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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
BY TRISHA HERMINGHAUS, AQRC PRESIDENT |
Winter greetings from the Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition. As we head into this new year we look forests, on the ridges, down the rivers and along the trails... What do you hear when you are out? What sounds are you missing? Join us in March for the 4th Annual Winter Day of Listening. Listen for one hour and let us know what you hear!
There is encouraging news on the quiet front! In Grand Canyon National Park the amount of air traffic has finally been limited and how sound is measured is being evaluated. Sound is generally measured over a 24-hour period, then averaged. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge said the average visitor wasn't there long enough to have the experience of a "sound averaged day." Achievements like this show the difference that groups like ours wind up making over time.
Here in Alaska, the Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition continues to monitor the management of public lands, as well as maintain an active voice regarding non-motorized issues in various regions around the state. Read on in this newsletter to hear from other supporters of quiet recreation about motorized issues in their districts.
Ever wonder what to do when you encounter a motorized user in a non-motorized area, or experienced some other kind of motorized conflict? Complete the enclosed Motorized Conflict Report Form and send it in to the Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition. We keep copies and send the original to the managing agency for that area. Keep us informed if you are experiencing motorized conflicts.
Please join the Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition or renew your membership using the attached form. A strong and active membership helps keep our voice at the table. |
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NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
FAIRBANKS SNOWMACHINE INITIATIVE
BY STAN JUSTICE
I am grateful and humbled to receive the Natural Quiet Award for the second year in a row. I have been frightened many times while rock climbing and whitewater boating, but the scariest thing I have ever done was to take on the Fairbanks snowmachiners.
The snowmachine initiative did great, considering the circumstances. The opposition mounted a vigorous campaign, spending twice as much money. Virtually all of their money came from snowmachine dealers. We spent $7,800, which we collected from over 120 individuals. 5,234 people voted "yes," giving us about 1/3 of the vote. We did best in precincts north and west of town, getting over 40 percent of the vote in Ester, Farmers Loop, Goldstream 1 & 2, UAF, University Hills, and University West. The initiative also did well inside the city limits. On the flip side, we did the worst in precincts north and east of town.
A local bard said, "We got our snowmachine ban from a higher power." The scant snowfall this year has kept the machines off the streets and sidewalks. We hope that the lack of machines tearing around town is also due to the initiative. Perhaps riders now realize that if they endanger public health, the public may pass laws to limit their chosen activity.
The battle now moves to the City of Fairbanks (we are one of the few communities that have not combined our city and borough). Since the City is a firstclass municipality, they already have the power to ban snowmachines. We are working on an ordinance with a city council member.
Our effort convinced us that the majority of Fairbanks residents want something done - the devil is in the details. Success depends on deftly crafting a solution that over 50 percent of the voters approve of.
I want to again thank AQRC for their support.
DENALI SNOWMACHINE THREAT LOOMS LARGE
BY CLIFF EAMES
| The National Park Service's decision to maintain the historic closure to snowmachines of the 2 million-acre Wilderness core of Denali National Park supported by over 90 percent of the Alaskans who commented remains at risk. Both Representative Young and then-Senator Frank Murkowski introduced legislation in the last session of Congress that would have repealed the Park Service's regulation, which in addition to maintaining the Wilderness closure defined "traditional activities" so as not to include recreational snowmachining. With both the House and Senate now in hostile hands the threat that such legislation might pass has increased significantly. |
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AQRC and others are maintaining a vigilant eye and ear in D.C. for either standalone legislation or, perhaps more likely, a rider sneakily attached to an important appropriations bill in order to avoid a fully and fairly debated decision by the Congress on the merits.
AQRC APPEALS CHUGACH NATIONAL FOREST PLAN REVISION
BY CLIFF EAMES
AQRC last fall appealed the Forest Service's decision on its Chugach National Forest plan revision for its failure to adequately protect, and in the many places where it is necessary, restore natural quiet and the opportunity to hear and enjoy natural sounds on the Forest (on the plus side, this might be the first forest plan in the country to explicitly recognize Natural Quiet as a separate issue that the plan is obliged to address). Not long after, we intervened in three of the appeals submitted by snowmachiners.
Probably the most controversial natural quiet issue was recreational snowmachining on the Kenai Peninsula and Turnagain Arm. We made some real progress: under the old plan, only 1 percent of the region was closed all season to snowmachining; under the new plan, 18 percent was to be closed (neither of these figures include the half-season closure at Resurrection Pass, which is a significant one). Unfortunately, that good news has to be tempered by the fact that nearly all of the most desirable areas - like Lost Lake, South Fork Snow River, Johnson Pass Trail, and the Twentymile - are to be managed for snowmachining. And just very recently, one of the most valuable newly closed areas, Carter/Crescent Lakes, was reopened to snowmachining. Whether this was primarily because of vocal local opposition to the closure, or because of a possible legal problem due to the failure to include the closure in any of the draft plan alternatives, is unclear.
A real sleeper is the Forest Service's failure to take helicopter skiing seriously and authorize it on only a small portion of the Forest. The Revised Plan would allow this controversial activity (subject to permit) on 82 percent of the Kenai and Arm, and on a very large percentage of the Forest as a whole (inaccuracies in the plan document make this figure difficult to calculate). After the appeals are decided, we'll provide additional, final information on these and other aspects of the revised plan in a future newsletter.
