[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2371]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO CELIA HUNTER

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                            HON. JAY INSLEE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 20, 2001

  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a great 
conservationist, Celia Hunter, who died December 1 at the age of 82. We 
need to acknowledge heroes of the conservation community like Celia so 
that future generations may see and know what made this country the 
great nation that it is today, what shaped us as a freedom-loving 
people, and what made us kind and considerate stewards of the land.
  Though she was born and raised in Arlington, Washington, Celia's 
greatest contributions came in protecting our last frontier, Alaska. 
Our national parks, our wildlife refuges, and our national forests in 
Alaska have come to be heirlooms that we may pass on to our children 
and their children in large part because of Celia Hunter.
  Celia was a member of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, flying 
fighter planes from factories where they were built to airfields and 
ports for use in World War II. She and lifelong friend Ginny Wood then 
had the opportunity to fly surplus planes to Alaska. They landed in 
Fairbanks on January 1, 1947 with temperatures at minus 50 degrees and 
never looked back.
  Celia, Ginny Wood, and Ginny's husband Woody built Denali Camp in 
1951 on the edge of then-Mt. McKinley National Park. Their vision for 
an ecologically friendly, conservation-education, backcountry camp 
survives today under the management of Wally and Geri Cole, who 
purchased the tourism accommodation from Celia and Ginny in 1975. In 
1960, Celia and Ginny, with a few others in Fairbanks, founded the 
Alaska Conservation Society, the first statewide conservation 
organization run entirely by volunteers. The Alaska Conservation 
Society was the precursor to today's three regional organizations, the 
Northern Alaska Environmental Center, the Southeast Alaska Conservation 
Council, and the Alaska Center for the Environment, as well as the 
Alaska Conservation Foundation, another organization Celia helped to 
establish and on whose board she served for two decades. In the latter 
part of the 1970s, Celia served as executive director of the Wilderness 
Society, and in 1991 the Sierra Club awarded Celia its highest 
achievement award, the John Muir Award.
  She also fought, literally until her death, to preserve the Arctic 
National Wildlife Refuge. I had the opportunity to visit this beautiful 
land in July, and while there I witnessed an explosion taking place on 
the coastal plane of the Arctic--an explosion of life. In fifty years 
of exploring the back country of America, from Yellowstone to the 
Appalachian Trail, I have never seen such activity--birds singing, 
caribou calving, and tundra flowers blooming. It was hard to take a 
step in the soggy, tussock-filled tundra without scaring up a well-
camouflaged ptarmigan, stepping on some happy Mountain Aven blossom, or 
spying a bunch of caribou heading for their traditional calving 
grounds. The Arctic Refuge represents the largest intact ecosystem in 
America, a unique expanse where industrialization has not broken one 
link in the chain of life.
  Celia Hunter was an inspiration to a generation of wilderness 
enthusiasts and others who wished to make the world a better place. In 
a 1986 interview she said, ``Each one of us has a responsibility to 
take care of the part of the world we live in.'' Celia wanted to live 
in a world where there were wild places, peace and quiet, and 
compassion for her fellow man and woman. In this vision, she led by 
example, and she will be sorely missed, but never forgotten by those 
who worked with her, lived near her, and met her.

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