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One of the executive orders emerging from the Trump administrationƵs early days is Unleashing AlaskaƵs Extraordinary Resource Potential. Ƶ a West Virginia native and current Alaska resident, I see many parallels between AlaskaƵs resource potential today, and that of West Virginia in the early 1900s.

Alaska, like West Virginia of a century ago, has large areas that have not been developed in the modern sense of the word. Like West VirginiaƵs coalfields, much of that land has potential for oil or gas drilling, or mining for minerals like gold or molybdenum. These lands still provide value to the stateƵs residents Ƶ Alaskans hunt caribou that migrate through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishermen rely on salmon spawning streams located downstream of the proposed Pebble Mine. All this land that could be developed for resource extraction is already, in one way or another, being used for other things Ƶ by people as well as wildlife. A person from outside Alaska might be forgiven for not realizing that if you look at a map of Alaska and see nothing but a lot of blank space.

Mareth Griffith is a West Virginia native who works as a naturalist, wilderness guide and author. She is a resident of Seward, Alaska, and works seasonally in coastal Alaska, Hawaii, Antarctica, and MexicoƵs Sea of Cortes.

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