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On day one of his presidency, President Biden signed an executive order committing to climate action. The order includes a 30 x 30 plan that sounds simple enough: Protect 30 percent of the nation’s lands and oceans by 2030 to confront the climate emergency and protect the health of people and animals. What does that look like on the ground and will it be enough?
Things look far rosier now than a year ago when it comes to public lands management, clean air and water, protecting wildlife and tackling the climate crisis. The Biden administration came out of the gate with clear actions that make climate and environmental health a key component of every decision-making process across all departments. But prior federal actions and lawsuits mean the work has in many ways just begun.
Sharing the same space really matters. It helps us understand each other more fully, with compassion, and to better communicate the nuance when making a point, light heartedly ribbing a friend, sharing a favorite song by oversharing it, or dishing out another cinnamon roll--oh how I miss my mother's homemade holiday cinnamon rolls!
Like a lot of you, I feel a sense of chaos and overwhelm more than usual these days. The feeling can make it hard to remember everything in the last three years that has challenged our ability as human beings to make the world just and livable for everyone. But it's important to remember everything--all the pieces, and how they fit together in driving toward long-term outcomes.
I have spent most of my life in Alaska, and most of my career at Trustees for Alaska, so it is with some sadness that I have decided to stop the full-time practice of law. The staff at Trustees, and the people we represent have been what motivates me to do this work. There is not anywhere else I would rather work or any place else I would rather live. Though I’m retiring from fulltime legal work, I’m staying right here in Alaska, and I plan to continue to support the protection of the fish, wildlife, air and water that we all need to survive and thrive.
It's our birthday on Dec. 16--and this year we get to blow out 45 candles! We may need to invest in some carbon credits! ;-) To celebrate, we'd like to take a deep breath and reflect with gratitude on all the people who commit to taking care of Alaska, the planet, and each other. We want to first acknowledge and honor the leaders and elders who have come before us, guided us, and taught us to think generations ahead.
One of the benefits of working at Trustees for Alaska is that my work often takes me out of my office, sometimes even to the incredible places that we work to protect. Soon after I started as an attorney at Trustees, I was fortunate to be invited on a trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We spent 4 nights in the foothills of the Brooks Range, hiking and exploring the hills and braids of the Kongakut River. Surrounded by a landscape whose scale cannot be captured, the image that I return to often is that of a northern shrike nest, the speckled eggs nestled gently on a bed of ptarmigan feathers.