)/ /
continued from below
Ihero is a groat cgeal of publicity being
given these days to the proposed /compart
Dam- project. On the surface, it seems a
decided asset for ,/Laska. The prospect of
cheap power would seem to be just what the
State needs to attract Outside business;
however, as a dedicated conservationist, I
cannot feel that the opposite- side of the
picture has been truly pictured to native
Alaskans. In the first place, the Dam is
such a tremendous undertaking that I am hot
even certain in my own mind that by the
time of its completion nuclear power will
not have made the Dam .obsolete.
The July-August issue of the ’Uudubon”
magazine has a most pertinent article by
Charles Callison entitled: ( quote)
aLaSKaN DaE: BOON ON BOONDOGGLE ? n
The business and industrial booms expected
to follow statehood have not yet come to
.DLaska and the new state government is
having a hard time finding tax revenues to
meet its expenses. Now ./Las lea’s political
leaders arc seeking a new transfusion of
federal funds to bolster the sagging econ
omy.
The bi p-ost and lon gest transiusion uney
have been able to think of is a proposal to
have Uncle bam1s engineers build a colossal
dam across the Yukon diver at the dampart
rapids, about 100 miles northwest of Fair
banks. This dam, it is said by its promoters
would take over a billion dollars and 20
years to build. It would create a body Of
fresh water larger than Lake Eric, not to
mention more electric power than Grane
Soulee and Hoover dams combined. It would
also ccause, some say, a moderation of the
severe climate of central .ELaska.
Lena a dream of federal engineers, the
damp-art Dam project was to have been the
subject of .leisurely and careful stuoy. bu-c
denly the time-table'was speeded up. i EL ask a
conpressmen have gotten nearly a million
dollars appropriated for preliminary stunios
in the last three years and the Corys of
Engineers is scheduled to make a feasi
bility report in 196U.
The U b Fish and i/ildlife Service said it
would need over a million dollars and nine
years to study the impact on fish and wild
life resources. Salmon production cannot be
accuately measured unless the anadromous
runs are traced through complete life cyc3.es
But the service was told to study what it
could with )350,000. in two field seasons
and have a report ready by July of this year
A DISnSTExl TO /ILDLIFE ? '*
The studies to date have been much too
sketchy for anyone to predict the long
term effects on u.las'kan weather aim ecology.
Some of the direct effects on wildlife re
sources have been calculated as follows,
according to a statement made in .wichorage
last January 13 by Gordon ,/atson, .ELaska.
administrator of the Branch of uiver Basin
Studies of the II S Fish and Wildlife Service
...Salmon.., Major migrations of king, coho
and chum salmon would bo blocked by the 525:
foot high dam. There is reason to believe
that spawning grounds tnau wouie oe uut>u ojti,
above the clam produce more than half the
total harvest of slamon downriver.
..Bit Game... .* survey in harch, 1962, showed
Li,600 muo.se feeding in the fukon- Flats which
would become the bottom of the reservoir..
..Furbearers...The fukon Flats now: produce 16
per cent of Alaska's muskrats and 8 per cent
of all fur taken in the state
•.Migratory Birds... Federal and -State biol
ogists have estimated that in a normal season
a total of Ipr million wild ducks nest and
are produced in the 10,500 square miles to be
inundated. In addition the area provides nest
in -rounds for at least 12*000 .reese,
10,000 sandhill cranes, and important numbers
of other species. The summer of 1962 was ok- .
tremely poor there for waterfowl nesting,
about the worst on record. Nevertheless, it
was estimated the vast marshes of the fukon
Flats last year contributed more than 300,000
ducks to the continental waterfowl population :
.dLtho T./atson did not say so, 800,000 ducks
is more than the total number estimated to
have been baped by all the hunters in the
Atlantic flyway; equal "to lug numuer ia.Ktn an
the Central Flyway.
It is an open question, but a, serious one
in the minds of biologists, what harmful ec
ological changes mipht be caused downstream,
particularly in the Yukon-Kuskowim delta
which is so important for waterfowl nesting
that a 2,000,000 acre National Wildlife hanpe
was established there in I960,
It is natu al for ^laskans to push for
ran id. exploitation ol the mineral, timoor,
and. other material resources of their fabled
peninsula. They are only pood .jnericans. Fair
banks and _wich crape want to be tip and rich,
lile Seattle and Los ,dipoles.
The concern of conservationists is that in
makinn haste without careful planninp, they
may do permanent damape to biolo.pical re
sources and to a delicate ecology - c.ar.iapc
that would far outweiph the short-term -,ains.
End of quoted article
I also wonder about the feclinps of the peo
ple livinp in the 22 villages, numberinc seme
2,000 persons, who. will be moved to. other
locations. ..cccrdina to one Fairbanks C of G
member, those villagers f^ose no problem, as
they live off the land anyway, and what diff
erence what land is used for settlement? we
have a number of homesteaders in cur own-area.
Wcul they mind beinp moved by the.powers
.that be in Washington? I rather think they
would 1