09-10 More funding for salmon research

Published on November 10th, 2009

By ALEX DEMARBAN

Summary

Congress and the state Legislature should provide no less than $5 million per for year for a minimum of eight years for salmon research and restoration efforts though the Arctic-Yukon and Kuskowkim regions of Alaska. Such funding should go to the AYK sustainable salmon initiative to support a state-federal-tribal management effort. The federal funding should not be administered through the state. Ask the governor to guarantee the state's commitment to work with Native regional organizations to support the goals of the initiative and to fund new research to address salmon declines.

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Full Text

RESOLUTION 09-10

REQUESTING THE ALASKA CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, AND THE GOVERNOR OF ALASKA TO FULLY FUND ESSENTIAL RESEARCH TO ADDRESS DISASTEROUS SALMON DECLINES THROUGHOUT ALASKA, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE ARCTIC-YUKON-KUSKOKWIM (A YK) WITH FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS DIRECTED TO THE A YK SUSTAINABLE SALMON INITIATIVE

WHEREAS: The Yukon River has experienced disastrous declines of Chinook and fall chum salmon, in addition Norton Sound has suffered the failures of Chinook salmon most dramatically in the Unalakleet River along with other species around the area for nearly a generation, These circumstances led to widespread restrictions and closures of subsistence and small scale commercial fisheries and caused nutritional, economic and cultural hardship for the thousands of tribal members who live in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim regions and depend upon the return of these salmon stocks for their health, well-being and way of life; and

WHEREAS: Salmon is important to all Alaska Native people for the survival, subsistence, economy and essential way of life; and

WHEREAS: The Secretary of Commerce is considering a Fisheries Disaster Declaration for the 2009 salmon fishing season which would be the sixteenth disaster declaration issued by state and federal agencies since 1997; and

WHEREAS: The Association of Village Council Presidents are founding members of the Arctic Yukon-Kuskokwim (A YK) Sustainable Salmon Initiative (SSI) which serves as the leading collaborative multi-stakeholder organization for addressing pressing salmon research needs in the A YK region; and

WHEREAS: With the leadership and collaboration of the Association of Village Council Presidents, Tanana Chiefs Conference and Kawerak, Inc., the A YK Sustainable Salmon Initiative has emerged as one of the largest and most successful working models of cooperative management of fisheries research in North America. The A YK SSI provides a strong co-management role for the A YK tribal organization; and

WHEREAS: Although the A YK Sustainable Salmon Imitative has begun the difficult of understanding the causes of the declines of salmon in the region by collaboratively funding over 50 salmon research projects in the region, many critical salmon research needs remain unfunded at this time; and

WHEREAS: Federal funding for salmon research through appropriations to the State of Alaska under the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) does not ensure that any research funding will reach the distressed subsistence fisheries in the A YK region; 1) over $24 million was appropriated to the Alaska Dep~rtment of Fish and Game (AD&G) in FFY 2007 and 2008 for salmon research and a mere 5% of this funding was directed to salmon research in the A YK region; 2) an additional $9 million was appropriated to ADF&G though the PCSRF in FFY 2009, and to date ADF&G has not awarded any funding to the A YK region despite the commercial fishing closure and drastic restrictions in subsistence harvest resulting from salmon crashes on the Yukon River and Norton Sound watersheds'.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation request the United States Congress and the Alaska State Legislature to support and appropriate urgently needed funding, of no less than $5,000,000 per year for a minimum of 8 years (the full life cycle of salmon) to address salmon research and restoration needs throughout the Arctic-Yukon Kuskokwim regions of Alaska; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that such research funding be directed specifically to the A YK SSI as a tribal-federal-state co-management effort, and that such funding explicitly not be administered through the State of Alaska; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation ask the Governor of the State of Alaska, a signatory of the A YK SSI Memorandum of Understanding, to guarantee the recommitment to working cooperatively with the regional Native organizations to support the goals of the initiative and openly and aggressively work to secure funding for the continuation of the AYK SSI to fund critical new research to address salmon declines,

SUBMITTED BY: ASSOCIATION OF VILLAGE COUNCIL PRESIDENTS

COMMITTEE ACTION: DO PASS

CONVENTION ACTION: AMENDED AND PASSED