February 2025 – Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

February Advocacy Report

The President’s Message
By Marilyn Sigman, President Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

There has never been a time like the present in my lifetime when National Wildlife Refuges—and their hard-working staff dedicated to carrying out the mission of the Refuge system—need friends who share the mission of stewardship of these lands and waters. Many of our members have spent part or all of their careers working in fields related to fish, wildlife, and habitat conservation. Others of you have joined Friends because you enjoy spending time outdoors hunting, fishing, hiking, birdwatching, and canoeing on refuges. You have responded to our calls in the past to speak out to our elected officials in support of good refuge policies and public land management actions. But now the entire system and its mission is under attack.

We are faced with an Administration that is likely to cut the federal budget more deeply than it has already been cut, which has already left Alaska’s refuges woefully understaffed to do the necessary research, conservation work, and outreach and education that promotes long-term stewardship. The Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center has already cut back with a seasonal closure and refuge outreach and education programs in Fairbanks have been canceled indefinitely. Oil and gas development is being targeted on all federal lands. Future layoffs could mean shuttering refuge facilities completely. Some refuges in Alaska are heavily visited, such as Kenai and Alaska Maritime, but others are used almost solely by subsistence users. Visitors would still be able to access refuges, but without any staff on site, we can anticipate increased poaching, garbage dumps, and other illegal uses of refuge lands.

What can we do? An immediate advocacy action you can take is to send in comments on the Izembek road draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement by this Thursday, February 13. Please click the link below to comment. Tell the Administration to choose the no-action alternative.

The Friends Board is committed to developing fund-raising strategies to greatly increase the amount of financial aid we can provide to refuges. If you would like to be involved in this effort, please contact a Board member.

I urge all of you to be friends to the Refuge staff who are feeling attacked by buyout demands and the removal of all references to climate change and the importance of diversity, equity and inclusiveness in the federal workforce as well as the participation of the diverse stakeholders in refuge management. Call, text, or send a thank you email to staff members you know or may have worked with as a Friends’ volunteer. We will also need more volunteers, so look for opportunities posted on the Friends website.

I urge all of you to be a friend to Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges by writing and calling your Congressional representatives. For Alaskans, Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Begich have the power to stop these impacts to OUR refuge lands as do the representatives of Friends’ members in other states. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.

I urge you to be persistent and relentless in speaking up about what is so valuable about the refuges and the mission of stewardship of these unique conservation lands.

Art in the Arctic 2025

On February 7, 2025, Fairbanks’ annual Art in the Arctic show returned to Black Spruce Brewing Company, bringing together a lively crowd of artists, conservationists, and nature lovers. This year’s theme, Resilience in the Refuges: Fish and Rivers of the Far North, inspired six Alaska-based artists to showcase pieces that explored both the beauty and the struggles of northern fish and the rivers they call home.

The event was co-hosted by Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and the three Fairbanks-based refuges—Arctic, Kanuti, and Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuges. Through art, the show aimed to spark interest in these special places and the challenges faced by fish species like char, cisco, grayling, salmon, sheefish, and dolly varden. These fish, built for extreme Arctic conditions, now face threats from climate change and human activities that could impact the streams and rivers they rely on to survive.

The opening night was a huge success, with more than 309 people filling Black Spruce Brewing Company. The crowd was diverse, including artists, biologists, federal and state employees, teachers, public defenders, and folks who simply stopped by for a drink and found themselves drawn into the exhibit. Visitors had the chance to chat with Arctic refuge staff and hear from fish biologist Randy Brown, who shared insights about Arctic fish species.

A big part of the night’s success was thanks to Arctic NWR employees Hanna McBrearty and Jennifer Reed, who worked hard behind the scenes to organize the event. Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges volunteers Tom Chard, Pam Seiser, and Jeff Walters ran an outreach table throughout the evening, signing up over 50 new people for the Friends’ newsletter and spreading the word about the importance of Alaska’s wildlife refuges.

Even with such a great turnout, the future of Art in the Arctic is uncertain. Fairbanks’ refuges no longer have the staff to organize it, and last year’s show had to be postponed due to venue challenges. Unless volunteers step up to keep it going, this could be the last Art in the Arctic after ten years of bringing people together through art and conservation.

The Fairbanks Friends group is talking about whether they have the time and resources to take over the event, but they can’t do it alone. If you love art, nature, and community events, now is the time to get involved. If you’d like to help keep Art in the Arctic alive, please reach out to info@alaskarefugefriends.org.

