Jay Stange spoke with a reporter who asked if the protesters would stay awhile. "It may be a long time, but we have a resolute group of patriots here, and we're committed to being here until the decision is reversed."

At about 3 p.m., two men in gray suits who said they were from the "federal protection agency" locked the doors and told us we'd be arrested. A public relations professional came over to tell us we could leave or be arrested, then an enormous police sergeant politely provided a final warning. Outside we saw a Greenpeace activist hauled off to a squad car for refusing to leave.

As we shed our locks in a pile on the floor in exchange for the local police department's handcuffs, I noticed that dour-faced FWS staffers had assembled on the balcony. Their sympathetic looks probably came from an awareness that the decision by their superiors to not list the wolf or goshawk was political, inspired by intense pressure from the Alaskan congressional delegation, the State of Alaska, the Forest Service and the timber industry. They likely know that scientific studies conclude that logging on the Tongass poses a significant risk to wildlife and old-growth forests; that mortality in adult goshawks is already higher than the survival rate necessary to avoid extinction (as determined by goshawk researchers) and that wolves will go extinct on Prince of Wales Island if more logging is allowed in deer habitat and if more roads are built.

They certainly understand that clearcutting old-growth forest is still the preferred method of logging in the new Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP), that the new TLMP allows up to 80 percent of all logging to be done by clearcutting (which is harmful to both the goshawk and the wolf) and that logging on private, state, Native and Canadian lands is even more destructive than federal logging. WHY

Whether or not FWS staffers have figured out the importance of listing these two symbols of Alaska's wildlife and wildlands as endangered, one thing is certain... their boss hasn't.

To put additional pressure on the man, write Dave Allen, Alaska Regional Director of the FWS, 1011 Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99503.

For more information on endangered species, contact the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, POB 710, Tucson, AZ 85702-0710, (520) 623-5252; e-mail: ksuckling@sw-center.org.