Alaska Legislature: House Tribal Affairs, 4/9/26, 8am

Thank you, Representative Dybert, members of the committee. Thank you to Representative Bynum for his leadership on this issue. My name is Michael Levine. I am senior director for Alaska programs for ocean conservancy. I live here in Juneau on the traditional lands of the Akwan and Taku Kwan.

Ocean conservancy I should have let you do it.

There we go. Ocean Ocean Conservancy is a national non-profit. Uh we work to bring collaborative science based solutions to challenges facing our ocean. Um we are based in Washington DC, but we have deep roots and extensive lived and learned experience in Alaska. We have nine staff members sped throughout the state. Um and these roots go all the way to our CEO, Janice, who lived in Juneau in the late 90s and early 2000s though she lives in Portland now.

And as a result we know to look for uniquely Alaskan solutions to uniquely Alaskan problems. And for us, that means forging equitable partnerships with tribes, in communities, with other non-profits, industry, local, state and federal agencies. Um one of our signature programmes is the international coastal cleanup which has been housed at Ocean Conservancy for more than forty years. Over those forty years we've documented more than four hundred and forty million pounds

billion pounds of debris removed from beaches around the country and the world. Um in our approach to this uh nationwide and in Alaska is not to come in and take over and do things ourselves, but to seek to um bring support for local entities um that are already running cleanups or want to expand cleanup programmes. And for us here in Alaska that looks like providing technical expertise, um knowledge exchange, sharing and collaborative fundraising.

that elevates all of our efforts. Um why do we do that? As the committee is aware, um there is a growing body of knowledge about the impacts of plastic and prevalence of plastic in the oceans. And that plastic in the form of marine debris washes up on shore in Alaska in incredible quantities. Um the uh currents bring debris from all over and communities are left with um trash on their beaches that they

They didn't cause the vast majority of the debris that we find on beaches in Alaska is derelict fishing gear and the vast majority of that is plastic. Um we may start seeing some different data um this summer as cleanups focus on um large storms like Typhoon Merbok and I think you'll hear about that uh with future testimony. Um

this uh is a um

A preliminary data from just last summer, um we've c documented a million and a half pounds of debris removed from shores around Alaska. Um and again, we expect the b will show that the majority of this is derelict fishing gear. I'm gonna highlight a couple these um cleanups and their get to your question representative story about the barriers. Um so this is a cleanup that was organized by the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe um in conjunction with

The Federal Government, um the corporation there, this is the first of a three year cleanup b effort in Yakutat um that will reach more and more remote um and we expect polluted beaches um up the coast. Um this was a cleanup in St. Paul last summer. Um the community of St. Paul Island has been running cleanups for several decades, and more than twenty five thousand pounds of debris were removed from the be those beaches um just last summer. Um and this is actually cleanups from two summers ago from down here in south

in Southeast that was organised through the Sea Coast Indigenous Guardians Network in conjunction with their youth stewards programme. And I highlight these three because they emphasise the resources that are needed,

the equipment,

the technical know-how, the distance that you have to go to get debris on beaches, and just how expensive it can be to do this. The majority of the funding for these large-scale clean-ups in Alaska has come from the federal government.

um and we need those funds to keep uh could keep cleaning beaches.

Um and one of the other initiatives that w uh has been organised over the last couple of years has been focused on um getting debris away from communities. So if you clean up debris off beaches, off in it languishes in landfills or on hillsides and effectively you've just taken a problem from one place and moved it to another. So working with our senate delegation, um we received a grant to work on what we're calling the backhaul of marine debris and so um

um throughout the state we are working on getting debris from rural communities to recycling and disposal. Um right now those facilities are largely down south and we're working um with through hubs in Nome and Sitka and supporting clean-ups throughout the state, both uh debris as it had been in the past, and the storm related um debris. So um but like with my last few seconds just to express our appreciation for the resolution, our support for it,

Um we recognise the need for our legislative statement about this, uh recognising the need for partnerships and continued funding. And with that I will take any questions.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you, Mr Levine for your statement. Are there any questions? Um

Uh representive Story?

