Hypocrisy abounds in attacks on Stand for Salmon initiative

I had to laugh when reading Paula Easley's recent commentary about the Stand for Salmon initiative, an "are-you-kidding-me" sort of snicker.

A member of the Alaska Policy Forum's board of directors, Ms. Easley would have Alaskans believe that she and her allies are trying to save us residents from the awful intentions of Outside interests. What she conveniently ignores is that Stand for Salmon is at its core a homegrown effort, whose primary goal, as I understand it, is to update a 60-year-old law in order to give greater protections to Alaska's salmon and their spawning habitat. This worries many of our state's corporate leaders, businessmen and resource-development boosters, who've responded with their own Stand for Alaska campaign.

I should make it clear that I have no personal or business stake in Stand for Salmon, though I wholeheartedly support increased statewide protections for salmon, given that Alaska's current laws and regulations don't seem to provide enough safeguards. Consider the state's tepid response to the Pebble Project in Bristol Bay or proposed coal mining that would have destroyed the Chuitna River, a salmon stream on the west side of Cook Inlet.

Especially aggravating to me is Ms. Easley's disingenuous attempt to paint this issue as an us-versus-them battle, "us" of course being Alaskans, and "them" being those dastardly Outside "wealthy elitists and activist environmental organizations with no interest in Alaskans' livelihoods." I'm surprised she didn't toss in "extremist," which usually is attached to any mention of environmentalists by corporate Alaskans.

What Easley fails to mention — or conveniently ignores — is the huge and ongoing role that Outside interests play in the development and exploitation of Alaska's natural wealth, what most folks call "natural resources." Are not the petroleum giants that operate in Alaska—and have outsized influence in state politics — corporations based outside Alaska? And what about the mining companies that are either seeking to develop, or are already developing, gargantuan metal deposits? Or the company that sought to tear up the Chuitna River drainage to mine coal, before pulling out for its own financial reasons? And what about the Outside, Lower 48 conservative "think tanks" and other groups that meddle in many areas of Alaska's politics? I suppose all of them have the best interests of hard-working Alaskans — and the place itself — in their minds and hearts when they peddle their influence here.

Yeah, the hypocrisy of Ms. Easley and the Stand for Alaska coalition bugs me greatly. "Leveraging Outside money and influence" is a favorite pastime of Alaska's entire political spectrum, not just greenies. I'm not sure that Ms. Easley and her allies should be casting stones here.

I also wonder if Ms. Easley and other Stand for Salmon opponents have looked at that group's website. I made a visit there while working on this commentary and among the things I learned is this: Two of the initiative's three top contributors are Alaska organizations; among the Alaskans to express their support are 10 Native village and tribal groups and dozens of Alaska businesses (many of them, not surprisingly, with ties to salmon and/or tourism). I suspect that many of these supporters (who also include more than 40,000 residents who've publicly expressed their backing) are as equally hardworking and care as much about Alaska and its wild riches as anyone with Stand for Alaska, the group formed to fight the initiative.

Arguments can be made on both sides of the issue, and I recommend that Alaskans who haven't made up their mind do some homework to learn more. But one thing we don't need is the sort of hypocritical arguments posed by Paula Easley, who points fingers at Stand for Salmon that could easily be directed inward.

Anchorage nature writer Bill Sherwonit is the author of more than a dozen books about Alaska, including "Living with Wildness: An Alaskan Odyssey" and "Animal Stories: Encounters with Alaska's Wildlife."

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