On behalf of the Kenai Watershed Forum I would like to express the sincerest gratitude to our community for their support in the 23rd annual Kenai River Festival. As the festival hosts, the Kenai Watershed Forum would not be able to put this celebration and river education event on without the financial and in-kind support of local businesses, area organizations and volunteers.

It has begun, another industry battle for the hearts and minds of Alaska’s people and for our shared resources. First there were the announcements of “new” North Slope expenditures by major producers, ConocoPhillips and BP ... mainly projects that had already been years in the planning. (Dare we hope that we have reporters who are capable of research and editors who do more than parrot industry press releases)?

In Tuesday, June 11, Clarion page A-6, the ad for the Alliance had a misleading “Fact.” The referendum signature campaign is not to repeal SB 21. It is to place SB 21 on the ballot for a vote by the people of Alaska.

Why is this a bad idea? I suspect any organization that is against putting any issue of such importance to a vote of the people. I did not get to attend either function and missed the hotdog giveaway. I would have liked to have been there to find out what other misleading “Facts” may have been touted.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently flooded the mailboxes of residents on the Kenai Peninsula with slick flyers from its headquarters in Chicago. The purpose of the mailer was to tell Alaskans to oppose salmon habitat protections in the Kenai Borough.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) holds itself out as “America’s largest trade association,” bigger than the influential American Petroleum Institute. So why would this deep-pocketed group from Chicago reach out to Alaskans to oppose local salmon habitat protections?