PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE: If laws are inevitable, they may as well

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PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE: If laws are inevitable, they may as well

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Off-road enthusiasts rally for new regulations
PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE: If laws are inevitable, they may as well protect motor-vehicle use.

By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News

Published: August 10th, 2005
Last Modified: August 10th, 2005 at 06:23 AM


PALMER -- This was just the kind of thing the Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance was created for: More than 100 people clustered around tables in the Palmer Depot on July 20, writing letters to their local politicians in support of a bill that could earmark land around the Knik River for off-road vehicles.


Sen. Charlie Huggins, a Wasilla Republican who sponsored the Senate version of a bill introduced in the House by lawmaker Bill Stoltze, gave an impassioned speech about keeping what he called the high ground in the war over access issues. Outdoor Alliance president Todd Clark talked about power in numbers and how everyone's support was needed to make a difference.

If the scene resembled a political rally, that's because, in a way, it was.

ATV riders and other off-road enthusiasts are on the campaign trail this season, hoping to lock up what they view as a right to ride alongside cyclists and hikers on local trails. It's a debate that extends past the Valley onto millions of acres of federal lands and has the makings of a classic tug of war over who gets to play where.

A public meeting on Huggins' and Stoltze's bills is scheduled for Aug. 18 in the Butte. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service are working on two plans that will outline rules for motorized access on federal land along two Alaska rivers, the pipeline corridor and in the Denali backcountry.

Rod Arno, executive director of the Alaska Outdoor Council, which co-hosted the July meeting, said all three issues loom large in the discussion of motorized access versus protecting trails.

The bills proposed by Huggins and Stoltze would create a Knik River Public Use Area, writing regulations for a region that includes Jim Creek and Swan Lake and extends south toward Chugach State Park.

Most importantly for the Outdoor Council and the Access Alliance, the law would also designate the region as an "off-road motorized vehicle recreation area." Off-roaders see this as a kind of pre-emptive strike; if regulations are inevitable, then they might as well be written to protect, rather than carve away, motor-vehicle use.

The Access Alliance formed late last year as an umbrella organization to rally snowmachiner, boater and other motorized outdoor groups to fight efforts to stop or limit motorized access around the state, said Todd Clark, Alliance president.

"We're sort of putting our foot down," he said.

The Alliance regards an organization called the Knik River Watershed Group as one of the coalitions trying to limit motorized access.

The watershed group came together around the same time as the Alliance. It isn't pushing for bans on motor vehicles on trails altogether, chairwoman Cecily Fritz said, but it does support more limits.

"The status quo, which is go anywhere I want, anyhow I want, any time I want, probably isn't going to work," she said.

Though the watershed group initially approached Stoltze, a Chugiak Republican, about creating some kind of public use area in the Knik River region, it doesn't support the bill he introduced. Fritz said the legislation moves too quickly and doesn't allow for a comprehensive planning process.

The Alaska Outdoor Council has a political action committee that interviews and endorses candidates that support its vision.

While Stoltze is listed by the influential, pro-ATV council as an "at-large" board member, he says he wants to strike a balance between the needs of the motorized and nonmotorized users.

"When we're looking at good management for a jewel of an area, I hate to see the sides being drawn," he said.

The Bureau of Land Management, meantime, expects to release what is called the East Alaska Resource Management Plan as early as December. For trail users, the plan could draw up important changes on about 1.6 million acres of federal land. Most of that land includes the Bering Glacier, but it also covers parts of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline utility corridor and the Gulkana and Delta rivers.

There are no restrictions on driving off-road vehicles on that property, but under the option BLM prefers, some trails could become off-limits to ATVs, dirt bikes and other vehicles.

The management plan also calls for enforcing state regulations on millions of additional acres that Alaska selected through the statehood act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

BLM Planner Tammy Larzelere said the agency isn't necessarily out to limit access to trails, but to give people a few nonmotorized options.

"Currently almost every single trail in our district is a motorized trail," she said.

She added that the plan won't be taking trails that are traditionally used by off-road vehicles and suddenly making them nonmotorized.

The third issue Arno and the Outdoor Council are keeping an eye on is the National Park Service's Denali Backcountry Management Plan, which would shape rules for the park over the next 10 to 15 years.

That plan may be released this fall, said Sue Deyoe, community organizer for a group called the Denali Citizens Council, a conservation advocacy group for the park. The Park Service's preferred alternative could lead to more motorized use in the winter, she said


Contact reporter Kyle Hopkins at khopkins@adn.com or call 352-6710.

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