Ah thank you Chair Dyberg, through the Chair, thank you, Mr Divine for your presentation. So are the barriers, if you could elaborate a little bit more for our rural um and tribes, is it uh there is a lack of funding for it? Is it hard to apply for it, don't have the staff to apply for federal grants? Um I know um obviously they're located in areas where there's more debris washed up, but if you could elaborate on that I'd

that I'd appreciate it.

I'm sure this is Michael Levine and thank you Representative Story. Through the chair, yes to that, um and there are so the the barriers are um manpower, know-how, distance, um equipment needs, funding.

needs um and uh Representative Story, their applications for federal grants are um onerous and there have been programmes through Alaska Sea Grant and through ocean conservancy to apply for those funds and then reduce those barriers by having competitive grant programmes throughout the state. So that's one way to overcome that barrier. Um and the availability of funds um is also

a barrier we need more uh m more federal funds coming this way um in order to uh continue these programs. Overwhelmingly though, the individual barriers are not a desire to do it; they are uh they are resources and coordination and funding that prevent people from being able to do it.

Thank you.

I don't see any other questions. Mr.

Levine thank you for your statement this morning.

Thank you.

And n up next in invited testimony we have online Dr.

Lynn Zender. If you could hear us, um state your name and affiliation and begin your test statement.

Oh yeah. Um good morning, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Great.

So my name is Lynn Zender.

Thank you so much to the distinguished community members.

I'm involved with the Alaska Task Force,

which is a senior group of waste experts working with the state and THC where it's vendor and that leads the internal operations committee.

And I'm the director of vendor environmental health,

a non-profit here in Anchorage with 16 staff that administers the Backhaul Alaska program.

about training program in association with UAF and a community assistance program for waste,

water quality monitoring and environmental program administration.

So we train in the system over 100 rural communities every year working mostly with rural tribes.

I hold a PhD in environmental engineering and our organization's mission is to help improve the health of tribal and all rural Alaska communities through overcoming the extreme waste challenges they face.

I'm an engineer who tells stories, and this is about marine debris barriers and opportunities for small communities.

So here, let's see, it's on the first slide,

the opening slide,

on the left picture you see is the edge of that 19-mile landfill prior to Huron. And almost all that waste now is marine debris along the Tuxic River and on out to the ocean, passing Tuxic and Eugene and multiple subsistence areas.

Much of the Waikiki Delta landfill waste along with other town debris was also, as we all know,

subsistence or is mired in riverbeds and things.

potentially affecting future salmon health,

other subsistence resources,

and safe river navigation during both winter and summer.

The second picture to the right is a human being caught live to talk about the marine debris near their town,

some of which also was once landfill waste.

And subsistence is an economic and dietary necessity,

as the committee knows,

beyond being integrated into mental health and community well-being.

And chronic thought is debris is impacting their subsistence. Those are top environmental concerns.

And while familiar with land cleanup,

they approach this because marine...

clean up is far different and especially in back all the debris is necessary which is necessary which is almost always the case so but Cotlet couldn't launch this effort without knowing how to do it and without the financial resources for the event itself and without the staff bandwidth for the grant writing and administrative burden that it would have caused and so there's just no grant that fit those needs

And then our organization,

Sonoma Backhaul,

and Waste Cleanup, and Marine Debris, we applied for and received a UAFC grant for a project in Cossack to clean the priority sites.

So we passed through funding to directly support local hire,

local administration,

and local rental.

And then to keep within budget,

we were able to heavily leverage.

PPE supplies and our staff time to evacuate Alaska and community assistance travel and then I think conservancy also helped to cover the shipping and recycling costs and we took on the grant administration but let's get to what happened next so with the planning

A lot of planning needs to happen and books need to get higher,

finding available boats to use during summer when everyone is using them already for subsistence is an obstacle barrier of timing and prioritizing the sites when to clean and also avoiding those high heavy subsistence periods.

