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Central Park great place for camping
Paula Easley http://content.ll-0.com/networkdirect/networkdirect_e_a000531882.JPG?i=022306102132
Anchorage Daily News Anchorage, Alaska To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@adn.com
Alaska on one side of the continent and New York on the other are about as different as two states can be. New York is a private land state, with residents owning 99 percent of its 47,214 square miles. Alaska is a public land state where the situation is reversed: Residents own barely half of 1 percent of the land. Let’s call it 99 to 1.
New York is home to more than 20 million people, or about 400 people per square mile; Alaska holds roughly 650,000. Here, it’s one person per square mile. The comparison is 400 to 1. There’s another big difference. In the U.S. Constitution, a provision known as the equal footing doctrine assured that additional states joining the confederation would have the same rights as the 13 original colonies. When the West was settled, however, the equal footing doctrine fell by the wayside. So, while New York could guide its own destiny without interference by other states, the Western states could not. In Alaska’s case, two-thirds of the state fell under federal control, which meant the state’s leaders could make few decisions independently -- even siting a 10-mile road could become a national issue.
The inequity of New York’s being over-blessed with people and Alaska’s being over-blessed with land (it could hold 12 New Yorks), prompted some patriotic Alaska citizens in the 1990s to seek a more equitable balance between the two states. The effort came about because of Alaskans’ well-known generosity of spirit; whenever a need arises anywhere on the planet, Alaskans are invariably among the first to step up to the plate.
The Alaska organizers found ready allies in other Western states who wholeheartedly supported New Yorkers’ needs for a serene place that provided some much-needed solitude. This was counter to legislation introduced by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Easterners to create a new wilderness area right smack on top of America’s most promising onshore oil and gas deposit in northern Alaska, the ANWR coastal plain. “Creating wilderness there doesn't make sense at all,” our allies observed. “How can New Yorkers enjoy that?”
The organizers were startled to learn that, in spite of New York’s legendary support for environmental measures, neither its legislature nor congressional delegation had sought wilderness designations in their own state. It did actually have one -- the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness Area -- comprising a measly 1,363 acres. Alaska, on the other hand, had 48 federal wilderness areas totaling 58,182,216 acres.
So, Americans for Manhattan Wilderness [AMW] was born and has since worked for passage of “The Manhattan Island Ancient Natural Heritage Ecosystem Restoration Act.” AMW’s first action was to acknowledge that people clear across the country knew more about what was in New Yorkers’ best interests than the people who lived there. In brief, the legislation would:
• Reclassify Manhattan’s unique sewer system as America’s first underground Wild and Scenic River.
• Authorize transfer of 50 Alaska grizzly bears into a newly created 42nd Avenue Critical Habitat Area), along with 500 of its excess wolves and a short-term food supply of 4 million mice, shrews and tundra moles.
• Create a $20 trillion fund to restore Manhattan’s abundant historic wetlands and return all rivers and streams to their original pristine condition.
• Remove 1,542 unsightly buildings that have obliterated Hoboken, New Jersey’s scenic views.
• Authorize federal agents, through a door-to-door search of residential dwellings, to identify and acquire private property determined to be habitat of the endangered Manhattan Island Club-footed Kangaroo Rat.
• In recognition of the New York congressional delegation’s unwavering opposition to domestic oil and gas production, Manhattan Island will be closed by Jan. 1, 2008, to all vehicles except those configured with two wheels. A $25,000 fine per incident will be applied to anyone not in compliance.
This brief summary of the act’s provisions should encourage wilderness advocates to convey their support of The Manhattan Island Ancient Natural Heritage Ecosystem Restoration Act [ANHERC] to New York’s congressional leaders as soon as possible.
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Paula Easley, an Anchorage public policy consultant, served on the board of the Resource Development Council for twelve years. Her e-mail address is paulaeasley@yahoo.com
Copyright 2006, Anchorage Daily News. http://www.adn.com/opinion/comment/story/8200476p-8094338c.html
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