(9 of 10)
Though Tussing is only half serious, the bet is that Alaskans will not repeat the mistakes of this year's postponed boom. The state legislature can surely do better. In its last session, which ran a record 147 days, precious little was accomplished in long-term planning. The lawmakers had a "Blueprint for the Future" prepared by the Brookings Institution in Washington. Governor Miller preferred to order up his own study by the Stanford Research Institute. Result: ineffectual bickering about differences between the two versions. Still, one of the charms of the Alaskan legislators is that they have a particularly close relationship with their constituents. Since most Alaskans were either burned or scared by the boom's failure, both the lawmakers and the Governor are now determined to control the state's future.
Many citizens already have high hopes. John A. Carlson, borough chairman of the Fairbanks area, yearns for new industry to come to his city and make it truly the "golden heart" of Alaska. He is not thinking of the jobs that will result, but of the taxes he desperately needs to clean up the appalling mess in Fairbanks. "You cannot fight pollution without money," he says. Anchorage, which is in much better condition, needs strong planning controls. "We have grown so fast that the land can no longer absorb us," says John Asplund, chairman of the Greater Anchorage Area Borough, a form of urban supergovernment.
"We've got to reverse the entire American pioneer act," State Senator Jay Hammond says. The great—and fragile—land is patently incapable of holding an unlimited number of people. Most planners believe that twice as many people as now may well be quite enough. The old theory that Alaska's sheer size and emptiness can absorb any insult without ill effect has by now been disproved by all too many examples. Instead, new growth must be selective and controlled.
A vital first step would be to establish a federal-state land commission to plan and zone all of Alaska. This can be done because the 49th state is still mainly wilderness, most of it controlled by the state and federal governments. The old mining and homesteading laws should be reformed to prevent continuation of the present system of irrational first-come, first-served claims. In addition, a partial land freeze should be continued until present surveying and assessing programs by federal agencies can be completed. With 20 more planners, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management estimates, it can classify all Alaska by 1980.
Frontier Mythology
Unlike the radical conservationists and doomsday ecologists in the lower 48 states, Alaska's environmentalists do not object to growth—as long as it is controlled. Thus Ecologist Robert Weeden asks for a "land ethic" that would avoid urban America's pollution, develop recreation areas and "help defend those delightfully 'useless' animals, plants and empty miles that might be the ultimate salvation of man."
Nor is Weeden's vision