This was a joint and full community effort with the city two tribes and the village corporation with the lead being the native village

plot lid.

And then over the course of the summer and into early summer,

Plot Lid had 13 job applicants,

which is quite a bit for a small community,

and eventually hired eight workers for six weeks with the funding that they were able to receive.

Our organization arranged with vendors and partners to get the clinics out there for storage and sorting,

they're not super sacks, PPE,

etc.

And then, so the next slide.

from safety marine debris cleanup is responsible and safe and I just want to note that we're a safety training organization we take it really seriously we came out and trained everyone in a 16-hour hazardous site worker if they bring debris cleanup including ergonomic safety another barrier is the training needed to perform marine debris and then and then after the training our

Our staff did,

we started a cleanup in several days as on-site training while cleaning up and then they left after about a week in the field and while we kept in touch and provided logistics support,

Kotlik then took over the cleanup.

So the next slide should be the...

It's a big piece of brain to breathe by being in.

I just want to be in kind of a safety thing,

but it took an eight-hour course prior to being responsible for the project team,

and then the captain was obviously local,

and then all the workers signed agreements about wearing life jackets around water as well.

And to the next slide, which has some more pictures of the cleanup,

and then the next slide.

Comic ended with four comics of material so that project was really great success and really cleaned up all around their community.

This year we're going to go out again to train on how to sort the debris for backhaul and recycling in lower 48 and the next the next slide I can see that this should be inside of the comic landfill I'm sure.

The funding also allows for emergency prevention and that's really critical in Coddick's case and here we're able to purchase mats leading up to the landfill so that residents and workers could reliably access inside the fence instead of leaving waste where it could become marine debris and it costs only $12,000 so it gives you sort of a sense of the types of barriers that small communities face even from the funding.

because even though there's not such a big difference for a college to purchase them without the funding,

they would have had to reduce their staff hours to cover that cost.

So I've spoken about small community barriers made administrative staffing capacity,

lending and knowledge in the face of greater need and heavier impact of the marine debris on rural communities. Next slide.

So then how long has, so I think it's the next slide. I can't really make out.

It should be, but regardless,

Doctor

how long

Sender,

has,

and

yeah,

the positive,

yeah,

the other day,

we're on a slide that says typhoon response,

a case study by change.

okay.

Perfect.

Okay.

So then type in how long it is.

And the positive note here is that marine debris funding also provides opportunities to make a difference to build capacity and reduce disaster costs in the future.

So let's finish the cleanup just a few days prior to the typhoon.

And because they had on hand a trained crew with the right PPE,

they were actually out on day one cleaning up and staging debris,

erecting safety perimeters,

and literally doing everything you would have hoped the community could enact on their own without having to wait for assistance to come.

It was such a big win,

learning to be clean-up funding because of the supplies and the training costs that were so much with flood disaster response,

which we're also involved in.

This is really a double win for the state and communities that caught the community's confidence in planning their own clean-up and in a much better place to respond to a flood.

And then the last slide.

Our next slide is the same C-Grant program funding a project with night needs.

If you want to switch to the next slide,

I'm not sure if you want that, but anyway.

The last, Dr.

Yeah,

Zender?

there we

Yeah, one on the last slide that says case study protecting toxic river.

Thank you.

The same C grant program funded a project with Nike,

and those funds are going to be leveraged with other NOAA source funding.

Yeah, I think you can switch back to the slide before.

This one's going to be leveraged with other NOAA source funding cleanup legacy MERT box debris,

and it's going to help pay local residents to collect the waste they see when conducting subsistence along the river.

So it's going to actually be able to provide them gas money so they're able to be subsistence, and it's really going to be like a lifeline to send any communities.

And I just want to mention, you know,

look at my story,

see that the Langley Creek grant.

really help support many sectors of the Alaskan economy and then they go not only not only the worthwhile causes like these

The multiple entities that work really hard together to make as good of use of its resources as possible,

locally,

regionally, whatever,

everyone out there is generous with their time and it really, really tries to leverage as much as possible to get this work done.

