ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE REVISED COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATION PLAN, WILDERNESS REVIEW, WILD AND SCENIC RIVER REVIEW, ALASKA. [Part 8 of 25]
Dates
Year
2011
Citation
2011, ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE REVISED COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATION PLAN, WILDERNESS REVIEW, WILD AND SCENIC RIVER REVIEW, ALASKA. [Part 8 of 25]: v. 8.
Summary
PURPOSE: The review and revision of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic NWR) in northeastern Alaska is proposed. Originally established in 1960 as Arctic National Wildlife Range, Arctic NWR encompasses 19.3 million acres of land and water, including eight million acres of designated wilderness and three wild and scenic rivers (Ivishak, Sheenjek, and Wind rivers). At least 48 species of mammals are present at Arctic NWR, including several high-profile and special-status species: polar and grizzly bears, wolf, wolverine, Dalls sheep, moose, muskox, beluga whale, and two free-roaming caribou herds. At least 42 species of fish inhabit Refuge waters and more than 170 species of birds [...]
Summary
PURPOSE: The review and revision of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic NWR) in northeastern Alaska is proposed. Originally established in 1960 as Arctic National Wildlife Range, Arctic NWR encompasses 19.3 million acres of land and water, including eight million acres of designated wilderness and three wild and scenic rivers (Ivishak, Sheenjek, and Wind rivers). At least 48 species of mammals are present at Arctic NWR, including several high-profile and special-status species: polar and grizzly bears, wolf, wolverine, Dalls sheep, moose, muskox, beluga whale, and two free-roaming caribou herds. At least 42 species of fish inhabit Refuge waters and more than 170 species of birds depend upon the Arctic NWR for at least some portion of their lifecycles. About 160 named rivers and streams, and several hundred lesser waterways, flow through the Refuge. The Kongakut River, on the north side of the Brooks Range, offers spectacular views from the mountains to the coastal plain; contains a variety of unique geologic features; receives nearly one-quarter of the documented visitors to the Arctic NWR; and its entire extent is in designated wilderness. Visitation patterns are threatening the wilderness experience on the Kongakut River. Significant issues addressed in the CCP review relate to the recommendation of wilderness study areas (WSAs) for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, the recommendation of additional rivers for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River System (NWSRS), and the management of Kongakut River visitor use. Six alternatives are evaluated in this draft EIS. Alternative A is the No Action Alternative and would maintain the management policies and guidelines identified in the 1988 CCP, except where they conflict with more recent legislation, regulations, or national policies. All six alternatives would maintain three land management categories: minimal, wilderness, and wild river. For the Kongakut River, group size limits would exist for commercially guided groups (7 hikers, 10 floaters). There would be no group size limits for non-guided visitors, but staff would continue to recommend that non-guided visitors limit their groups to the same size as commercial groups. Guides would be limited to one group on a river at a time, and commercial service providers would have special use permits. In the Kongakut valley, air-taxi special use permits would continue to be required to limit landings to non-vegetated surfaces only. Under Alternative B, the 5.4-million-acre Brooks Range WSA would be recommended for wilderness designation and the Hulahula, Kongakut, and Marsh Fork Canning rivers would be recommended for inclusion in the NWSRS as wild rivers. Existing management tools would be used to maintain values for the Atigun River. Under Alternative C, the 1.4-million-acre Coastal Plain WSA would be recommended for wilderness designation and an 11-mile segment of the Atigun River would be recommended for inclusion in the NWSRS as a wild river. Under Alternative D, the Brooks Range and the 4.4-million-acre Porcupine Plateau WSA would be recommended for wilderness designation and the Atigun, Hulahula, Kongakut, and Marsh Fork Canning rivers would be recommended for inclusion in the NWSRS. Under Alternative E, the Brooks Range, Porcupine Plateau, and Coastal Plain would be recommended for wilderness designation and the Atigun, Hulahula, Kongakut, and Marsh Fork Canning rivers would be recommended for inclusion in the NWSRS. Under Alternative F, no new areas would be recommended for wilderness designation and no new rivers would be recommended for wild river designation. POSITIVE IMPACTS: A revised CCP would update management direction related to national and regional policies and guidelines, describe and protect the resources and special values of Arctic NWR, and incorporate new scientific information on resources. Wilderness designation would provide greater certainty of long-term protection for wildlife and habitats, increase the value of WSAs for ecological research and monitoring, and serve to perpetuate subsistence resources. Enhanced management of visitor use in the Kongakut River area would decrease site-specific impacts. NEGATIVE IMPACTS: Visitors have the potential to damage soils and permafrost by trampling, particularly at campsites and access points such as landing areas. Enhanced management of visitor use in the Kongakut River area would increase administrative expense and could limit the number of service providers, including air-taxis. All activities, including commercial services, biological and cultural research and monitoring, and access, would have more restrictions in newly designated wilderness. If approved by Congress, wilderness designation of the Coastal Plain WSA could have a major, long-term, regional or greater, and negative effect on economic development by restricting potential for oil and gas exploration, leasing, and development. LEGAL MANDATES: Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-487), National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-57), and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (16 U.S.C. 1271 et seq.).
