Park trespassing incident mired in ‘hypocrisy’
Originally published Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 12:25 a.m.
Updated Monday, August 11, 2008 at 7:11 a.m.
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — A long-simmering feud between some residents in the Parks Highway community of Cantwell and the National Park Service boiled over last week after a trail crew from Denali National Park and Preserve trespassed on private property and got two off-road vehicles stuck in the mud.
Assistant park superintendent Philip Hooge described the damage as minor — “A mudhole made bigger” — and said the snafu was a result of miscommunication. The crew shouldn’t have been on the trail and shouldn’t have been using ORVs, he said. The Park Service apologized to the landowner, Ahtna Native Corp., and offered to repair damage and pay restitution.
“It was an isolated incident, but one we took full responsibility for,” Hooge said.
Katheryn Martin, vice president of land and resources for Ahtna, said the Native corporation was “upset” about the trespassing incident but wasn’t necessarily interested in making a big issue out of it.
“They contacted us, admitted to the mistake they made and basically said it won’t happen again,” Martin said.
The park service is waiting to hear from Ahtna about future reparations, Hooge said.
But an apology and offer to pay for damages doesn’t cut it for some residents in the small town 150 miles south of Fairbanks who have been haggling about access with the park service for the better part of 30 years following the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 that expanded Denali Park from two to six million acres.
“If I go off the trail and break a dwarf birch, I’m facing a $1,000 fine,” longtime resident Gordon Carlson said, one of a handful of federally qualified subsistence users who can drive ATVs into the park to hunt. “If we (trespass), we’re facing fines. They’ll send a botanist out there to look at the ground. They’ll spend thousands of dollars to prosecute us.”
Carlson pointed to the case of Jeff King, the four-time Iditarod champion from Denali Park who was arrested and charged earlier this year with illegally shooting a moose and driving an all-terrain vehicle just inside the park boundary during hunting season last year. King, who pleaded innocent, is set to go to trial on Aug. 18.
“For me, it’s like, wait a second, sorry don’t quite get it,” Carlson said. “It’s just the principle of it.”
Marty Caress, another longtime Cantwell resident who has been at odds with the park service over access issues, agreed.
“I think whatever penalties would apply to us should apply to them,” Caress said.
The trail crew was marking a boundary along an easement trail through Ahtna property just outside a residential area on the north edge of Cantwell when they left the trail and got the ORVs stuck on a connector trail they weren’t supposed to be on, Hooge said.
In fact, the crew was putting up signs where the trail leaves the easement trail to denote that it is closed.
“That’s the irony,” Hooge said.
Both Hooge and park superintendent Paul Anderson understand why some Cantwell residents are “crying hypocrisy,” as Hooge put it, considering how vigilant the park service is about trespass issues in the park. They said the park service has done all it can do unless Athna files a trespass complaint with Alaska State Troopers.
“We’ve already made a formal apology to Ahtna, we’ve taken disciplinary action against the employees involved in the case. We have the full intention of restoring to the extent humanly possible the damage that occurred in that area,” said Anderson, who declined to specify the disciplinary action taken against the individuals other than to say that nobody lost their job. “I’m not sure what else we can do to provide restitution.”
Carlson and Caress would like to see the park service loosen ORV restrictions on subsistence users from Cantwell. Getting access into the park for hunting has been “a constant 30-year ongoing battle,” Carlson said.
Subsistence hunters on ORVs are restricted to four established trails and the Cantwell Creek flood plain in a southern portion of the park that was added as a result of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980.
At one point, the park service agreed to let subsistence users go off established trails to retrieve game they shot, but now they must stay on designated trails at all times, Carlson said.
“Back in the 1980s, we had to draw all these lines and get affidavits from elders to show we’ve been hunting in those areas since the 30s and 40s with motorized vehicles, whether it was a bulldozer or a weasel,” he said, referring to a type of military track rig commonly used in Alaska years ago. “We proved all that to them to the point where they agreed those are traditional hunting areas.
“From there, it’s just been a slow whittling away process,” Carlson, 47, said. “They’re just waiting for us to die off.”
But Anderson, the superintendent, said the trespass incident and subsistence access into the park are “completely separate.”
The park service went through a long process to determine what areas of the park additions motorized vehicles were traditionally used for subsistence and has done its best to provide “reasonable access” to accommodate subsistence users without negatively impacting the park, Hooge said.
For local residents like Carlson who have been feuding with the park service for years over access, though, the trespass incident exemplified the imbalance in what they say has been a losing struggle for a small community against Big Brother.
“This is an old wound we get fleshed out a little every year,” Carlson said.
Community Discussion
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The people of Cantwell are 100% right. The Park Service would use Federal dollars to hound them to the ends of the earth if the tables were turned. A "mudhole made bigger", that's a funny thing for the Park Service to say about damage to private property in light of the outrageously nasty way they have treated people who have violated their Park rules.
I agree completely with outraged.
The fact is that these individuals should be held to a much higher standard and they should be prosecuted to set a loud and clear example. Additionally, offering restitution with taxpayer dollars is out of line. They should pay restitution themselves.
They should also make an example out of this Philip Hooge for asserting that since the damage is minor it is OK. The issue is a trespass and, in the case of Jeff King, it appears that a few feet is a huge issue for them.
Same standard should be applied. The same amount of hurt should be put on the Park service and the Management of the park should be held responsible for the employees mistake as well.
Yeah! Damn govt, I hate the govt, rah, rah, rah ....grumble grumble, grumble, grumble....
Ok enough of this, let's eat...uh Ted could you please pass the Pork. Thank you!
