NPCA says YES

At more than 13 million acres, WrangellSt. Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest unit in the National Park System. The park contains the largest concentration of glaciers, the largest subpolar ice cap, and nine of the continent's 16 highest mountains, including the secondhighest in the United States—Mt. St. Elias, at 18,008 feet. Much of the park is covered by rock and ice, making the biologically rich lower elevations critical habitat for a variety of species, including Dall sheep, brown and black bear, moose, caribou, bison, wolf, and nesting trumpeter swans. The park was created, in part, to preserve the majestic scenic beauty and rich biological diversity of the area. It is one of the few national parks in Alaska connected to the state highway system.

Under a Civil Warera mining law revived in 2002 by the Bush administration, known as RS 2477, the State of Alaska has identified 1,702 miles of potential roads on 96 routes in WrangellSt. Elias. These routes could endanger wildlife by bringing motorized trails into critical habitat causing habitat fragmentation, increased poaching potential, and noise disruption. Increased motorized access could also threaten historical treasures including onetime gold mining sites and numerous prehistoric and historic Athabaskan Indian sites. The proposals represent half the total road mileage of all those identified in Alaska's national parks under RS 2477. Although efforts to exclude national parks and other public lands from any RS 2477 proposals received wide bipartisan support in Congress last year, language protecting national parks was removed from final legislation.

Another threat is irresponsible use of allterrainvehicles (ATVs) on trails that crisscross the park. Although the Park Service permits ATVs on 13 trails, many of which are also used for hiking, irresponsible ATV use is churning up fragile vegetation, and creating mud pits. In addition, ATV trails fragment wildlife habitat and runoff from these trails can impair water quality and degrade fish habitat. Through its lack of active management, the National Park Service is allowing this irresponsible ATV use to threaten the very scenic and biological qualities the park was created in part to protect.

Any agreement between the State of Alaska and the Department of Interior about proposed RS 2477 road proposals must include the prohibition on pursuing road and highway proposals through national parks, refuges, and wilderness areas found in other state agreements. Furthermore, to preserve the integrity of the park and the enjoyment of its visitors, the Park Service must actively enforce existing rules to prevent ATVs from harming park wildlife and wilderness.

In addition, the Park Service must complete a parkwide assessment of ATV use and its impact on park resources and design appropriate management strategies and methods of repairing existing damage.

Tell your representative that unnecessary road construction threatens wildlife and endangers historical treasures and urge them to cosponsor Representative Mark Udall's (DColo.) bill, the RightsofWay Act of 2003, H.R. 1639.