Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, April 15, 2015

Ruffner for Fish Board

As an Anchorage sportfisherman, I am excited to hear that Robert Ruffner is a nominee for Alaska's Board of Fisheries. I support Ruffner for Fish Board because he has demonstrated his dedication to Alaska's fisheries through his extensive work to improve fish habitat and advocating for salmon, trout, and the anglers who dedicate their lives pursuing them. I am confident that Ruffner will provide the Fish Board with the fresh and big picture approach it desperately needs. Please join me in confirming him to the board and ask your legislator to do so as well.

Eric Booton

Anchorage

Don’t drill in ANWR

Our class had to write an essay about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and here is my opinion:

Do you want to see an oil field on your backyard? Well neither do I. People have been wanting to drill on our land for the longest time now. Now that Obama is trying to make it a wilderness everyone has been wanting to drill more. Obama is trying to get 98 percent of ANWR protected, but he is having trouble doing so. Obama is trying to care for our living. He does not want drilling in ANWR. I am against drilling in ANWR because it will ruin our culture and the oil can contaminate our land.

If they drill on our land they will ruin our culture. We live off the land. We hunt from there. We also camp there. A lot of people go out hunting during the summer. The places they go hunting is where they want to drill. If they drill there many of the people who hunt there will be very upset and we would have to find another place farther away to hunt. No one would want to go farther to catch food. Gas prices up here are very expensive, and it would be hard to get enough gas to go look for animals. They say they want to drill on our land. That is just like saying that we can never eat again because we eat the food we catch on the land.

On average one spill a day occurs at Prudhoe Bay. If that happens here it will contaminate our land and our animals. We have animals that calve here. We have all kinds of birds that migrate here. If they have an oil spill when our animals are around, the animals would get sick. On the land there is only a number of places we can go and pick berries. We pick salmonberries in the 1002 section, and if they drill there we won't be able to get any more berries. Recently there was an oil spill 25 miles away from Prudhoe. During that spill they spilled about 4,000 gallons of fluids. If they have that here it would be a lot harder to clean up.

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In conclusion, if they drill on our land they will ruin our culture. We live off the land they want to take that away from us. Yes there may be billions of barrels of oil under our land and they will create jobs but if they drill they will most definitely stop us from hunting on the 1002 section. If they do not drill here our culture will keep going and maybe younger kids will learn how to live off the land know how to live in the wilderness. Would you want your child to learn how to hunt and provide for the elders along with their family?

Austin B. Kayotuk

Harold Kaveolook School

Kaktovik

The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.

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