"....Since the 1930s and '40s...." doesn't make tradition. IF you choose to argue that route, then restrict yourselves to those Weasels....the ones from the 1930s. Anything other than that, to the extent it differs from the old ways, is reprehensible. If you wish to respect our traditions, restrict your hunting ways to the ways of the elders. All else is NOT "subsistence" and is not to be condoned.
Has anyone from Cantwell ever lost their job for trespassing in the park? Then, why should these lowly Park Service employees lose their jobs? They shouldn't. The Park Service should pay the reparations that the landowner (Ahtna) requests just as trespassers onto the Park have to pay reparations to the landowner (the Park Service). Sounds pretty fair to me.
Also, why should a few hunters from Cantwell have the right to go onto land that belongs to all Americans and kill animals that belong to all Americans? Cantwell people have a lot of land available to them for hunting - some of it even in the park. The rest of us are fighting to harvest the same moose.
Thanks for the apology and the efforts at restitution. Not everyone in Cantwell agrees with the people mentioned in the article. If you mess up be you an individual (JK) or the park service you should expect consequences. The park service has begun to do so and will continue to. The government is not the evil that so many fear-mongers portray. They are people just like us and most do an honest and good job. The Cantwell folk especially those who hide behind the myth of psuedo-subsistence already have tremendous access to a park and resources that belong to everyone. Quit your whining and finger-pointing and enjoy the special privileges you already have.
Just further proof, as if we needed more, of the arrogance of some civil service employees.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind."
Thomas Paine
Not only is the federal government spending thousands to prosecute locals; it's trying to spend thousands it doesn't have to begin with. So, why don't we just send the parkies to the unemployment office? With our national debt now at 9.576 TRILLION dollars(see http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ ), we need to cut the federal government's budget and the National Park Service is a great place to start. Both it and ANILCA are out of bounds of Article 1 Section 8 and the 10th Amendment of the Constitution anyway.
akjak et al,
Here's how I see the issue; if you trespass on and damage Park lands you may face criminal and civil penalties. These penalties are tirelessly prosecuted by the full authority and resources of the United States Department of Justice.
The Park Service trespasses on and damages and adjoining land owner's property and they want to work it out informally and even make an arrogant off handed comment that they only "made a mudhole bigger".
The Park Service has a long unpleasant history of hassling and abusing park users and adjacent land owners. In this case they are reaping what they have sewn.
There are quite a few people out there always looking for a fight with the Park Service; usually from past experiences. They seem to feel threatened that the Park Service is encrouching on their seasonal economic activities; and they got to live off the land too.
Then you have Park admins that can be heavy handed; they screw up everything for years to come. The real bad ones usually are removed for their own safety.
I have also seen good park people, who bend over backwards for the locals at every turn. They are usually booted by their superiors in Fairbanks; politics & backstabbing to a refined science.
You would think the Park Service would work with the local communities to bring in people who fit and are well liked; all the problems seem to disappear when you have good park people. I sure wish we had a few of our old park administrators back here at Yukon Charlie.
bigolmoosehunter, it was shown to the parkservice (who requested it be proven) that from the useage of old weasels and dozers in the 30's & 40's for game retrival had evolved to the useage of small 4 wheelers,etc. And not all of the few identified multi-generational users are native, so so much for T & C.
akjak, who said anything about someone losing their job???? You imply Cantwell people have a lot of land availaible to them for hunting, plus the park. Cantwell is mostly non native and do not belong to Ahtna, so they have to jump thru the same hoops as you would if we want to cross Ahtna lands.
Bearguy, apparently you have never had an encounter with a young non resident park ranger who does not even know where the park bounderies are. This is not uncommon. Nobody's whining, its just a matter of standing up to the park service, and not kiss butt.
How about the park rangers who patrol the park border south of Cantwell on the weekends on snowmobiles to make sure that no other snowmobilers ride within the park? It is ok for them to ride within the park, but as soon as I cross the line I'm subject to hundred dollar fines.
This is the same as the trooper who passes you going 10 MPH faster than the speed limit on the highway.
Why aren't our 2 Senators and One Rep. fighting for the land that the Federal government still owes Alaska from the Statehood Act? Fifty years and still waiting.
Only in Alaska-and I love it!!!! God Bless Alaska!!!!
smallbob are you the smilen bob guy that use to do commericals on CNN ???
Pack up the park and the wolves and send the whole shebang to New Jersey!
After further checking this out, I find that it appears park service employee's were caught by Ahtna's patrol. So of course the park service would call Ahtna. However its not known if the employees would have even reported this incident had they not been caught redhanded.... ??
Anderson, the park superintendent, said "the trespass issue and subsistence acess into the park are completly seperate". Some in Cantwell would disagree, apparently either Anderson or Hooge told Ahtna they use 4-6 wheelers only when carring heavy loads!! Well the main issue for the past several years inbetween Cantwell resident hunters and park service, has been the retrival of Moose/Caribou from the field, or as parks service does, use their 4-6 wheelers for heavy loads!!!! It doesn't appear to this writer that these issue are quite as seperate as Anderson says.
And the hunting areas used,, are areas previously used without restriction as they are the recent addition lands to the old park.
Think about it, six million acres and the park rangers still want more. Or maybe have the involved persons patrol the "mudhole" for a year to be sure it is not disturbed again... That land belongs to all Americans. Do you really think a few Cantwell residents can make a dent in the animal diversity or make a bigger "mudhole"? All the rangers can do is hide behind their government employment. I would put the rangers in jail.
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