• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

inletkeeper

Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.

MENUMENU
  • About
    • Cook Inlet Watershed
    • Our Team
    • Board
    • History
  • Our Work
    • Clean Water
      • Safe Drinking Water
        • Water Testing FAQ
        • Protect Your Water Source
        • Water Rights in Alaska
      • Clean Boating & Harbors
        • Susitna Valley Lakes and Rivers
        • 2-strokes vs. 4-strokes
        • Boater Resources
        • Sewage Management
      • Pharmaceutical Disposal
    • Healthy Habitat
      • Salmon Safe Farming
      • Pebble Mine
      • Stream Temperature Monitoring Network
      • Stream Temperature Data Collection Standards and Protocol for Alaska
      • Real-time Temperature Sites
        • Anchor River
        • Crooked Creek
        • Deshka River
        • Russian River
      • Cold Water Refugia
    • Strong Communities
      • Climate ActionKit
      • Community Action Studio
      • Alaska Food Hub
      • Solarize the Kenai
      • Drawdown Climate Solutions Series
      • Alaska Farmers Market Association
      • Salmonfest
      • Electronics Recycling
      • Mouth to Mouth Wild Run & Ride
    • Energy & Alaska
      • Climate Change
      • Oil & Gas
        • Lease Sale 258
        • Exploratory Seismic Testing
        • Leasing
        • Transportation and Infrastructure
      • Coal Strip Mining
    • Resource Library
  • Take Action
    • Digital Action Center
    • Ways to Give
    • Write a Letter to the Editor
    • Contact the Media
  • Donate
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Report Pollution
  • Shop

October 9, 2018 by Cook Inletkeeper

Our Swimming Permanent Fund

On the same day PFD dividends hit bank accounts this year, I thawed a filet of silver salmon from the Kenai River.  I remember feeling so grateful with that particular fresh, beautiful fish in my hands this August.

With the sockeye fishery closed just weeks before, I started to wonder what our freezer would look like by the end of summer. Like so many Alaskans, I measure my wealth by how full my freezer is each winter.

As I listened to news about the PFD last week and held that bright orange filet in my hands, I wondered if the security that wild salmon brings us is accurately reflected in our economy? How do we measure the wealth in our freezers or the experiences of catching our own food?

To most people, the word economy means one thing: money.  It’s often reduced to a singular but nebulous entity that feels like its own being. “The Economy” is strong, or weak. “The Economy” is measured by GDP and stock tickers.

But at its roots, the word economy means much more than money: it means “management of home.”   It seems obvious that how we measure our economy, or how we measure the management of our home, should include some of the fundamentals of what we all need to live: clean air, clean water, and clean food.

In our current economic structure, we have undervalued these basic necessities and done a poor job of managing them for current and future generations.

Today, big mining corporations like Pebble and oil companies like Exxon are spending millions of dollars on an ad campaign to keep the outdated salmon habitat law the way it is.  

Why? Because these corporations that feed their shareholders want us to undervalue this renewable resource that feeds our families, creates communities, and sustains cultures.  They want us to believe that Alaska has only one economy. They want to keep the fish habitat permitting system the way it is: a rubber stamp made behind closed doors with no clear standards.

Fortunately, a diverse group of Alaskans – from Ketchikan to Bethel to Dillingham to Soldotna –  are fighting back to protect our home and make sure that we are managing our fish and water resources for future generations and for the benefit of all Alaskans.  

We’re making calls, making signs, and making sure that people get to the polls and Vote YES on Ballot Measure 1.  And we need you to help. Join the movement working to make sure that healthy salmon habitat is a part of our economy for generations to come.  Volunteer.  Donate. Talk to your friends and family.  Vote YES for wild salmon.

Filed Under: Civics, Healthy Habitat, salmon

Previous Post
Next Post

Footer

Homer:
3734 Ben Walters Lane
Homer, AK 99603
tel: 907.235.4068

Soldotna:
35911 Kenai Spur Hwy, #13
Soldotna, AK 99669

DONATE

Copyright © · Cook Inletkeeper