RS2477 Concerns
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:56 am
Following is a call for support from the Alaska Outdoor Council (AOC). This issue is specifically related to the designation of RS2477 access routes and may directly impact us here in the Interior. RS2477 is the designation of routes that guarantees all trail users in Alaska the right to access to and through state lands. If, as being proposed by the Governor, RS2477 access termination is ignored or modified, we will/could lose our ability to use local trails. If this is allowed to happen anywhere in the state it can and will affect us all. Please read Karen's note below and call the Governors office asking him not to change any RS2477 designated routes.
Friends…
You might not fish or recreate at Klutina Lake, but Governor Walker is negotiating away our state’s rights, guaranteed by federal law, to access the Klutina Road from Copper Center all the way to Klutina Lake, plus associated parking areas, and more, under pressure from Ahtna Native Corporation.
Open and free access to this road and many other roads and trails in Alaska is granted based on a federal law from the 1800s. Now Governor Walker is buckling to pressure from Ahtna Native Corporation to revoke that which is already, and has been, our right of access by law. In fact, this road was in place decades before Ahtna selected land on which this road runs, and now Ahtna is trying to leverage the Governor to keep us off of it.
http://mustreadalaska.com/walker-rolls- ... g-grounds/
Read the above article, then please call the Governor’s office.
Fairbanks: 451-2920
Anchorage: 269-7450
MatSu: 761-5690
Then send him a note here: http://aws.state.ak.us/CrmForms/Home/Feedback
RS2477 rights of way were supposed to be granted in perpetuity. Those are our public access routes to lands to hunt, fish, trap, and recreate the Governor is giving away so cavalierly. And once he sets the precedent that an RS2477 road or trail can be bartered off under political pressure from special interests, then it will happen again and again with many of the 600 or so documented roads and trails at risk of being wiped off the map as well.
There can only be a domino effect on other RS2477 roads or trails if access to the Klutina Road is allowed to be compromised. What road or trail will be the next one to go? Which corporation will be next in line to knock at the Governor’s door to ask for a similar gift of exclusion from access by the public? It appears to me the Governor is treating one class of people preferentially instead of all Alaskans equally as mandated in the Alaska Constitution, which he swore to uphold.
Please call the Governor’s office today to express your displeasure with this potentially immense loss of access for outdoor users now and into the future. The Governor needs to uphold the Constitution and cease negotiations with Ahtna now.
Here is more information on RS2477 trails…
http://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/factsht/land_fs/rs2477.pdf
Thanks much for helping to stop this now.
Karen