News Article

Below you will find an article from KTUU.com on March 23, 2005.

Bill would open Dalton Highway to off-road activities
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - by Bill McAllister

Juneau, Alaska - A bill at the capital would allow off-road vehicles on either side of a 400-mile stretch of the Dalton Highway , which ends at Prudhoe Bay .

The bill's sponsor says it's a matter of sharing the state resources fairly.

 

But one local resident of the remote area is so opposed to the idea that he showed up in Juneau to fight it -- despite recent injuries in a plane crash.

 

Thor Stacey of Wiseman said it was important to show up in person to fight a bill that would open areas near the Dalton Highway to snowmachines and all-terrain vehicles. That plan didn't change even after Stacey crashed an ultralight craft, breaking two ribs and his pelvis.

 

The 26-year-old trapper, miner and hunting guide still managed to shuffle around the capital with a wa lk er this week, trying to generate opposition to the off-road bill.

 

“An all-terrain vehicle leaves a track that, after it's gone for years and years and years, the residual impact of it is still there. And it continues to grow and intensify,” Stacey said. “As the tundra melts, it creates a bog, and you can't go there, so you have to drive around to the right or left of that place.”

 

The bill sponsor, Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, said he's trying to provide reasonable access for the entire Alaska public.

 

“As the Dalton Highway has continued to become a more public-use highway, people have become aware that there are some parts of that highway that could be used for recreational activities, and could be done so safely and done so in a manner that has no ecological degradation,” Sen. Seekins said.

 

The bill repeals the current ban on off-road vehicles for five miles on either side of the Dalton . But the ban does not go into effect for a year, which Seekins says gives state and federal land managers plenty of time to come up with land-use plans that balance competing interests.

 

“Why not? Why not use this land? It's public land. Should it be off-limits to the people who own the land?” he asks.

 

Stacey said local residents don't mind sharing and welcome thousands of caribou hunters already.

 

“But when you factor ATVs and increased access into the plan, you're going to throw this renewable resource into an unsustainable condition,” he said. “And by constitutional mandate, we have to manage for sustained yield.”

 

Stacey claims he's garnering support in the Legislature. Seekins said he likes the chances for his bill. Time will tell which of them is off the road, politically.

 

The Dalton Highway bill is scheduled for a second hearing in the Senate Resources Committee next week.