Celia Hunter
Celia Hunter exemplified living lightly in her daily life, inspiring the importance of preserving our priceless wilderness and conserving our irreplaceable natural resources. Her remarkable legacy radiates in the wilderness she loved so deeply, the lives of the people she inspired, and the legislation she relentlessly pursued in order to protect the land she adored (Miller).
Born on January 13, 1919, in Arlington, Washington, Hunter grew up in a logging community during the Depression. Her Quaker heritage instilled the confidence to follow her dreams, whether on the conventional path for women or not (Wikipedia, 2007).
Fifty dollars a month took Hunter past Everett Airport every day after high school on her way to work as a clerk for Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. An admirer of Amelia Earhart, Hunter decided to learn to fly herself. She was immediately addicted. Following her first flight, a week after her 21st birthday, she gushed to longtime friend Debbie Miller, "The viewpoint from on high is so different, and so much more comprehensive... just that whole feeling of being aloft. It gives you a feeling that birds must have. In fact, I think if I wanted to be reincarnated, I'd like to be a bird of some sort" (p. 5).
The sky in her eyes, Hunter quit clerking and joined the Women's Air Force Service Pilot (WASP) program, ferrying several different models of aircraft across the country during World War II. But she dreamed of one day flying to Alaska to see the vast wilderness other pilots spoke of. Finally, in December 1946, she and a pilot friend, Ginny Hill, were hired to fly a couple of Stinson airplanes from Seattle to Fairbanks. Various weather delays plagued the nearly month-long trip. They arrived at Weeks Field in a blizzard. The pair adored Alaska so much they stayed, ferrying summer visitors this time to a travel lodge in Kotzebue for a Fairbanks travel agency (Miller). Dissuaded by plummeting temperatures the adventuresome duo left to study in Stockholm, Sweden. But the freedom and challenge of the Alaskan wilderness had infected them both. They were anxious to return (Summer, 2004).
In 1952, Hunter and Ginny Hill–now Ginny Wood, thanks to Denali park ranger Morton "Woody" Wood–staked out Camp Denali on public lands north of Mount McKinley in the Kantishna mining district near Wonder Lake. They designed the camp as an experience of nature without modern conveniences like television.
They sold the camp in 1975, but to this day, the sleeping cabins at Camp Denali do not have electricity or running water. Instead, there are wood stoves, propane lights, and a sensational view of Mount McKinney. The camp also offers educational programs about nature and the environment administered by naturalists, authors, and scientists, with stockpiles of plant and animal collections in the library and meeting hall (Summer, 2004).
In 1960, Hunter and Wood founded Alaska's first statewide environmental organization, the Alaskan Conservation Society (ACS). This small group labored to establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and protect the unspoiled lands of Alaska. The ACS quickly found itself in two heated battles: Project Chariot and the Rampart Dam Project (Miller).
Project Chariot's proposal involved using a nuclear bomb to blast a harbor out of the northwest Pacific coast, only 30 miles south of Point Hope. Members of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) traveled to Alaska and convinced the Alaskan delegation and the Anchorage and Fairbanks Chambers of Commerce of the monetary potential of atomic power. But not everyone was so quick to jump on board.
The March 1961 ACS bulletin investigated the broader implications of Project Chariot, featuring an article by Hunter. It was widely distributed throughout Washington, D.C. and reprinted by other organizations like the Sierra Club. This networking brought the issue to a national level and attracted the attention of a puzzled Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall–Why had Project Chariot not gone through him? A connection developed between the ACS and the Department of the Interior, effectively undermining the AEC (Wikipedia, 2007).
In response to the proposed devastation, Hunter enlightened:
"This is how close the US and Alaska came to having their own Chernobyl catastrophe and the perpetrators of the plot were government employees of the AEC and the Lawrence Radiation Lab - people so intent on their own narrow goals that they would willingly have sacrificed everything within northern Alaska to achieve them (Wikipedia, 2007).
Rampart Dam was proposed to be built on the Yukon River at a location known as The Ramparts. It would have created a lake 300 miles long. Hunter, Wood, and others involved with the ACS labored vigorously to expose the irreparable environmental deficiencies of the proposal. The lake would have affected climates and ecosystems as far away as the Yukon Territories in Canada and submerged several small villages and cabins in the region, destroyed millions of acres of thriving waterfowl and wildlife habitat, and relocated innumerous mammal populations. Debates held in Fairbanks were largely attended by the public. Hunter's homework successfully illuminated the insurmountable problems with the proposal (Wikipedia, 2007).
In the late 1970s, Hunter served as Executive Director for The Wilderness Society. For over 20 years, the fearless and outspoken Hunter fastidiously studied numerous diverse issues and wrote eloquent and convincing columns for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Miller). She helped found the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF) in 1980 to bring more resources to the Alaskan conservation movement and continue the statewide networking that started with the ACS. Hunter served on the ACF board of trustees for over 18 years (Wikipedia, 2007).
Hunter and Wood also helped create and pass the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) (Miller). ANILCA protected over 100 million acres of federal lands in Alaska, doubling the size of the United States' national park and refuge systems and tripling the quantity of land designated as wilderness. It designated many of the largest wilderness areas managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and expanded the national park system in the state by over 43 million acres, creating ten new parks while increasing the acreage of three already existent (National Parks Conservation Association, 2007).
Hunter's contributions have been vital to the wilderness movement. She received several prestigious awards, including the Sierra Club's highest honor, the John Muir Award, in 1991 for a lifetime of devoted conservation work and an illustrious record of environmental achievements. In 1998, The Wilderness Society presented her with its highest honor, the Robert Marshall Award, for her conservation efforts and promotion of an American land ethic. Hunter and Wood were both given the Alaska Conservation Foundation's first ever Lifetime Achievement Award. The ACF also created educational endowment funds named for Celia M. Hunter (Wikipedia, 2007).
On December 1, 2001, Hunter passed away peacefully in her log cabin in Fairbanks at the age of 82. Absolutely dedicated to wilderness preservation to the very end, she wrote messages to senators in Washington, D.C. the night before she died, persuading them to vote against proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Miller). In her final radio interview, just two weeks prior to her death, she gave advice for the future:
"I think what I'd like to leave with people your age is the idea that change is possible, but you're going to have to put your energy into it… I'm past eighty and I'm not going to be the mover and shaker of this, but people like you are. And you're going to have to bite the bullet and decide what kind of world you want to live in. (p. 3)
References
Miller, D. (n/d). "The Wilderness Society: Profile of Celia Hunter."
National Parks Conservation Association. (March 4, 2007). "Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act."
Summer, S. (2004). Women Pilots of Alaska: 36 Interviews and Profiles. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Wikipedia. Celia M. Hunter.