Agencies Collaborate to Manage Drilling on Public Lands. In a unusual bid to improve energy security while safeguarding air quality, three federal agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding to streamline the process of mitigating the environmental impact of oil and gas drilling on public lands.  The Environmental Protection Agency along with the Agriculture and Interior departments committee on June 24to "a clearly defined efficient approach to compliance" with the National Environmental Policy Act to balance air quality, humans and the environment with national energy needs. Government Executive 

Economy and Crime Trump Harper's Plans for Military and Arctic, poll finds. Stephen Harper should think more about cementing a Canadian economic union and fighting crime and less about the military and the Arctic, according to a poll that ranks voter attitudes toward the government's agenda. Nanos Research and the Institute for Research on Public Policy asked Canadians which they considered the most important of five issues that are listed on the Prime Minister's website as major priorities for the new majority government. Thirty three per cent of those surveyed identified "cracking down on gun, gang and drug crime" as the issue that mattered most to them. The Globe and Mail

Russia to Clear Arctic of Waste. Russia's RosHydroMet meteorological service will clear the Arctic of industrial waste which amassed in the region for decades, the agency's head Alexander Frolov said. Frolov made this announcement as he addressed a meeting of environmental monitoring officials in Arkhangelsk in the north of Russia. The Voice of Russia

A New Reason for Rapid Melting Arctic Sea Ice? Arctic researchers have discovered a clue as to why sea ice in the North is melting so much faster than anyone thought it would. Scientists have long puzzled over why Arctic sea ice is retreating at up to three times the rate that climate models say it should. In an effort to answer that question, a group of U.K-based explorers walked more than 500 kilometers of sea ice in the High Arctic, taking temperature readings of the ocean below them. Alaska Dispatch

NOAA Climate Report: Array of Indicators Demonstrate Global Warming. Yesterday, NOAA released its annual "2010 State of the Climate report, describing trends in more than 40 climate variables. In a briefing to the press, NOAA said the report provides a "consistent and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the oceans" that the world continues to warm. Washington Post

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.

Tribal Energy Development at the Federal Level, July 14-15, 2011. Law Seminars International will host a seminar for attorneys, tribes, industry executives, and government officials to discuss energy development on tribal lands.

13th Arctic Ungulates Conference (AUC), August 22-26, 2011. The theme of the conference will be "Challenges of Managing Northern Ungulates." The theme addresses the difficulties of managing ungulate populations that are faced with the unpredictable effects of climate change and an ever-increasing human presence on the land. The conference will also focus on the challenges associated with developing recovery actions for declining caribou and reindeer populations that are an integral part of Aboriginal cultures and ways of life.

9th International Symposium on Permafrost Engineering, September 3-7, 2011. The Melnikov Permafrost Institute (Yakutsk, Russia), the Institute of Northern Mining (Yakutsk, Russia), the Cold and Arid Regions Engineering and Environmental Research Institute (Lanzhou, China), and the Heilongjiang Institute of Cold Region  Engineering (Harbin, China) will host the Ninth International Symposium on  Permafrost Engineering to be held in Mirny, Yakutia. The aim of the Symposium is to provide a forum for discussion of permafrost engineering issues, as well as for exchange of practical experience in construction and maintenance of engineering structures on frozen ground. For additional information, please contact Lilia Prokopieva. 

4th International Sea Duck Conference, September 12-16, 2011. The Sea Duck Joint Venture has helped sponsor a North American Sea Duck Conference once every three years since 2002. These conferences provide opportunities for researchers and managers to share information and research results, conduct workshops on specific issues, and to hold related meetings. The 4th conference will officially be an international conference and will be held in Seward, Alaska, 12-16 September, 2011, with participants from the U.S., Canada, Russia and Europe, focusing on sea ducks in the North and the Arctic. It will be held at the Windsong Lodge, with three days of presentations and workshops, and there will be a chartered boat trip the last day into the Kenai Fjords to watch sea ducks. Registration is available on the website for the conference and the excursion.

Lowell Wakefield International Fisheries Symposium, September 14-17, 2011.The 27th Lowell Wakefield International Fisheries Symposium, entitled "Fishing People of the North: Cultures, Economies, and Management Responding to Change," will be held in Anchorage, Alaska. This international symposium will provide a forum for scholars, fishery managers, fishing families, and others to explore the human dimensions of fishery systems and growing need to include social science research in policy processes. The conference is part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Grant program.    

Advanced Workshop on Oil Spills In Sea Ice: Past, Present and Future 

September 20-23, 2011. A technical workshop, organized by Dr. Peter Wadhams, on the physical problems associated with oil spills and blowouts in sea ice will be held at the Istituto Geografico Polare "Silvio Zavatti," Fermo, Italy. Scientists, engineers and policy makers are invited to address the questions of how oil is emitted from a blowout or spill, how the oil and gas are incorporated in the under-ice surface, how the oil layer evolves, how the oil is transported by the ice, and how and where eventual release occurs. The aim is to incorporate the experience of those scientists who worked in this field in the 1970s-1990s, when large-scale field experiments involving oil release were possible, and to relate this to the needs of present researchers who are seeking solutions to the problem of a sustainable Arctic oil spill management system. Notably, the workshop will be attended by the oil spill work package of the EU ACCESS project (Arctic Climate Change and its Effect on Economic Systems). Registration forms are available here. 

Murmansk Arctic Forum, October 1-2, 2011.  Hosted by the Russian Geographic Society, the forum will host discussion on Arctic navigation, development of the Northern Sea Route, railway extensions, and construction of a deep-water port in Arkhangelsk.  The official website is in Russian.