OPINION: We have a shared responsibility to protect the migratory birds that connect us

Our community, “Naparyarmiut” in Yup’ik, is located along the shore of Hooper Bay in the Bering Sea on the western edge of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. While we live several hundred miles from Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a proposed land exchange that would allow a road to slice through the refuge could affect our Tribal members deeply.

The reason is simple: Migratory birds connect us. And we rely on these birds, especially Pacific black brant and emperor geese, for our health and continued existence.

A proposed land exchange now being studied by the federal government would swap lands owned by King Cove Corp. and the State of Alaska for Refuge and Izembek Wilderness Area lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The land swap would then allow a road to be built connecting the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.

As previously proposed, the road would cut through crucial habitat for migratory birds. The agency determined under that proposal that the road would also likely lead to more trails and traffic sprawling out from the main road like bones of a fish spine, which would cause major effects on these goose species that we have always relied on for subsistence.

Izembek’s rich eelgrass beds are especially important for brant that stop to feed and rest in the refuge in the spring before flying north to our region, and again in the fall before they fly back down south. Emperor geese, too, rely on Izembek. Roughly half of the population of this highly vulnerable bird species stops at Izembek along their migratory path. Geese that feed on eelgrass at Izembek on their way to our region are especially important because they are generally fattier and therefore more nutritious than other birds that don’t stopover there.

As Chief of the Tribal Council for the Native Village of Hooper Bay, my number one concern is protecting our ability to provide for ourselves. Food insecurity caused by climate change, industrialization, hunting restrictions and other pressures like the salmon crisis is changing how we traditionally hunt, fish and gather. This has had grave effects on our community, with chronic diseases on the rise and high suicide rates, especially for our youth.

Both brant and emperor geese used to be plentiful in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. We hunt these geese in the spring, until they start laying their eggs, and then again in the fall. Harvesting these birds helps us recover from our long winters. Then, at the end of our brief summer, they help us prepare again for the long winter.

For many of us in Hooper Bay, traditional foods like these geese, plus moose and fish, make up more than half of what we eat. For some, at times, brant and geese are nearly all there is to eat. With all the changes and disruptions to our natural world, we now must travel farther to find our traditional foods. This is more dangerous and forces us to make hard choices about whether to bring young hunters along to teach them our traditional ways of life.

Migratory birds must be carefully managed to ensure their survival, as well as ours. Our people have done what we can to honor that responsibility, and now we must work together to protect these birds. I remember when the emperor goose population was in trouble when I was a little kid, and our family couldn’t hunt them for years. Those were difficult years – ones we don’t want to repeat.

Sometimes when you solve one problem you cause another, and that’s what our Tribe would like to prevent. We understand and respect the concerns of the Tribes, the King Cove Corp. and others who want a road connecting King Cove to the all-weather airstrip in Cold Bay, but we don’t believe a road should be built because of the expected harm to migratory birds. Access to emergency medical care is critically important for King Cove residents, but we believe a marine option like a ferry could best serve the community’s needs while also not harming others.

Our community may appear to be distant from Izembek, but we are connected by the birds and our traditional practices. I feel our community has been overlooked and it is time for that to change.

Because these birds are so important to us, the Native Village of Hooper Bay must have a say in these federal decisions now – before it’s too late.

Edgar Tall Sr. is chief of the Native Village of Hooper Bay.

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