By Rick Kenyon

Following the teleconference on April 11, National Park Service (NPS) rangers who had attended the meeting posted Public Notices around town. The notices read, in part, “Please be on notice that any use of motor¬ized equipment on McCarthy Creek drainage, except on the Marvelous Millsite and Spokane Placer property is prohibited. The only exception is the use of snowmachine when adequate snow cover exists. The route created by the bulldozer is not a park road or designated route. Consequently the use of motor¬ized vehicles including the bulldozer and any trailers pulled by the bulldozer on that route, or other park lands, is prohibited and illegal unless authorized by NPS permit.”

Although I had attended the meeting, the first word of the notices came from a neighbor who said that the notices had been posted but were now gone. The rangers had given no hint of the upcoming action.

Early the next week, Chief Ranger Hunter Sharp called the McCarthy Lodge and set up a meeting with interested locals for Friday, April 18.

Wrangell-St. Elias Super¬in¬tendent Candelaria was reported¬ly called back from a trip to California for the meeting and was accompanied by Ranger Sharp and Ranger Marshall Neeck. They were met in McCarthy by the Pilgrim Family, who were standing quietly across the street from the Lodge, and were carrying protest signs.

Candelaria was asked to read the two notices that had been posted. This was followed by a question: “What is the definition of a legal road? Why would you say now that it [McCarthy-Green Butte route] is not a legal access, [since it has] been access since the early part of the century.”

Candelaria: “Access, as access is in the park here, can be in a number of different formats. You can walk, take a snow¬machine as we said when there’s adequate snow cover, you can use an ATV in the pursuits of subsistence activities. You can use a horse, you can use a number of different methods of access. You can use an aircraft. Park folks do use aircraft, I know. The idea of a road being on the park or even a trail being improved on park lands, on public lands, without permit is something that is not permitted in regulation. It’s a process, for rights-of-way development… it’s a process for establishing access to an inholding, a process for accessing your property or for people to access their properties.

It’s not a case of we’re saying you can’t go. The process has to be followed, though.”

Although people vented frustration with the park service over other issues, the primary topic was the posting of the road closure notices. Most viewed the notices as being illegal. The following was typical of the exchange during the two and a half hour meeting:

Local: “Gary, I think part of the problem we have here…these two notices imply that the Pilgrim family created this route in recent day. Was that your understanding or intention?”

Gary Candelaria (GC): “They created the improved bladed road in the fall.”

Local: “This road was used and supported by the Territory before you were born.”

GC: “Again I come back to the point that I understand that’s your position, but I believe your position is wrong.”

At various times Candelaria said the route was created last fall, was created in the distant past, was never adjudicated and was never “asserted” by the state of Alaska.