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Alaska Wild Update #204 - May 30, 2003 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “"The photos are compelling evidence that the
[Arctic] refuge is an awe-inspiring ecosystem teeming with life in a delicately
balanced miracle of survival.” HEADLINES HOUSE PASSES PRESIDENT’S UNHEALTHY FORESTS BILL SENATE POSTPONES ENERGY WORK UNTIL JUNE
On Tuesday May 20, the U.S. House of Representatives approved Rep. Scott McInnis’ (R-CO) “Healthy Forests” bill, H.R. 1904, that conservationists fear will do little to reduce wildfire risks in our national forests, but will do much damage the forests themselves. As we reported last week, H.R. 1904 waives environmental laws, interferes with judicial review, and reduces public input for logging projects in our national forests and other public lands. It will impact significantly forests in the “lower 48” and could likewise push logging into backcountry wilderness areas of the Chugach National Forest in Alaska and harm its famous brown bear and salmon populations. The House passed the McInnis bill on a 256-170 vote, rejecting (239-184) a substitute proposal offered by Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR). The Miller-DeFazio substitute included provisions that would actually reduce wildfire danger to people and their property and without choking off the public's voice in the process. Rep. McInnis claims the bill will diminish the threat of wildfire to people and property. Unfortunately, the legislation will reduce the public's voice in forest management and eliminate any obstacles that stand between timber companies and old, valuable trees. Homes and communities would be no safer if the McInnis bill becomes law than they are today. Our attention now turns to the U.S. Senate but action there may be a few weeks away. Sens. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Larry Craig (R-ID) have indicated their intentions to introduce a companion bill. A Senate subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a hearing for June 26 but that date could slip given the press of other Senate business. We will keep you posted. Find out how your representative voted ("NO" is the conservationists' vote)
The US Senate left town May 23rd for a week of recess. The Senate will postpone restarting consideration of energy legislation until after the Memorial Day recess, when Majority Leader Frist is expected to re-evaluate progress of the bill to determine how much more time to give Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Domenici to complete work, Senate aides said. A GOP aide said the energy bill has largely fallen victim to the learning curve of the new majority leader and his staff. And while backers of the bill have felt some frustration regarding Frist's handling of the energy issue, Domenici and others remain confident that they can pass the bill. The Senate over the last few weeks has taken up the energy bill sporadically, using the legislation as filler between consideration of other measures, such as a global AIDS package and the Defense Department's FY04 authorization bill. Domenici had hoped to complete work on the bill before Memorial Day, a schedule which most Senate sources and lobbyists long considered far too aggressive. Once consideration of the bill begins in earnest, Democrats still plan on pressing for scores of amendments. Despite Domenici's best efforts, it is considered increasingly unlikely legislation will emerge from the floor this summer, sources said. Well over one hundred amendments still remain to be filed and it is not likely that work on the bill will be finished until sometime in the fall. Domenici has stated repeatedly that he has no intention of having another debate over the Arctic Refuge, since any attempt to do so at this point would result in a filibuster by Arctic supporters. Some excerpts from New York Times On Tuesday, May 20th the Senate Rules Committee held one of their annual
general oversight hearings for the Smithsonian Institution. Rules committee
is the committee with direct oversight for the Smithsonian. Senators Richard
Durbin (D-IL) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) both sit on the committee and discussed
at some length their differing opinions on whether a current exhibit at
the Smithsonian had been unfairly censored due to some of the The photo exhibit, “Seasons of Life and Land”, contains 40 photos from photographer Subhankar Bannerjee from the extended time he spent in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The exhibit is currently on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and will be on display until September. The Smithsonian came under fire from Durbin and other lawmakers earlier this month when it was learned that the museum decided to dramatically alter the content of a photo exhibit on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and move it to a less prominent gallery in the museum. The exhibit opened May 2, 2003, in the Natural History Museum, but it has been dramatically altered since its original conception. Smithsonian officials allege that all of the changes in the exhibit were merely part of the normal exhibition planning and review process, but Durbin and the others dispute that claim. The main changes came in moving the exhibit from the main floor to the basement floor next to the auditorium and behind the escalator. Additionally, the captions on the photos were removed and given minimalist labels rather than the original descriptive captions. "The Smithsonian says one thing; the facts say another," said
Durbin. "For the better part of a year, the curators at the Natural
History Museum negotiated hundreds of details of this exhibit with the
artist. They prepared floor plans and wall diagrams; they developed captions
for the pictures and explanatory material for the exhibit. And then, just
a few days During the hearing on the 22nd, Durbin and fellow Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) grilled Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small about the decision to move the exhibit. Secretary Small said that the exhibit was moved because some of the captions could have been seen as advocacy, which the Smithsonian is not allowed to get into. Senator Durbin showed several examples from other exhibits currently on display that would seem to be advocacy but which were left unchanged by the museum. Senator Durbin cited a caption from an unrelated exhibit of botanical paintings at the same museum that says a particular plant might become extinct "unless we act now." Isn't that advocacy?, Durbin asked. "That's a statement of fact," Small insisted. The caption didn't say what was endangering the plant or what people should do to preserve it, he said. Durbin also read a 90-word photo caption from a third exhibit at the museum. Quoting a Kentucky historian, it said mining would leave Appalachia with "dismembered mountains" and said "the corpse of a forest ... will lie buried beneath a wasteland like the world as described in the opening verses of Genesis." Meanwhile, Durbin said, the Smithsonian concluded that a Banerjee caption about the buff-breasted sandpiper - saying it travels from Argentina to the Arctic and is vulnerable to habitat disturbances - had to go. Durbin suggested the real problem is that the ANWR photographs are so beautiful that they prove the point he and other opponents of drilling are trying to make. "I think it's painful for the advocates of oil exploration to see these photographs and realize the context of this debate," he said.
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