Audubon Ohio News - February 10, 2003

Audubon Ohio News - February 10, 2003



CONTENTS

1.  DeWine Comes Through Again for the Arctic

2.  Arctic Explorer Reports to Audubon Chapter



1.  DEWINE COMES THROUGH AGAIN FOR THE ARCTIC



Ohio Senator Mike DeWine is one of six Republican Senators who signed a

letter opposing any effort to use the congressional budget process to open

up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.  In so doing, he has

broken with the Bush Administration on this important conservation issue,

and helped to signal that the Administration will face great difficulty in

persuading Congress to approve drilling in the Refuge.



In the last Congress, Sen. DeWine cast a key vote against drilling.  The

threat to the Arctic is even greater in the current Congress.  The Bush

Administration has devised a new strategy of attempting to insert drilling

language in a budget bill, thereby bypassing normal congressional review and

approval procedures.  By signing the letter, Sen. DeWine has put the

Administration on notice that this type of back-door policymaking is not

acceptable.



Senator DeWine needs to hear from Ohioans who approve of his action.  The

Senator's office can be reached by phone (202-224-2315) or through an e-mail

form on his web site (dewine.senate.gov).  





2.  ARCTIC EXPLORER REPORTS TO AUDUBON CHAPTER



The President Rutherford B. Hayes Audubon Chapter got a first-hand account

of the harm that drilling would do in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

At a chapter program in Fremont on Sunday, February 9, Chad Kister of the

Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign presented a slideshow of his one-person tour

of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding areas.



Kister toured the Arctic the hard way.  He ventured hundreds of miles

through the Refuge and the adjoining Brooks Range solo, using an inflatable

raft and going on foot.  He subsisted on food he could pluck from the land

or catch with a fishing rod.  In the process he documented both the natural

wonders within the Refuge and the damage that has occurred in adjoining

areas where drilling has occurred.



Kister, who is writing a book on his trip, will present his program to the

Clark County Audubon Chapter on February 24.  He has offered to do his

presentation for other Ohio Audubon chapters.  He can be contacted through

his website, www.arcticrefuge.org.