GLENNALLEN BLM BEGINS PLANNING
BY STAN JUSTICE
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The Glennallen District of the Bureau of Land Management is beginning a planning process for the land they oversee. Currently, their lands are overrun by snowmachines and 4-wheelers. This will be an opportunity to demand fairness - demand that some areas be designated for quiet recreation. I am particularly interested in seeing the Castner, Fels, and Cantwell Glaciers return to their quiet past. The Denali Highway area, Tangle Lakes, and Thompson Pass are also among the many valuable lands included in the planning process. | |
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MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
LAWSUIT TESTS "RIGHTS" OF SNOWMACHINE ACCESS ACROSS PRIVATE LAND
BY TOM MEACHAM
An interesting lawsuit appeal was argued before the Alaska Supreme Court on January 23, 2003, involving a claimed right of snowmachine access across private land, in the case of Thomas E. Price, Jr. vs. Mike Eastham, et al. The appeal was filed by Price, who owns a 160-acre farm near Homer. The snowmachine parties are Eastham and 91 other snowmachiners, members of the Snomads Club, who ride their machines diagonally across the entire length of Price's farm on a trail which was originally an oil-exploration seismic line. This seismic line was believed to have been constructed in the period from 1956 to 1963, for use in oil exploration under a federal lease.
The snowmachiners claimed that they had established a public right-of-way (a prescriptive easement) by virtue of their unopposed use of this trail for a period of ten years or more, from 1978 to the present.
The snowmachiners filed suit against Price after he tried to prevent them from crossing his farm on the seismic line. Testimony at trial established that during the snowmachine season, several hundred snowmachiners used this seismic-line trail every weekend.
Judge Harold Brown, at the trial court level, had originally ruled that - regardless of whether the snowmachiners had established a public prescriptive easement - the seismic line was a public right-of-way under Revised Statutes (RS) 2477, which was an old federal right-of-way law enacted in 1866, and repealed in 1976. Neither Price nor the snowmachiners had raised a claim regarding RS 2477 in the lawsuit. After Price moved for reconsideration on this issue, Judge Brown denied reconsideration of his RS 2477 ruling; and the judge also held alternatively that the snowmachiners had established a public right-of-way by prescription on the seismic line across Price's farm.
Price then asked Judge Brown to reconsider that ruling. Price claimed that since 1978, when he first applied to purchase the agricultural rights to his farm from the State, until 1998, when he obtained all rights from the State, but subject to an agricultural-use covenant, the State owned all surface rights to this tract of land, except the agricultural development rights which it had conveyed to Price. As a consequence, Price asserted that under State law (Alaska Statutes 38.95.010), the snowmachiners could not have legally established a prescriptive easement on land owned by the State.
Judge Brown denied reconsideration on this issue also. Price then appealed both of these legal issues to the Alaska Supreme Court. It is not possible (or advisable) to predict how the Supreme Court may finally rule on these questions.
However, this case illustrates both the frustration and the helplessness which many landowners may feel when faced with repeated, unconsented, high-volume snowmachine travel across their land, and the lengths to which snowmachiners may go in attempting to validate their access routes.
This case also illustrates some of the legal arguments which parties on both sides may raise, and that these arguments may involve complicated fact situations requiring an attempt to reconstruct the history of land use in a particular area from a half-century ago.
As a matter of landowner rights and public policy, this case also illustrates the potential or actual threat which unconsented snowmachine use of old seismic lines on the Kenai Peninsula and elsewhere may pose for private landowners. There are hundreds of miles of old seismic lines in Alaska, haphazardly crossing the landscape like a child's game of "pickup sticks." Many miles of these lines are on public lands, where their use by snowmachiners is an issue of public land management, not private property rights. But where these seismic lines cross land which is now private property, questions of snowmachiners claims of vested access entitlement are bound to conflict with the quiet use and enjoyment of a person's own land.
Without first determining that public rights-of-way legally exist along these old seismic lines, the State of Alaska has made grants to snowmachine clubs to maintain and improve trails on seismic lines for snowmachine use, including the line crossing Price's farm. The availability of easy public money for these purposes has only compounded the sense of beleaguered isolation which many private landowners may understandably feel.
(Full Disclosure: the author represents Mr. Price in his Supreme Court appeal). |
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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WORST KIND?
BY LENORE MORFORD
Have you ever been out on your favorite ski or dog sled trail and had a close encounter with a reckless snowmachiner who was not concerned with your safety? Has your outdoor experience been degraded by seeing once pristine landscapes totally tracked by snowmachines, or their irritating whine destroying the natural quiet? The Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition wants to document your experience and use your feedback to persuade land management agencies to make some changes.
The Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition (AQRC) is an allvolunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to a fair and balanced allocation of Alaska's public lands for both non-motorized and motorized use. Recently AQRC began a campaign to focus attention on the existing lack of balance, and on the lax enforcement of current regulations on public lands concerning snowmachines, ATVs, jetskis and overflights.
In an effort to document the conflicts created by motorized recreational vehicles, AQRC has developed a recreational conflict form that citizens can use to report problems. We ask that you file your conflict report with us so we can develop a data base on the location, and types of violations or complaints and most importantly, track agency response to these specific concerns. AQRC will forward all reports to the proper authorities, and use them to help retain, promote and establish new non-motorized areas. We have developed a Web site where regulations for various public lands are posted and where you can download the forms: www.quietrights.org You can file your report on this Web site, or through the mail, or by FAX at (907) 346-1028. If you would like more information about AQRC call (907) 566-3524, or e-mail us at quietrights@yahoo.com
By documenting the level, nature and effects of motorized recreational vehicle use on Alaska's public lands, you will provide valuable help to non-motorized recreationists interested in maintaining and restoring safety and natural quiet. Thank you. |
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ALASKA QUIET RIGHTS COALITION MEMBERSHIP FORM
To Join the Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition, please print and fill-out this page and send with your check to:
Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition
P.O. Box 202592
Anchorage, AK 99520
YES! I support natural quiet for public land users, private property owners, and communities! I want to become an Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition member.
I have enclosed a membership fee of :
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Name:
Address:
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_____ Please contact me about volunteer opportunities.
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Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition
