Juneau -- Today, the Alaska State Senate went on record in opposition to the National Park Service's (NPS) recently announced closure of two million acres to snowmachine access in Denali National Park and Preserve. SJR 5, sponsored by Senator Rick Halford (R - Chugiak), denounces the NPS closure as contrary to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act's (ANILCA) guarantee of continued access for traditional activities.

"This closure is an attack on the access rights of Alaskans," Halford said. "The continued access guarantee of ANILCA was no great return for the 1980 lock-up of more than 100 million acres of Alaska land. Now, the Park Service bureaucrats are even turning their back on their own law."

Although Halford's resolution recognizes the authority for reasonable regulation of federal Conservation System Unit lands in Alaska, it also points out the NPS failed to document actual detrimental affects as required by law. In addition, the resolution calls attention to the flawed process the NPS used to institute the closure, and the Service's unwillingness to work with the snowmachine groups to develop voluntary measures to limit or restrict snowmachine use.

"Acts like this unlawful attempt to throw snowmachiners out of Denali, and the effort to deny Alaskan fisherman the right to make a living in Glacier Bay, serve as notice, "said Halford. "The Park Service intends to pull on every available thread until they have unraveled the very fabric of our statehood contract."

In addition to putting the NPS on notice of the legislature's opposition to the Denali Park closure, SJR 5 calls on Governor Knowles to use all available administrative and legal measures to protect the access rights guaranteed to Alaskans by ANILCA. The administration has been silent on the issue thus far.

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