Chief Ranger Hunter Sharp has a little different view of the subject than his boss.

“We know that the State has listed this route as a potential right of way,” said Sharp. Although nobody at NPS has been able to explain the process, apparently the Department of Interior made a decision under former Secretary Babbitt to ignore RS2477 and relevant state laws, thus denying the existence of these rights-of-way. They are fond of words such as “potential, possible,” and “assert.”

Governor Frank Murkowski is seeking an agreement with Interior similar to the one that Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton signed recently. It is clear, however, that the Alaska agreement will need to be significantly different from the Utah agreement, which excluded roads and trails within Conservation Units such as National Parks. It also excluded trails that had not been developed into roads, and prohibited further development of existing routes.

The General Management Plan for Wrangell-St. Elias National lists 107 routes as “possible RS2477 rights-of-way” and says this about them: “The park/preserve was established subject to valid existing rights, including rights-of-way established under RS2477. The validity of these rights-of-way will be determined on a case-by-case basis.” Asked which routes NPS has determined to be valid, Ranger Sharp said, “I don’t know, perhaps the McCarthy Road.”

The Coalition for Access to McCarthy (CAM) had requested that the Governor make this issue a top priority during his administration. Environmental groups have fought against RS2477 for years, and agencies such as the National Park Service have seemed all too eager to accommodate them.