With completion of the 2011 Alaska Redistricting Board’s Plan, Southeast Alaskans will want to coordinate their actions to reverse the projected population decline in our region’s population over the next two decades.
The Alaska Department of Labor’s December 2010 publication “Alaska Economic Trends” reports the 2009 population of 69,338 for Southeast Alaska will decline 14.2 percent to 59,472 by 2034 — even though the population of the entire state of Alaska is projected to increase 24.6 percent from 2009 to 2034. If these Department of Labor projections come to pass, the Alaska Redistricting Boards in 2021 and 2031 will be obligated to make even further drastic adjustments to the legislative districts of Southeast Alaska.
There are many alternative strategies that can be considered for reversing the continuing projected decline of Southeast Alaska’s population. From my perspective, it is imperative every Southeast Alaska community has a community and private land base with affordable energy, access to surrounding resources and opportunities to achieve and sustain their Alaska dreams. This will attract private investment capital for sound resource development projects that will create jobs and improve the economy and quality of life values for all of Southeast Alaska.
Success of the state of Alaska’s litigation opposing reinstatement of the 2001 Roadless Rule on the Tongass is also essential to assure all Southeast communities have access to the resources that surround them.
Walter Soboleff’s April 8, 2008, Juneau Empire My Turn essay “The Past and Future of the Tongass” — eloquently describes the history of our region and the challenges Alaska Native villages and all of us face. Soboleff cited the “promise of a brighter future” with investments “in clean, hydro-electric projects planned to power all our communities with affordable electricity” and the settlement of Alaska Native land claims.
I am encouraged by Gov. Sean Parnell and the Alaska Energy Authority’s (AEA) support of hydro-electric and other renewable energy projects in Southeast Alaska — and AEA’s exploration of the potential for an intertie with the Northern Transmission Line Project in British Columbia.
I believe the Alaska Congressional Delegation’s Sealaska Lands Bill (S.B. 730 and H.R. 1408), provides the basis for settling Sealaska’s Native Land Claims during this session of Congress. Settlement of Alaska Native Land claims is long overdue. From my recent forestry tour of Prince of Wales Island, the Sealaska Corporation is doing an excellent job in managing its young growth forest lands and providing affordable energy to various communities from Sealaska’s hydro-electric project on the island.
The Southeast Conference provides the organizational umbrella for all Southeast communities and tribal governments to coordinate their strategies to reverse our region’s declining population, strengthen the economy and improve quality of life values in all communities. We are fortunate having Shelley Wright as executive director and Assemblyman Merrill Sanford on the Southeast Conference Board and co-chairing the conference’s energy and timber committees.
With the unity of all Southeast communities and Tribal governments, working in partnership with the governor, Alaska Legislature, congressional delegation, private sector investors and Tongass National Forest administrators “the promise of a brighter future” Soboleff referred to can be achieved.
With that achievement, the population of Southeast Alaska will no longer decline. Young Alaskans will have the opportunity to own land and housing; secure a good education, employment and enjoy the social benefits of every Southeast Alaska community.
• Sandor, of Juneau, is an Alaska-Canada Energy Coalition board member, a former U.S. Forest Service regional forester (1976-1984) and was commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation from 1990-1994.
Comments (15)
Add commentTongass
John is a great and very wise man. This letter is spot on and would be terrific if the President would take some of this to heart.
The anti's have managed to strangle development of our natural renewable resources in SE Alaska for the past 30 plus years, we are losing population (voting power) and I believe we can lay that blame directly on "good neighbors" at SEACC and their cohorts.
Thanks SEACC, what have you done for PEOPLE lately?
Excellent letter and points Mr. Sandor
May SE remain one of the best places on the planet to live.
And may those who live here keep it sustainable and appreciate it for what it is.
And...
Better intsgrated transportation.
Build the road out of Juneau and the other connecting roads that make ferry runs shorter. Cheaper energy and better transportation are the keys. Energy alone will not be enough growth.
I don't see any pressing
I don't see any pressing reason to grow.
Perpetual growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.
Want Growth?
I can't find the exact quote, but somebody once said something to the effect of "95% of economic growth is demographics." If your population is shrinking or aging (into retirement age) your economy will not grow. Southeast needs to attract new people! The region will not grow by birthrate alone because in Juneau it takes two jobs to support a family. It's hard to have a big family when both mom/dad work 40-50 hours a week. In other SE communities, housing & daycare maybe more affordable, but are there enough jobs? If not, the youth will move.
So, you need new people. As attractive as SE/Juneau is for jobs and outdoor activities - it has some serious strikes against it for a prospective new person:
- Cost of Traveling back home to see family
Consider that 1 plane ticket from Anchorage to Phoenix costs $620 while the fare from Juneau to Phoenix is $732! A trip from Newark to Phoenix (similar mileage to trip from Anchorage) runs $318.
- Housing (both supply and quality)
$1500/mo doesn't get you much in Juneau, but in Ithaca, NY (a town of 30,000 where the unemployment rate is the same as Juneau) it gets you a large 3BR house on 3.5 acres with modern fixtures.
Another fun one...
It costs more to fly from Juneau to Ketchikan (on AK Air) than Newark to Phoenix (on another carrier).
If Only It Was True
More pep talk and boosterism from someone that has had numerous opportunities to advance the economy of Southeast in meaningful ways and generally failed. The old formula of providing "cheap" power, open land and easy access is once again advanced as the solution, although this time, the call for the old economic boom is touted as being for the good of future generations.
There are good reasons why promotion of salmon friendly lake-tap hydro is being pursued around Southeast, although construction of the facilities is not necessarily inexpensive. Realistically, there is no such thing as cheap power anymore. Still, the State of Alaska has done a decent job using our one time oil dollars in pursuit of sustainable energy.
Simply calling for "cheap power", more land give aways and opening access is a rhetorical card trick that has been fooling suckers since before the Mayflower set sail. Huge swaths of America have been subjected to development via open access, land giveaways along with so-called "cheap" energy. Sure, there is often a boom. But building a sustainable social structure and vibrant economy takes more than open land, easy access and cheap power. By way of example, places like Singapore and Manhattan are without much land, have access challenges and are without cheap power and yet they seem to enjoy a fairly robust economic situation and strong future.
Implying that Reverend Soboleff called for easy access and open land development is a stretch. Soboleff was a person dedicated to the human spirit more than material gain.
Suggesting that the Southeast Conference is positioned to be "the organizational umbrella for all Southeast communities and tribal governments to coordinate their strategies to reverse our region’s declining population, strengthen the economy and improve quality of life values in all communities" has no basis in reality. As a matter of fact, the Southeast Conference has become more insular and shrill in how it approaches collective decision making over the last couple of decades; the organization has been captured more and more by narrow minded individuals with a set agenda that includes accelerated tree chopping and little to do with genuine, sustainable economic activity.
Sandor notes that the demographic trends for Southeast Alaska show a likely reduction in population in relative and absolute terms over the next two decades. No surprise there, as Southeast has been losing population in relative terms for decades. Sandor suggests the solution to this population demise is all about cheap power, open access and freeing up land. Resort to these prescriptions based on habit that can be traced back across the centuries. But what if this solution is not a solution at all? Is it possible that we in Southeast cannot out boom the boomers living in the Railbelt?
Huge areas of America are essentially depopulating. Consolidation in urban areas is the new norm in big hunks of the United States, a phenomenon that is taking place in Southeast and other parts of Alaska as well.
I believe there are thoughtful solutions that will lead to a dynamic and vibrant economy for Southeast and that will allow us to have a functioning and vital society. Our future is not dependent on "booming" the economy via open land and easy access promotional schemes. The pending political issue related to Sealaska's remaining land selection rights should be finalized rapidly, although the likelihood of prompt success is remote given the participation of many of the folks involved and the lack of a fundamentally fair process to select the lands. Southeast Alaska needs a stable and sustainable supply of energy and we've gone a fair piece towards providing this component of our future. What we need now is to balance sensible development of appropriate scale timber harvesting with value-added processing, fishing, tourism, mining and other forms of economic activity that are sustainable over time.
John good piece but Sealaska bill = round log export Bad
Alaska is not a third world country and it's about time we start acting like it. Round log export is for the birds - put it in the mills here. Sealaska bill is a scam based on fraud.
John good piece but Sealaska bill = round log export Bad
Alaska is not a third world country and it's about time we start acting like it. Round log export is for the birds - put it in the mills here. Sealaska bill is a scam based on fraud.
John good piece but Sealaska bill = round log export Bad
Alaska is not a third world country and it's about time we start acting like it. Round log export is for the birds - put it in the mills here. Sealaska bill is a scam based on fraud.
John good piece but Sealaska bill = round log export Bad
Alaska is not a third world country and it's about time we start acting like it. Round log export is for the birds - put it in the mills here. Sealaska bill is a scam based on fraud.
If my memory is correct, John
If my memory is correct, John Sandor as the R10 Forester said no to any wilderness on the Tongass, and that Admiralty Island should be clear cut 90%. And whether you think it is good or not, the export of SE AK energy to BC that John is promoting is mostly a project to sell energy to BC mines, one of which is at one of the head waters of the Stikine River.
Turn the lights off
Will the second to the last person in Juneau please remember to tell Bill Corbus to turn the lights off.....
I agree that the combination
I agree that the combination of round log exports and the lack of a sustainable yield requirement on Native logging is bad for Alaska. And thanks to Territorial Sportsmen and others the Sealaska legislation has been shown to be corrupt and deceiptful (if that is a word). But Sandor's comments are constructive and worthwhile.
At least Sandor is talking about what can be done. Too many Juneau organizations are all about what cannot be done and about stopping people from making a living.
I would vote for this guy...........
joegeldhof.