Eyak Conservation Easement Alternative

EPC is are focusing on a grassroots advocacy campaign directed towards building support for a comprehensive conservation easement alternative for the entire 700,000 acre Copper River Delta region.

EPC believes preservation is a prerequisite to conservation or restoration of any kind. Hundreds of miles of new logging roads would cross over 250 salmon streams (approximately100 fish spawning) and rivers in just the first 55 miles. Along with 150 foot wide roads, clearcutting, drilling, strip mining, hydroelectric projects, gas and oil pipelines, gas stations, subdivision lots, lodges and condominiums will be followed by millions of tourists and fish & game guides. This road would cross a 27-mile stretch of federal (public) land without an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) requirement, Environmental Assessments (EA) or any restoration bond to protect the public interest.

The Eyak Preservation Council is a member of the Copper River Delta Coalition, which collectively is pursuing a conservation easement alternative for the preservation and protection of the Bering River coal fields and the threatened 73,000 acres of timber rights owned by Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC).

Brief History of the Chugach Road Project

The Alaska delegation (Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Stevens and Rep. Young) had sanctioned a rider that would allow a 250 ft wide road easement (originally they wanted 500 ft), the largest road easement through any National:

• WITHOUT an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or an Environmental Assessment (EA),


• WITHOUT an economic impact statement,


• WITHOUT any restoration bond requirement,


• WITHOUT a Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC) shareholder vote, consent, or approval,


• WITHOUT an unbiased environmental or economic study (the only studies carried out thus far have been paid for by CAC, who are the project managers).

The Alaska Delegation are saying that they are doing this "for" the benefit of the Natives and the Public.

CAC is designing one of the largest road and extraction projects across one of the largest intact wetland ecosystems (Copper River Delta) in the Northern Hemisphere. CAC placed the first bridge across Clear Creek and built approximately 1½ miles of road. The United States Forest Service (USFS), will decide whether to honor an agreement that was signed in 1982 under the Chugach Native Inc. Settlement Agreement (CNI), which grants a right-of-way easement to CAC to access the Bering River coal fields on. CAC transferred ownership of the Bering River coal fields to the Korean Alaska Development Corporation (KADCO) in CAC's 1991 bankruptcy. Therefore, the USFS should be dealing with KADCO, who owns the right of access under the 1982 CNI agreement, not CAC. This is only one of multiple points on which this agreement must be challenged.

Bering River CoalFields & Katalla Oil Field

This Chugach road project is being scrutinized by the Native community, the Copper River Delta community and fishers, the press, Congress and President Clinton. Now, it is CRUCIAL to continue with an education program for the shareholders, as well as receiving assistance so we can continue the direct outreach to the community, the State, the Federal government, to the public, and to the press.

The future of our Chugach Alaska Corporation is not only in the hands of the CAC management and board of directors right now. But, it is the shareholders that own these Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA, 1971) shares and ANCSA Native corporation lands. Once this project drives us further into financial and spiritual bankruptcy, management will just go work for some other ANCSA corporation and leave us with nothing. The best thing that we can do right now is educate our CAC shareholders, show them legitimate alternatives to extraction, enlighten them all to the economic risks that plague this project and prove why it is destined to fail. The CAC shareholders' voices and must be heard by the Alaska delegation.

The Copper River Delta is simply irreplaceable and one of the last pristine wild places left on the planet. The Delta still sustains the local community through subsistence hunting, gathering and the world famous Copper River salmon fishery.

This project will effect the entire Copper River Delta region, and if it goes forward in its present proposed state, it will encourage the bypass of due process procedures and laws for all future resource development and extraction projects planned in Alaska.

Currently, the Chugach Alaska Corporation is expressing to its shareholders that it will provide jobs, dividends and access to their land by moving forward with this project. CAC is also expressing that they have support of the City of Cordova, State of Alaska and Congress. This is in dispute at the present time. One verified fact is that CAC shareholders have never voted for or against this irreparable extraction project. EPC's perspective is that the 1900 shareholders that will be affected by this extraction project should have a choice between the proposed extraction and the conservation easement alternative. The alternative would pay dividends in perpetuity, protect the Copper River Delta as a wild place, preserve our subsistence lifestyle, preserve our world famous Copper River Delta Salmon, and in the process carry out the original intent of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

1998
How We Helped 'Unpave' a Bad Road to the Future: December, 1998 SAN FRANCISCO -- Greetings! We would like to share a recent success that is unpaving the way towards keeping the Copper River Delta region in Alaska a roadless wild place. WE WON this one ... this time. Victory! House Rejects Parks Bill: Daily News, Oct. 8, 1998,WASHINGTON, D.C. - 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.				Making a Move: The Action in D.C. (September 23, 1998) Details on the successful lobbying effort to defeat the proposed easement across the pristine Copper River Delta, Chugach National Forest. Oral Testimony, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources: H.R. 3087, by Dune Lankard. (February 25, 1998) Excellent background for understanding the Copper River Delta issue: past, present and future. What Is the True Value of a Priceless Place?

Copyright © 1999, Eyak Preservation Council. All rights reserved.

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