Mead Treadwell, Chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North, along with representatives from the federally-established Denali Commission and the University of Alaska Fairbanks will hold a press briefing to discuss U.S. Arctic policy, programs, and initiatives to be developed and implemented throughout the 2007-2009 International Polar Year on Friday, April 20, at the Hilton Hotel (333 O'Farrell St.) in San Francisco. The briefing will begin at 12 p.m. in the hotel's Executive Boardroom. Treadwell will submit the Commission's Arctic research priorities to U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R - Alaska) today (April 17) during the Commission's 83rd annual meeting held in Washington, D.C.

The report identifies high priority research areas for the United States and highlights two new pursuits: 1) revitalizing the Federal process by which Arctic research is organized and implemented and 2) a new focus on indigenous languages, identities, and cultures. The report also recommends continued research on the following four themes: 1) environmental change in the Arctic and Bering Seas, 2) Arctic human health, 3) civil infrastructure and natural resources assessment, and 4) earth science.

Treadwell will be joined at the press briefing by the co-chair of the federally-mandated Denali Commission, George Cannelos; Dr. Michael Sfraga, director and department chair of the University of Alaska Geography Program; Dr. Virgil (Buck) Sharpton, vice chancellor for research and President's Professor of Remote Sensing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Dr. Bernie Coakley, associate professor of geophysics and co-department chair of geology and geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

A panel discussion and presentation on "The Changing Map of the Arctic: US Policy and Programs and the International Polar Year 2007-2009" will follow at 2 p.m., providing additional detailed information. The program will be convened by Sfraga and Dr. Douglas Richardson, executive director of the Association of American Geographers. The panel session is part of the week-long Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers held at the Hilton Hotel (April 17-21).

The panel discussion will also cover global climate change, U.S. Arctic mapping initiatives throughout the state of Alaska and the Arctic Basin, the implications a shrinking Arctic ice pack will have on international treaties and territorial claims throughout the Circumpolar North (including new territory claims by the United States outside the U.S. 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone), endangered indigenous languages, and sustainable economic development in rural Alaska.

WHO
Mead Treadwell, Chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North and representatives from the Denali Commission and the University of Alaska Fairbanks

WHAT
U.S. Arctic policy, programs, and initiatives to be developed and implemented throughout the 2007-2009 International Polar Year

WHERE
Hilton Hotel Executive Boardroom, 333 O'Farrell St., San Francisco, California

WHEN
Friday, April 20, 12 p.m.-1:40 p.m.