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An airplane is an airplane |
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By Father J. Michael Hornick, J.C.L. |
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Reprinted from Recarpeting ANILCA: Is it the carpet or the carpet layers that need replacing? |
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In the late 1980's Senator Stevens carried on considerable negotiations with Federal managers over several avia¬tion issues. Federal managers refused to recognize helicopters as having been included in ANILCA’s term “airplanes;” and aircraft access was being managed too restively. |
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Regional Director Stieglitz of the USFWS responded to Stevens’ chal¬lenge in a letter claiming their position was moderate and in line with Depart¬ment of the Interior directives. How¬ever, Stieglitz did concede that the USFWS would no longer require per¬mits first before helicopters could |
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re¬spond to medical emergencies or res¬cues within Wildlife Refuges. God for¬bid if you needed a helicopter permit for a rescue or emergency after 5:00 P.M. on a Friday night. |
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In November and December of 1993 the Magazine of the National Park and Conservation Association protested a proposed $600,000 FAA grant to the State of Alaska for “planning airports” in Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias Parks. |
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The NPS and the NPCA insisted that the FAA had no authority to issue such grants and “strongly opposes building state-owned commercial air¬ports in the heart of two of the country’s premier wilderness parks.” |
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Chip Dennerlein, Alaska regional di¬rector of NPCA, complained: “The FAA has taken from the Park Service and given to the State the authority to con¬trol access to these parks.” The NPCA claimed it was the NPS who operated a small airstrip in Kantishna and another in Chisana. In August of 1993, Dennerlein and Alaska Regional NPS Director Moorehead wrote the FAA ask¬ing the grants not be issued because the airstrips were on Park Service land. The FAA responded that Alaska held rights-of-way to both airstrips. |
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The duplicity of the NPS and NPCA becomes a bit more evident if you re¬call the battle of the Kantishna airstrip during the summer of 1990. In June of 1990, State DOT workers took a roadgrader, a loader and dump truck to Kantishna to maintain the road be¬tween the Wonder Lake Ranger Station and Kantishna. While there, they also undertook brush clearing and maintenance of the gravel runway. Brush, last cleared by the State in 1974, was encroaching on the runway. NPS officials summoned a van-load of armed rangers who confronted and threatened the road crew as they worked on the airstrip. Work was temporarily halted until the Governor and the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation intervened, and the innocent maintenance was allowed to proceed. Ironically, DOT officials had notified the NPS of their intended work three weeks in advance. |
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The Chisana airstrip was not the only one at risk in Wrangell-St. Elias. Judy Miller and her family lived in the Wrangells long before the Park Service arrived. While living in McCarthy, she, at first, even obtained employment with the NPS. She suggested that the NPS should tread lightly while getting estab¬lished in the Wrangells. “I suggested the Park personnel should not assume rights to trespass on private property, but was instructed to do so anyway.” Her family became frustrated with the NPS’ continuous creation of restrictive regulations. The family moved further back into the bush. |
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In May of 1995 Mrs. Miller came to Anchorage to testify at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearings hosted by Senator Murkowski. Mrs. Miller’s testimony expressed concern: “There has been an ongoing effort to force this strip from the long existing lease into NPS control. The Park now claims it is theirs but I urge this com¬mittee to further investigate this.” |
