Guide to writing effective public comment letters for CCP

What is a CCP? Why should I comment?

Every 15 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to conduct a Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the refuges it manages.  The CCP is the plan for long-term management of the Refuge.  In the spring of 2010, the Service began a 2-year process to revise and update the 1988 CCP and accompanying Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  The scoping comment period ended in June 2010.  Those comments were to be incorporated into the release Draft CCP plan that will be released sometime soon.  It is vital that we gather even more comments in support of wilderness in this stage of the process; comments from last June do not carry over into this process and must be modified and re-submitted!

How?

When writing public comment letters for a CCP, the most important thing is to just send something in. The Arctic Refuge is a powerful and complicated place.  It cannot be spanned in one comment letter.  The main purpose of comments on the draft alternatives is to figure out which alternative has the most support and to improve management of the refuge.  Your task is simple: explain which alternative you desire and state why. 

After reading lots of comments, we assembled the following guidelines to help you write effective comments.

Do:

Hit the points.

•  Be explicit about what alternative you want and what you’re against.

Be Real

• Write from your heart. 
• Use frank language- this is being read by humans!

Format:

• Address your CCP comments to Richard Voss, Refuge manager, not “gentlemen,” “sirs,” “dudes” etc.
• Treat the officials who will be reading the letters with respect.
• It’s best to provide your full contact info, but at the minimum provide your state as this will be tallied.
• Format your letter with a beginning, middle, and end and introduce yourself briefly!
• Make sure that it is reader friendly (ie: not a giant block of text!)
• If you’re submitting your comments as an e-mail, CC friends and family and show them how easy it is to comment!

Be original:

• While its best to write original material, it is OK to use old comments so long as you provide an introduction about how the comments are relevant to the draft plan.

It!

• Think of it like a pass/fail assignment; it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be turned in. 

Don’t

• Spend a lot of time thanking FWS for the opportunity to comment.  They’ve read this a lot and are mandated by law (Alaska National Interest Land Claims Act and National Wildlife Refuge Administration Act) to do so. 
• Try to avoid directly copying and pasting bullets and paragraphs from action alerts.
• Get hung up in formalities.

Don’t forget to raise these key points!

1.   Urge the FWS to choose the CCP alternative which recommends wilderness for the entire Coastal Plain and also the other non-designated lands so that the wilderness, wildlife, and subsistence values of the whole refuge are protected for future generations.

2.    Insist on safeguarding the wilderness qualities and integrity of the ecosystem of the refuge as a whole through appropriate stewardship.

3.    Oppose any oil and gas leasing, exploration and development because it would permanently harm the wildlife and wilderness values of the refuge.

Sample effective comments from June 2010 Scoping:

The experience of the Refuge…

“I love the Arctic Refuge…I have traveled a number of places in the world, and this, the Arctic Refuge, remains my favorite place on earth.”- Betty Siegel

“My experiences have been, and continue to be, some of the most inspirational and memorable of my life. ..When one hikes the river valleys or ridges or floats down a river, there is always more wilderness around the next bend or over the next pass.  There is solitude, there is self reliance, there is extraordinary beauty of the landscapes, and there is always the promise of a spectacular vista or a wildlife observation.”- John Strasenburgh

You don’t have to be a Refuge Guide to value the place….

“The Refuge is not just a place for guides or flying services to make money or for comfortable people to play for 10 days.  It is bigger than the needs of any individual or organization.  It is for everyone, for all time: such is wilderness.”- Clarence (Clancy) Crawford

 “We appreciate the fact that many of our migrating birds and winter birds here in New Mexico come from ANWR”- Steve West

“I am so glad to have an opportunity to at least have a voice.  I am not a scientists or an arctic resident.  I am a deeply concerned citizen who needs to know that the Refuge is simply there.”

Write for those who do not have voices in our government process…

“To me, it is most important that the 43 fish species, 45  mammal species, and 195 bird species that have been observed in the Arctic Refuge are able to continue using the unfragmented migration corridors, free-flowing rivers, coastal lagoons, deep lakes, shallow ponds, extensive wetlands, and undeveloped and relatively unpolluted habitats that this one-of-a-kind Refuge that connects the boreal forest to the arctic ocean has to offer.”- Greta Burkart, PhD

“This intact community of life should be allowed to exist in its natural diversity, with natural cycles and interactions persisting.”- Karl Monetti

Remember to oppose what you view would threaten the Refuge….

“Of course there must never, never be any drilling for oil in the Beaufort Sea north of the Refuge!  Oil spills would be inevitable, and the prevailing northerly winds would bring it all back to the Refuge coast.  If such drill sites already exist in the Sea above and to the west of Prudhoe Bay, one wonders what the coastline looks like!”- Dr. Bob Krear

“Development in the arctic oceans will ultimately destroy the wilderness character of the wild lands, due largely to human error no matter the technologies employed to reduce risk…we must minimize risk by not taking the risk of development where the consequences of the inevitable are so great and the technology to respond does not exist.”- Greg Scott

Think about the future….

“Please keep in mind the long term values of the Arctic Refuge as a place that future generations can see, touch, smell, hear, and just know it exists as it has been for eons.  We do not have the right to compromise this ecosystem’s integrity.  It will be worth more each year, decade, and century as other wilderness areas and ecosystems are compromise by our civilization.  Keep this one place as it was created.”- Martha Siebe

“Our grandchildren deserve to know this place exists, this place is valued, and that this place will remain intact, unspoiled, and untrammeled.” – Betty Siegel, Homer, AK

Inspire idealism in the Refuge Managers….

The Fish and Wildlife Service, its Refuge Managers and hierarchy have inherited this legacy of the American people.  It is in your hands to do all within your power to continue your leadership and advocacy to preserve its wild character.”- Stewart Brandborg, PhD. 

“I urge you, in your roles as managers and stewards of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to do the same.  Please step forward and help encircle the Arctic Refuge- in its entirety- as a vast and unique place, located at the top of the world, generously protected in perpetuity, for itself and for generations of humanity to come.”- Carolyn Kremers

Stick to the basics…

“My visit to ANWR was, without a doubt, the greatest experience of my life (I will be 76 years old in ten more days).  It is my greatest wish that the ANWR be protected, and left “as is” for others to enjoy, and for the wildlife using it to continue to be able to do so.” – Gerald R. Brookman

“Keep it wild, my friends.  All this talk of oil drilling is just a distraction from what the land is.  Keep it wild.”