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.