We are pleased to introduce J. Patrick Kelley, new ELWAS Communications Chair, who recently traveled to Washington, DC for the Alaska Wilderness League’s “Wilderness Week,” a citizen lobbyist effort focusing on the American’s Arctic.

Patrick’s presentation reviews the status of three key areas in the American Arctic in the context of current and pending legislation: the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, Teshekpuk Lake, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  We’ll look at slides of all three areas, along with maps showing the impact of oil drilling and exploration on the North Slope of Alaska and how it affects migratory wildlife such as birds, whales, and caribou. The impact of global warming and current oil fields on the Native Alaskan Inupiat and Gwich’in peoples will also be discussed.  We will see slides of an Inupiat whaling camp and video excerpts from interviews with residents from Nisquit, a Inupiat village near Prudhoe Bay.

Kelley is the principal of PK Communications, a writing and public relations firm.  Although his formal training was in literature and linguistics, he has been interested in natural history for most of his life and he and his spouse are avid birders.

Patrick and Mark Johnston, a Seattle-area conservationist who also attended Wilderness Week, will be available to answer questions after the presentation. Johnston has a degree in Natural Resources from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. He is active in the Sierra Club and the Alaska Coalition of Washington and teaches “birding by ear” to Seattle Audubon’s popular Master Birder Class.

Please join us Thursday, May 22 for Patrick Kelley’s entertaining and informative presentation.  Come at 6:30 for the social hour.

Silent Auction of Framed Prints to Benefit BirdAThon

The social hour, meeting, and presentation are free and open to the public.  Invite a friend or anyone who wants to know more about endangered Arctic lands – and who wants an opportunity to bid on beautiful art for their homes.   

Directions to ELWAS office / Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 308 4^th Ave. S. (corner of 4^th Ave. S. and State). Take I-405 exit 18 (NE 85^th, Kirkland).  Drive west on Central Way to 3^rd St. (stoplight). Turn left (south) on 3^rd St. and follow it as it bears left and changes name to State St.  Turn left on 4^th Ave S.