For now, we celebrate this year’s incredible show and everyone who made it happen. Whether you came to enjoy the art, connect with others, or learn more about the refuges, you were part of something special.

Three of our amazing artists: Marianne Stolz, Natalie Schuldt, and David Personius

Arctic Refuge manager Merben Cebrian looking at art with Ian Wright

David Personius's fish sculptures with table tent information

Fish biologist Randy Brown talking with a visitor (next to David's fish sculptures)

The Friends information table with artwork by Iris Sutton

The crowd at Art in the Arctic

Artist Amy Mackinaw's fiber art

Friends Board member Tom Chard giving out brochures and getting people to sign up for Friends.

Friends volunteers Jeff Walters and Pam Seiser

Jennifer Reed with our clicker after the 300th person walked in the door!

President Jimmy Carter and Alaska’s Refuges

By Poppy Benson, Vice President for Outreach

“As President, I saw that I could shape one of the most important outstanding questions that remained on the agenda of our country, and that was what to do with the massive amounts of land in Alaska.”

From a 6.15.17 interview in Alaska magazine

And he did. In “shaping . . . . the question” Carter sealed his legacy as the greatest conservation president since Teddy Roosevelt with more impact on Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges than even Roosevelt. Nine of our 16 refuges, Alaska Peninsula, Tetlin, Innoko, Becharof, Kanuti, Selawik, Yukon Flats, Nowitna and Koyukuk, owe their existence to President Jimmy Carter who died at age 100 on December 29. He was the driving force behind the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) which he signed as one of his last acts as president on December 2, 1980. The seven refuges that predate ANILCA, Alaska Maritime, Arctic, Kenai, Kodiak, Yukon Delta, Izembek and Togiak, were expanded, reconfigured and some renamed by the Act. In all, Carter added 54 million acres to the National Wildlife Refuge System in Alaska tripling its size. Alaskan refuges now make up 80% of the terrestrial acres in the entire nation’s National Wildlife Refuge System.

Carter was no stranger to Alaska. He kept maps of Alaska in his office, visited many times, and was particularly fond of fly fishing. Carter has said his love of the outdoors came from hunting and fishing with his dad in rural Georgia and his sense of stewardship came from his church. PC White House Staff Photographers Collection.

All these new refuges also added diversity. Roosevelt designated the first refuges in Alaska in 1909 but they were small and coastal because the coast was where most of the exploration occurred. Subsequent refuges also bordered on the coast. However, six of the nine Carter refuges are interior refuges in the Yukon River watershed, rich in salmon, waterfowl, moose and furbearers with resources critical to the way of life of Yukon River people. Prior to Carter only two, the Yukon Delta and the Arctic refuges, were in the Yukon watershed, fourth largest watershed in North America. ANILCA also designated 13 wilderness areas and 7 wild and scenic rivers within the refuges. The Act also designated new national parks, monuments and wilderness areas within national forests and parks.

A key provision of ANILCA established rural subsistence as a purpose of all the refuges – new and existing except for Kenai Refuge – and this was at the direction of Carter. “That was a given, with Secretary Andrus and me from the very beginning, that the rights of Natives would be honored. It was a top priority,” Carter said in a 2017 interview. ANILCA acknowledged the importance of living off the land for rural Alaskans and the long cultural ties to the land of Alaska’s Native peoples by safeguarding subsistence rights.

President Carter’s defense of Alaska refuges continued throughout his life. He went to DC twice in the 1990s to convince Congressmen to defeat proposals to open the Arctic Refuge coastal plain to oil and gas drilling. As recently as 2022, at the age of 98, Carter filed a “Friend of the Court” brief ripping a court decision that approved a land swap in order to build a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Carter truly cared about Alaska wildlife refuges.

Rest in peace President Carter.

The Carters’ idea of a way to spend their 59th anniversary, fishing and birding on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. After speaking at the 25th Anniversary of ANILCA in Anchorage in 2005, Carter and wife Rosalynn stayed at a Skilak Lake lodge on an inholding in the Kenai Refuge. Kenai Ranger/Pilot Rick Johnston now retired, (center) and refuge volunteer Tom Griffiths (left) were flying the river on patrol when they stopped in to meet the Carters. Johnston described Carter as “kind, humble and curious.” Johnston speculates that Carter was the only president to have visited the Kenai Refuge.

PC: Kirk Hoessle/Alaska Wildland Adventures