LETTERS TO EDITOR

fights them on an organized front. I have been told that as of right now I do not have access to my property on Copper Lake and I need to play their game. I’ve been over 40 years building up this property and had a good start until the NPS showed up and over the years have watched the NPS harass people so that they don’t come back. I don’t have the deep pockets or another 50 years to protect my rights.

I don’t know what the answer is. Dick Shultz and Dave Stancliff have done an awesome job trying to protect our rights but we need more help. If you want to give the next generation a chance to see some of the sights and experience some of the outdoor recreation that we have you need to get involved now.

Any one that has any ideas I would sure appreciate them.

Thank You

Doug/Judy Frederick

Sportsman’s Paradise Lodge

Good Morning,

I wanted to pass along some info about the Park Service that may not be known by the Pilgrims, and others.

The NPS has a program called Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program. The following is copied from the website.

http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/rtca/index.html

National Park Service Assistance for Community Conservation

The Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, also known as Rivers & Trails or RTCA, works with community groups and local and State governments to conserve rivers, preserve open space, and develop trails and greenways.

Rivers & Trails works in urban, rural, and suburban communities with the goal of helping communities achieve ontheground conservation successes for their projects. Our focus is on helping communities help themselves by providing expertise and experience from around the nation. From urban promenades to trails along abandoned railroad rightsofway to wildlife corridors, our assistance in greenway efforts is wide ranging. Similarly, our assistance in river conservation spans downtown riverfronts to regional water trails to stream restoration.

Rivers & Trails has conservation professionals in communities nationwide. Find our staff near you. And everywhere we work, we stand alongside exceptional partners.

Learn more about: How we assist communities

Another article in the Anchorage Daily News also may be of interest to you folks....It was published on June 8th, called Motorized Alaskans wreaking havoc in Bush, by Craig Medred. It’s an interesting idea that he pitches for building a “Bush Hiway Trail system.”

“This program needn’t be costly, either. Kevin Keeler and others associated with the NPS Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program have spent the past decade developing the technology for building allterrain vehicle trails over and into muskeg. They could show the State Dept. Transportation how to build ‘Bush roads’ for a fraction of the cost of our urban roads.”

“They have been working with plastic matting that allows natural grasses to grow through and around it, creating a firm, longlasting bed for fourwheeler and trackedvehicle traffic with little change to the natural setting.”

My point in sharing this is that the NPS is whining about a problem they already know how to fix! And they have been working on this “fix” for a decade.

I would love to be at this meeting so that I could ask the NPS folks about the probably of them using their own research and development to end the issue of ‘rights of way’ through parks, preserves, refuges, etc.

By allowing inholders to rebuild an obviously previously established rightofway to a private inholding,(include deviations for land and water movement), with the technology available, that they HAVE there should be no issues with environmentalists, or their own regulations.

Park users can use a right-of- way just as anyone, it may be called ‘Green Butte’ or ‘Pilgrim Way’ or even ‘Nebesna Road,’ that does not matter one skinny bit, it is access to a PUBLICLY HELD NATIONAL PARK AND WORLD HERITAGE SITE. Apparently the NPS officials out there have been at altitude for a little too long. If they would stop pointing fingers and making unreasonable demands of compliance of rules that do not realistically apply and STARTED demanding that their own departments follow their mission statements, and actually apply the technology that THEY HAVE ON HAND, their budgets would grow as well as their standing within the communities they serve. And make no mistake the NPS is a Federal Agency, by definition they are here to serve.

They could make lots of people, land owners and park users, very happy by increasing the access to the Park. That would in turn allow more people to use the area with less impact and fewer visitors per trail. That fact alone enhances the “wilderness experience” the park service is so worried that visitors from over populated cities might actually miss out on. They would be spending more time carrying out the Mission Statement of their agency, instead of getting nasty with a lot of red tape and armed rangers. Why waste the money fighting? When you have the solution in hand?

I live in Anchorage. I love McCarthy. It is my intent to live there. I look at potential properties each time I visit. I am also in the State of Alaska’s Interpretive Naturalist Certification Program and a Student Pilot. I own part of a gold mine located on the border of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. I am not a newcomer to the difficulties of working with the NPS or the difficulties of living beyond the end of the road.

When I find that perfect piece of land and buy it, (inside or out of the park boundary) I do not have any desire to argue with anyone over rightsofway. I hope that this information about the NPS innerdepartment doings helps someone to find a common solution to the rightof way issue and access to the Park.

Thank you.

HollyAnne Holm

hollyinalaska@aol.com

Good morning!

It is with interest that I’m reading the story of the problems between the NPS and one of your local families.

Would you please be kind enough to pass along my message of support to the Pilgrim family? While I’m certainly not someone who could possibly be of any use to these folks, but rather am a boring middle aged housewife from the suburbs, I would still like to say to them that I am proud of them for taking a stand. I hope that they will continue to stand up for what they believe, and I hope that this whole thing ends in a way that is good for them. America needs more people like the Pilgrims, whose beliefs and values reflect the best for all of us.

