14 ROUTES: State takes advantage of openness of Bush administration.
By TOM KIZZIA
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: October 5, 2003)
 Nils Tjosevig's Model T negotiates one of the tunnels on the McCarthy Creek road. The Tjosevigs had a home in McCarthy and were caretakers of the Green Butte holdings, which were downstream of the Mother Lode Mine. An unresolved question: Do years of disrepair and creation of a national park affect the state's right to claim this historic road? (Photo courtesy Eleanor Tjosevig Eidemiller ) Click on photo to enlarge |
Until now, the state's claims have mostly been on paper. Old state claims were allowed to stand even after Congress repealed the law in 1976. But resolving them has been expensive, contentious and time-consuming.
Enter Papa Pilgrim on a bulldozer.
In January, the Bush administration moved to pick up the pace by proposing new rules for quickly resolving claims. Four months later, the state of Utah followed with an agreement with Interior Secretary Gale Norton for how to settle some RS 2477 claims across federal land. Utah's document sidestepped the most controversial claims by putting off any discussion of routes in national parks or wilderness areas.
The Murkowski administration has also moved to take advantage of the new openness in Washington, D.C. It proposed an agreement in July that had a few key differences from the Utah agreement.
"Our situation is very different from Utah," said Murkowski aide Jack Phelps. "The kinds of rural transportation systems here are so different."
The state of Alaska suggested 14 routes, generally old mining-days trails, that could be approved as part of a test case. Once approved a trail right of way could be used to build a road or whatever the state chooses. Among the 14 routes is Crow Creek Pass between Girdwood and Eagle River.
Interior has yet to respond to the state's proposed Memorandum of Understanding, said Interior special assistant for Alaska Cam Toohey.
The vast number of 2477 claims terrify environmentalists. They fear a "spaghetti bowl" of roads and powerlines across protected federal lands, based on often-vague memories of historical use. They contend the old law, written before the internal combustion engine was invented, should not supercede modern laws creating national parks. Federal law allows other ways of establishing new roads when they are necessary, environmental groups claim.
The Murkowski administration proposal has been especially controversial. It would make allowances for Alaska's unique history and terrain by permitting claims not only for old mining roads like the one up McCarthy Creek but also for footpaths and sled dog trails. Environmentalists consider that an invitation for far-fetched claims.
And while the Murkowski proposal intentionally avoids routes through national parks, it explicitly describes itself as a pilot project for "other federal lands."f
The new 2477 process has drawn fire in Congress, with the House of Representatives voting to deny funding to any resolution of claims in national conservation units in the coming year. The Senate has yet to vote on the measure.
Even state officials sympathetic to 2477 routes point out, however, that a private citizen like Pilgrim is not allowed to bulldoze a state-claimed right of way without permits -- whether that right of way runs through a national park or the Anchorage Hillside.