NEWS RELEASE
USDA Forest Service
Alaska Region
Ray Massey W 907.586.7876
rmassey@xxxxxxxxx C 907.209.2094
November 18, 2010
Alaska Ice Field Designated to Honor Senator Ted Stevens
Juneau, Alaska– At a formal ceremony today in Anchorage, Alaska, more than 8,000 square miles was officially designated the Ted Stevens Icefield to honor the State’s former senator who died in an August plane crash. Nearly half of the ice field falls within the Chugach National Forest.
The ceremony celebrated the naming of the Ted Stevens Icefield and a mountain peak in the Denali National Park as Mt. Stevens. Mrs. Catherine Stevens, the senator’s widow, and his daughter Lily Stevens Becker, attended the ceremony along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and his wife, and representatives of the Forest Service and Park Service in Alaska. The ceremony was held at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage.
Deputy Regional Forester Ruth Monahan represented the Forest Service and presented a framed photo of the ice field area and unveiled an interpretive sign that will be placed in the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center on the Chugach National Forest.
Senator Stevens was an avid outdoorsman who helped Alaska grow from a frontier territory to statehood. The newly-designated ice field, which comprises 8,340 square miles in and adjoining the northern area of the Chugach National Forest, lies less than 30 miles east of Anchorage. It is home to the Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Nelchina, Tazlina, Valdez, and Shoup glaciers.
Senator Stevens devoted much of his legislative career promoting the safe development of extracting the vast natural resources of Alaska. He also worked to safeguard the Alaskan way of life and cultural uses of the lands through a number of legislative actions. The most notable is the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971.
Stevens was a strong supporter of the recreation and tourism industries in Alaska, and supported numerous projects aimed at conservation education and cultural interpretation across the state. He provided unwavering support of the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center and later provided funding to build a classroom addition to the center to help the Forest Service provide more conservation education programs for children and adult groups.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced the legislation and Rep. Don Young introduced a companion bill in the House. The bill also designates Alaska’s third highest unnamed peak in the Alaska Range as Mount Stevens.
-30-
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/ Follow us on Twitter at: AKForest Service
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To receive official Forest Service information by e-mail, please subscribe by visiting http://www.fs.fed.us/news/subscription/
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, please visit http://www.fs.fed.us/news/subscription
If you wish to make changes to an existing account, please visit http://www.fs.fed.us/news/changes.shtml