And I think that's all I have to say and I'll take questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Zender. Are there any questions from the committee members?

Okay, Dr.

Zender, thank you so much for your presentation. There are any questions as of now.

Great, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next presenter and our final invited test fire is Anama Shannon.

Mrs. Shannon, please put yourself on record and begin your statement.

Hello, my name is Anama Shannon and I'm representing Kwerik Incorporated in Nome.

Good morning. Welcome.

Good morning.

Welcome.

My name is Anama Shannon,

okay thank you, my name is Anama Shannon and I was born and raised in Alaska.

Okay, thank you.

I've lived in many parts of the state including Sitka, Fairbanks, Homer and Kotzebue,

but I've spent the last 20 years in Nome.

Although I'm not Alaska Native,

my family practices a subsistence lifestyle,

harvesting food from the land, rivers,

and coastal areas.

While we often think of our beautiful environment as pristine,

it's common that we encounter marine debris while we're harvesting greens and berries along the coast.

When we collect firewood from the beaches or go bird hunting,

we frequently return home with discarded buoys and old fishing nets.

The Northtown Economic Development Corporation or NSEDC has conducted marine debris cleanups throughout the Bering Strait region for many years, rotating annually between communities.

Each summer they clean beaches near two villages and then begin the cycle again once all the communities have been covered.

Last year the regional nonprofit where I work,

COERIC,

launched a marine debris cleanup program in response to Typhoon Murdoch through a sub-award from Zender Environmental.

We cleaned up two sites last summer and plan to expand those efforts to four new locations this coming summer.

This joint resolution recognizes the real and growing challenges marine debris poses to Alaska's coastlines, subsistence resources,

and economies.

From our direct experience cleaning up marine debris,

we understand the vastness of Alaska's shoreline and the reality of addressing hundreds of miles of coastline in places without roads,

ports,

or standard access.

Rural and tribal communities are on the front lines of this work,

traveling by boat,

plane,

ATV,

and on foot to reach remote sites,

yet we face major barriers to accessing the federal funding needed to do it safely and effectively.

Subsistence is central to coastal Alaskans' way of life, and marine debris threatens the land and waters we depend on for food, culture,

and community well-being.

When debris is collected,

our goal is to backhaul and recycle it whenever possible,

rather than place it in local,

online,

and often failing landfills that can allow debris to reenter the ocean.

Backhaul and recycling are expensive,

but they are essential steps towards true marine debris solutions and a functioning circular economy.

This resolution is an important step in supporting collaboration,

equity,

and sustained federal investment,

and I strongly urge your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms Shannon.

Are there any questions from the committee members to Ms Shannon?

Seeing none,

thank you so much, Ms Shannon, for being here and for your testimony.

um with that um

I will now open public testimony on House Joint Resolution thirty seven. And is there anyone in the room or online who would like to testify?

See you.

Oh.

I forgot. I'm gonna go ahead and open up public testimony.

I'll start in the room. Are there is there anyone in the room willing to testify and see none. Is there anyone online? See none. Alright I'll go ahead and close public testimony.

Um and I'm just gonna take a brief it is um for a quick discussion.

Okay, we're back online. Um house resources on house joint resolution

thirty seven, right? Yeah.

Uh we have a question uh Mr Shah from representative story.

I think you. Uh through the chair, uh Mr Shah, I was curious, I see that the resolution targets urging our Alaskan congressional delegation to advocate for increased funding. Is there a reason why you didn't um choose also um urging the U_S_ Congress um to fund uh these programmes?

