Board of Game asks for more protection of Tangle Lakes region
Published Sunday, April 6, 2008
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Stumble It!JUNEAU — The Alaska Board of Game is asking Gov. Sarah Palin to strengthen wildlife protection measures in the Tangle Lakes region west of Paxson.
In a letter to the governor, board chair Cliff Judkins wrote late last month that supporters of making the area a wildlife refuge had presented “compelling testimony” about the area’s value to wildlife at the board’s spring meeting in Fairbanks.
He noted the board lacked the authority to preemptively protect any area, and he called on Palin to catalogue the wildlife resources of the area and start discussions among state agencies about how to ensure the wildlife is protected.
“We recognize the potential for mineral extraction in this area and in associated mineral leases,” he wrote, “but we remain convinced the long-term value of maintaining wildlife habitat far outweighs the potential benefits of possible development projects known at this time.”
In a telephone interview Friday, Judkins said the board wasn’t looking to halt mining on the state-owned land.
“We just want to make sure the mining and wildlife people get together” and ensure that mining doesn’t have a negative impact on the caribou herd, he said.
The 227,000-acre Tangle Lakes Archeological District straddles the Denali Highway between Cantwell and Paxson. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and has hundreds of archeological sites. It is also along the migration route of the Nelchina Caribou Herd and is used heavily by hunters.
Efforts to protect the area have grown in recent years as mining companies have spent millions of dollars exploring the area’s mineral resources.
Wyn Menefee, chief of operations for the state’s Division of Mining, Land and Water said Friday that such requests weren’t unheard of. He said he hadn’t yet seen this one and couldn’t comment other than to say the state would probably be reluctant to cut off mining in the area because of its high mineral potential.
The Department of Natural Resources is responsible for issuing mining permits, he added, but the Department of Fish and Game already has the opportunity to review permits and comment on them.
Judkins said he has not yet heard back from the governor’s office about the Board’s request.
For more news from the capital, visit www.newsminer.com/weblogs and look for Capital Focus.
Contact staff writer Stefan Milkowski at 388-6141.
Community Discussion
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Anyone who actually attended the Spring board meeting and heard the testimony should have realized that what is being requested is NOT a "wildlife refuge" in the Tangle Lakes region, but a "mineral refuge". These petitioners are mostly from locations far from the Denali Highway; they are hoping for the creation of their own hunting reserve.
Anyone who has visited, for example, one of the world's largest copper mines, Phelps Dodge's Morenci Pit in southeastern Arizona, will be struck by the prolific, healthy and easily approachable population of Desert Bighorn Sheep wandering freely throughout its tens of thousands of acres. This is an animal that is notoriously shy, as well as endangered, throughout most of the rest of its historic range. Why the difference? Because hunting is not allowed on the mining company's land.
Anyone who passes through the tundra of the Maclaren Valley, High Valley, Tangle Lakes Region, Hungry Hollow and Paxson areas of the Denali Highway after spring thaw, most particularly in those parts that are open to Federal "Subsistence" hunting, will find gut pile after gut pile of caribou....90 to 96 percent of them containing caribou fetuses. There can be no practice more detrimental to the health of the Nelchina herd than the irresponsible act of killing off the gravid cows. Until the Board of Game aggressively addresses this shameful issue, it should not spend its time on some hypocritically-named Tangle Lakes Wildlife Refuge.
There are many reasons to oppose mineral extraction along the single most accessible, beautiful highway corridor in the state. The creation of what in effect would be a hunting preserve for a very small number of hunters is not one of them.
I thought I'd heard all perspectives on Tangle Lakes issue. Thanks for one more, Moosehunter. I've more to think about now.
That's disgraceful! Thanks Moosehunter.
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