Propaganda is, by definition, information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. The campaign currently being promoted by Stand for Alaska, the group formed to oppose the Stand for Salmon initiative, is textbook propaganda of the crudest nature. They are repeating a cynically devised, fear-based mantra claiming outside interests and environmental wackos are working together with Boston billionaires to adversely affect Alaska’s economy. Nothing will ever get done again. The gas pipeline will darn near be impossible. Run to the polls and strike this measure down, citizens!
By the way, Stand for Alaska is funded substantially by British Petroleum, a multinational corporation based in the United Kingdom. Its top two shareholders are investment firms with billions of dollars in assets based in Texas and Boston.
This morning, as I looked out over the Naknek River, I thought of a sustainable economic engine slowly gathering in the North Pacific, preparing to roar to life and shoot up the Naknek and so many other rivers like it in Bristol Bay. The greatest sockeye salmon migration on Earth, expected to be 50 million strong this year, promises to sustain the livelihoods of tens of thousands of persons across the state and beyond who subsist, commercial fish, guide or otherwise benefit from this natural wonder and economic miracle with an annual ripple effect worth $1.5 billion that spreads around the state, country and world.
Salmon are a staple to the way of life of Alaskans. They are everywhere, and its preservation is critical to and in the public interest of you and all Alaskans.
I have read the Stand for Salmon Initiative word for word. It updates the current statute, one both toothless and vague despite the good intentions when it was written almost 60 years ago. Don’t want the initiative to affect your business? Then don’t bulldoze across salmon rivers. Corporate and special interests always live in fear of environmental regulation because they stand in the way of profit, the essential fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. I personally love profit. Profit can be made in a multitude of ways. But salmon habitat is a once-issued deal — once degraded, it’s gone forever.
The Alaska Legislature has had several chances to put strong protections into state law, with a habitat bill introduced and heard in the last two sessions. But special interests got in the way and the measures stalled, feet were dragged and generally blocked any action. The bills never moved out of committee.
This blockade on action, sponsored largely by the same interests behind Stand for Alaska, came despite tens of thousands of letters of support, phone calls, and in-person testimonies over the last 16 months. People across the state called loud and clear for the Legislature to protect salmon, but the cries fell largely on deaf ears.
The failure of the salmon habitat bill shows clearly that the Legislature cannot solve the important problems that Alaskans demand action on. Alaska’s founders contemplated this day. That’s why they gave people another option to pass laws: the initiative process.
Almost 42,000 Alaskans have signed on to increase habitat protections for wild salmon, certifying the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative for a vote in November.
The initiative sets a standard for foreign companies to live by when they propose large scale projects in salmon habitat in Alaska. It sets enforceable limits on the amount of damage development projects can do to salmon streams across the Alaskan landscape. Salmon runs in Bristol Bay and on the Kuskokwim, in Cook Inlet and Southeast will likely see curtailed fishing because of low king Salmon runs this year. That bit of news affects you as an Alaskan.
Read the initiative, cancel the propaganda and be responsive to what matters most to Alaskans: the wild, renewable and sustainable resources of this magnificent state. Stand for Salmon. Once they’re gone, they won’t be back.
• Dan Michels is a resident of Wasilla and owner of Crystal Creek Lodge in King Salmon.