Uh

Thank you Madam Chair. Through through the Chair to r Representative Storium, for the record Trevor Shaw staff to Representative Bonham. Uh no, there's not a specific reason. So when we were uh drafting this resolution it was um specifically identified to as a companion to an existing resolution over in the Senate, and this it's uh interesting that you should ask this was actually one of the things that Representative Bonham and I were just talking about is that um either it's

Here or perhaps over in Housing Resources we would like to potentially see an amendment to the resolution that would encompass both the U_S_ Congress and also expand the list of who this resolution would be distributed to, to include the E_P_A_ Administrator and the head of NOAA as well, um to encompass that. So your your point is well taken and we've certainly thought about what that would look like as well.

it's

Follow-up?

Follow-up?

Follow-up?

Ah yes, I thank you. Yeah, I strongly urge that to happen. If it doesn't happen in here, I would urge that to to re I know it goes to resources and I know I believe we'd like to move this resolution on because it is important to get the message out. But yeah, I think that would be really wise. There's good information and it certainly is important to know um Alaska legislature has this strong uh support to all of those agencies and Congress that you

you mentioned. Thank

Yep.

you.

Thank you, Mr. Shaw. Any other yep, Representative Schwanke.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Trevor.

Question.

So

Since the vast majority of marine debris is from the fishing industry, my question is where are the grant funds that come back from industry to help with this type of cleanup?

And I want to add to what Representative Story said because I think as a legislative body we should not always just be encouraging

um either state or federal government to pay for these things. Um I think that industry has a very important role to play in this particular um issue and I would love to see us encourage strongly encourage them to get involved and I I fully recognise ocean currents aren't necessarily bringing American fishing debris. I d I understand this is a global problem, but our debris may end up on foreign shores and their debris may end up

and up on our shores, but this is a this is a topic where we absolutely I think should be encouraging industry to step up and do their part.

Great question. Thank you, Representative Schwanke. It looks like we have Mr. Levine up at the table who would like to address the question.

Thank you, Chair Deibert and Representative Schwanke for the question.

For the record,

Michael Levine from Ocean Conservancy.

And this is a very ripe topic of conversation.

Knowing exactly the sources of that debris is not clear.

I think we expect that a lot of it is from international waters.

Um we have been um working to try to engage uh some research to identify not just the where but the when. How long has this de debris been in the water? And specifically to your point about engaging the industry in solutions, there was a p a non-profit that was started by the fishing industry called the Marine Debris Foundation. I think it had a couple of names and it existed um

throughout the nineties and early two thousands and was largely displaced by the NOAA uh marine debris programme, um and that that non-profit did take federal funds and work through the fishing industry and we at Ocean Conservancy and as Ms Shannon mentioned Queric and others working with N-S-E-D-C. So obviously know that a C_D_Q_ group is not industry specific, but we are engaged with the fishing industry, they are partners.

Um and certainly we would encourage funding from and with them. But um a lot of these clean-ups engage fishing industry participants um and and funding, and it's one of our priorities in terms of backhaul etcetera. So um we certainly view them as partners uh and would like seek further engagement.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And with that, any more?

Okay um

we I'm gonna take a brief at ease, um just to

before we move on to the next step, brief at ease.

Alright, back on record in House Tribal Affairs. Um we are going to wrap up House Joint Resolution thirty eight. Um

Thirty seven.

Thirty seven.

Yep.

Yep.

House joint resolution thirty seven. And before uh Representative Bynum, welcome back. Would you like to have any final uh wrap-up on this?

Madame Chair and committee,

thank you very much for the opportunity to uh present this important topic. I know it's important to Alaskans um all over our coastlines to be able to think about these issues and how they impact our communities. So thank you very much for hearing the resolution today.

Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Shaw, too, for your presentation.

Thank you Madam Chair.

Uh Vice Chair Storey, do you have a motion?

Uh thank you, Chair Dybert. I move House Joint Resolution thirty seven, work order thirty four dash L_S_ one five three nine backslash A_ from committee with attached zero fiscal note and individual recommendations.

Is there any objection?

Seeing none, House Joint Resolution thirty seven passes from committee.

We will now take a brief at ease while members sign the committee report, and we will set up for our next presentation.

Oh, we're not gonna have a presentation, we'll wrap up.

It's okay. Um, alright?