YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW!
The Nellie Juan River, one of the most phenomenal remote whitewater
rivers in Alaska is in danger. Your final comments are due by DECEMBER
14, 2000.
Email your comments to: dstlouis@fs.fed.us
Be sure to include your name and address to be counted.
What I'm going to say
In as professional a manner as possible, I am going to ask that the U.S.
Forest Service to:
* Enact the current recommendation for wilderness designation along the
entire Nellie Juan River Corridor and all USFS land in its' watershed.
* Extend the preferred alternative's wild designation under the Wild and
Scenic Rivers act upstream to the outlet of Nellie Juan Lake.
* Manage the entire watershed of the Nellie Juan under a year round
Non-motorized prescription.
What's at stake?
The Nellie Juan River flows into Western Prince William Sound. It is a 3
or 4 day self support trip with serious portages that have so far
prevented a raft decent. The river has some solid class V sections as
well as good stretches of class III and IV water. It requires a 30
minute fly-in from the town of Seward Alaska. Once your dropped off in
Nellie Juan Lake, your are truly on your own until you reach Prince
William Sound. The river flows through some moderately deep canyons
between some dramatic country with glaciers spilling off the ice fields
on either side of the canyon valley.
For the past decade, the entire river corridor was recommended for
wilderness designation from the lake to the shores of Prince William
Sound. However, in the preferred alternative for change, they are
proposing to remove the wilderness designation off of the upper portions
of the river and the land surrounding Nellie Juan Lake. They are also
proposing to manage this land for motorized recreational use, with an
identified road route that would access the lake and continue along both
sides of the river just above the canyon walls. When you keep in mind
that the Chugach National Forest is likely to be one of the two national
forests exempted from the roadless policy and the upper portion of the
river has been identified for potential hydropower development, removing
this wilderness recommendation is very serious. As a mitigation to these
changes, they are proposing to designate the lower portion of the river
as wild under the wild and scenic rivers designation, this will be of
little consequence if the upper portion of the river is road accessible.
Email to: dstlouis@fs.fed.us
Written comments can be submitted to:
Chugach Revision
Attn: Gary Lehnhausen
Chugach National Forest
3301 C Street Suite 300
Anchorage AK 99503
As one of the more active boaters on the Kenai Peninsula, I am sorry
that I haven't been paying more attention to the revisions of the
current Chugach National Forest Service Plan and worked to get the word
out sooner. Because this is only a few weeks away, I really need all
your help to get these comments in to the Chugach National Forest and to
help us get as many others to comment on this aspect of their 10 year
plan.
John Gangemi
Conservation Director, American Whitewater
482 Electric Avenue
Bigfork, MT 59911
phone/fax: 406-837-3155/3156
email: jgangemi@digisys.net
www.americanwhitewater.org