For a diligent review of environmental issues facing
Arctic and interior Alaska, you might look to the 27-year-old
Northern Alaska Environmental Center and its 20-page, quarterly
newsletter, The Northern Line. The title recalls a Gary Snyder
poem, “Behind is a forest that goes to the Arctic … and here we
must draw our line.” Supported by over 1,000 members, this
Fairbanks-based organization tracks logging, mining and oil
activities and also runs an environmental education youth camp. One
of its major projects is protecting the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge from oil drilling, a perennial threat. In 1997, the group
led a coalition that was instrumental in fending off Alaska’s
attempt to acquire the Dinkum Sands, an area of tidelands and
lagoons just outside the Arctic refuge.
The
Northern Alaska Environmental Center is based at 218 Driveway St.,
Fairbanks, AK 99701 (907/452-5021). You can visit their Web site at
www.mosquitonet.com/~naec.
* Stanley
Yung
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Holding the line.
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