As a taxpayer, I’m alarmed that my government feels that it’s okay for them to use my tax dollars to harass their citizens like this. The mere thought of sending *armed agents* (!) into an area that is known to contain 15 children is absolutely appalling to me!! What can the NPS possibly be thinking? With that many children involved, there should never have been any question that the use of weapontoting officials was totally unthinkable.

I’ve written to the NPS expressing my shock over their methods, and hopefully if there are enough people who do the same, they will reconsider their harassment of this family.

I would be much obliged to you if you would do me the favor of passing along my regards to the Pilgrims. Please tell them that they are in the thoughts and prayers of folks well beyond their immediate area, and that I, for one, am pulling for them and for a safe ending to all of this.

Thank you very much!

Kim

Farmington, MN

Dear Editor,

I just received your May & June issue—great articles. I truly admire all those individuals who participated in the protest drive on the McCarthy-Green Butte Road.

For 14 years I have helped Kantishna miners within Denali National Park. Hopefully, McCarthy won’t go the way of Kantishna. The key to beating the Park Service is to stick together and help each other out. A time proven NPS tactic is to get individuals fighting each other and pick them off one at a time. It is extremely important that no one, under any circumstances, sells any private land to the Park Service. I can’t emphasize this enough—never, never sell land to the govern¬ment. Property rights is all about freedom.

Note: After reading the WorldNetDaily articles I want you to know that it is nothing new or creative when the Park Service tries to make the Pilgrims look dangerous. Over the years I have had many Congressional inquiries generated on my behalf due to Park Service takings. A couple of times the NPS Regional Director stated that they alerted security when I was in the building. That comment infuriated me since it was likely a lie, at the very least there was no reason for security to be alerted.

I have worked for the NPS before. Honest people don’t last, or are put in the background where they can cause no harm. NPS employees will do most anything to protect their jobs. If they don’t, there are plenty of individuals to take their position that will do as they are told. They are rarely held account¬able, that is the reason they can say and do most anything.

Sincerely,

Steve Hicks.

Dear McCarthy Annie,

I have just stumbled upon your various websites, and the story of the ‘Pilgrim’ family. It is hard to keep my composure long enough to write this. You and your community are to be praised to the heavens for your fundamental decency, kindness, and honor. Your community demonstrates the potential of humanity.

I am an (increasingly) observant Jew, a construction estimator, a husband of nearly twentyfive years, and father of four fine children aged 14to22. I have also been involved in the freedom movement since the 1970’s. I cannot recall a more moving story. Not only of those who would be our Kings, but of those who stood against them with integrity and for liberty.

It is clear to me why the ‘Pilgrims’ came to your community. You ‘understand’. So do I.

Gd Bless You All.

Sincerely,

J. Eric Andreasen

Tempe, AZ

I just called and ordered a subscription to your paper before reading your online version. All I can say is Wow! this is the kind of stuff I wish more papers put out.

The story on the Pilgrim family was outstanding, not only because of the wonderful pictures available in your web version, but because Dorothy Adler made me feel her amazement and wonder at their story, and told me exactly what I would have been curious about had I been the one visiting. I smiled all the way through it.

I lived in Baranof Warm Springs, a small bay on the eastern shore of Baranof Island in southeast Alaska. From October to May, I had the place to myself. Summer months brought an influx of seiners, pleasureboaters, and all manner of flyin visitors and hikers to my world of isolation. I resented the boardwalkers who felt no reservation about picking my strawberries, thought it quaint that I did laundry on a washboard (including the multiple towels they had to have when taking a hot bath), and was quite offended to find a photo someone had taken of my laundry hanging out to dry along the boardwalk had found its way into an art gallery one year. At that point, I realized nothing was offlimits and vowed to find a place where my undies could dry in private.

I now live in a small Indian village on Chichagof Island, Hoonah. It has two miles of pavement and I'm starting to feel citified. Oops. Time to start searching again.

I appreciate finding your site on the web; I promise not to act like an outsider if I ever stop by your neck of the woods.

Looking forward to my first issue of WSEN,

Rene' Wolfe

To whom it may concern,

God bless you all for taking a stand. I have book marked your website and will monitor your story ( read about it on World- NetDaily ). The government can't keep their nose out of anyone's business. I live in upstate New York and we are getting hit so hard with taxes (and Hillary Clinton) that we are contemplat¬ing leaving this state for a friendlier environment.

Best of luck to all of you up there, I'm sure your story is being read by tens of thousands around the world.

You should make a push to have Gary Candelaria, WrangellSt. Elias chief ranger Hunter Sharp and ranger Marshall Neeck removed from their jobs. If a petition starts, let me know, I'll sign it.

God bless,

Scott Crist

Rochester, New York