Chugach Logging Road Kills National Parks Bill

October 8, 1998

Daily News Washington Bureau

By DAVID WHITNEY

WASHINGTON--The House refused to consider a massive parks bill Wednesday, and opponents cited a provision authorizing a road through the Chugach National Forest as one of their reasons.

The provision would authorize a 30-mile road easement through the forest so Native-owned Chugach Alaska Corp. could log on 8,000 acres it owns in the Copper River Delta.

The 302-123 House vote rejecting consideration of the parks bill was a defeat for the House Resources Committee that wrote the measure. The panel is headed by Alaska Republican DonYoung.

The parks bill was opposed by Democrats and more than 100 Republicans who contended that its many good features were overshadowed by anti-environmental provisions such as the Chugach road.

The leading critic of the measure, New York Republican Sherwood Boehlert, several times mentioned the road in arguing against consideration of the parks package.

The legislation, however, never was given much of a chance for enactment this year. There was little enthusiasm for it in the Senate, and the White House had indicated that it would veto the package.

Young urged his colleagues to stand up to the veto threat.

"I've listened day after day to this president threatening a veto," Young said. "I'm saying that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we listen just to the president."

The Chugach provision remains on a House-passed spending bill for the Interior Department. House-Senate negotiators are in the throes of deciding which riders will stay in an omnibus spending package expected to be unveiled today.

Diane Rhoades of the Alaska Rainforest Campaign said Wednesday's vote should be enough for congressional leaders to yank the Chugach road.

"I think the vote means that the president would have strong backing in the House" if he were to veto any bill containing the road authorization, she said. "Three hundred members of the House have now said they don't want this rider."

Withdrawal of the rider would not mean that a road won't eventually be built. The Forest Service reached an agreement this year with Chugach Native Corp. on a process for establishing a road access to its property, as required by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

The Young provision would have authorized a 250-foot wide permanent easement through the forest. In a letter to California Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Resources Committee and a leading opponent of the parks bill, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the provision gives away too much land. "They provide the Native corporation the opportunity to construct facilities, such as gas stations and restaurants in an extraordinarily environmentally sensitive area managed for wildlife and fish," Glickman said.

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