The U.S. Supreme Court recently whittled punitive damage awards to fishermen and other Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) litigants. Despite the shortfall, Kodiak has benefited in many ways from settlement money.

Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping Company agreed to settle all federal and state civil claims in 1991, and Alaska received $900 million in civil and $50 million in criminal penalties. A significant portion of this money was spent to acquire Kodiak lands and to fund local projects.

The $19.4 million Kodiak Fisheries Research Center, completed in 1998, was funded by money from the criminal penalty funds.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council was formed in 1994 to oversee restoration and research projects to be funded through the state’s $900 million settlement money.

Through trustee council stewardship, hundreds of research, monitoring and restoration projects were conducted. Some of the Kodiak research projects include Akalura, Red Lake and Little Waterfall Creek salmon restoration, Kodiak ShoreZone mapping, Barren Islands seabird studies, the Kodiak Waste Management Plan and the Kodiak Archipelago Youth Area Watch program.

To protect cultural resources affected by the spill, the Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository received $1.5 in start-up money in 1993.

The most significant impact EVOS money has had on Kodiak is habitat restoration/protection funding.

In 1989, Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge faced an uncertain future. Approximately one-third of refuge lands had been transferred to Native corporations as a result of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Much of this land was critical bear habitat, and potential commercial development loomed as a matter of grave concern to refuge staff.

The trustee council undertook land acquisitions to protect habitat valuable to species affected by the spill, and some of the most important acquisitions were lands within the Kodiak Archipelago.

Afognak Island State Park was created in 1994, after the council purchased 41,549 acres in the Seal Bay/Tonki Cape area at a cost of almost $40 million. In 1998, Afognak Joint Venture transferred approximately 41,376 acres of land and easements on an additional 400 acres on northern Afognak Island for almost $74 million. This was the highest-ranked habitat in the spill region and the most costly.

The purchase of 26,958 acres on Shuyak Island for $42 million in 1997 quadrupled the size of Shuyak State Park.

Old Harbor, Koniag and Akhiok-Kaguyak Native village corporations sold approximately 204,000 acres of lands that were returned to the Kodiak National Wildlife refuge. The council contributed $67 million of the $87 total cost.

Additionally, Karluk and Sturgeon rivers were given temporary protection through a nondevelopment easement that cost almost $32 million. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has an option to extend the easement on the nearly 57,000 acres of prime brown bear habitat for 10 additional years when it expires in 2011.

The trustee council also purchased smaller land parcels, primarily inholdings within Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Nearly 6,000 acres were purchased at a cost of more than $16 million. Many of the small parcel acquisitions were pursued with the assistance of the Kodiak Brown Bear Trust and a consortium of private sector donations through the Nature Fund and other environmental organizations.

As a result of land acquisitions by the trustee council, today Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge faces a brighter and more certain future.

Though the damage wrought by the Exxon Valdez oil spill will forever remain etched in human memory, ironically, the Kodiak ecosystem benefited from the disaster.