Feds eye Long Lake property

Three miles from the scenic Glacier Bay National Park lies the small community of Gustavus. This community of about 450 residents get their power from Gustavus Electic Company, which is owned by Dick Levitt. Dick has been trying to switch from Diesel power to hydro for 20 years.

The problem is, the fast-flowing stream that would be used for the project lies just within the boundaries of Glacier Bay. Supplying cheap, eco-friendly power to nearby communities does not fall within the purposes of National Parks. So, in order to proceed with the project there would need to be a land exchange between the State of Alaska, who would permit the project, and the National Park Service.

The Park Service's first choice for an exchange is to acquire state land within Klondike Gold Rush NP at Skagway. Since Klondike currently comprises only 13,191 acres but hosts 754,607 visitors per year, it seems a likely candidate for additional land acquisition.

Contrast that to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (WRST) which at nearly 13-million acres has an annual visitation of less than 40,000.

Apparently, though, the residents of Skagway think their park is big enough, and there has been community opposition to the exchange. So, if Klondike doesn’t work out, NPS has identified WRST as second choice. They would like to obtain the state land surrounding the east end of Long Lake, and add it to the park.

Levitt said his hydro project needs only 300 acres. However, in 1998 Congress passed a special law authorizing a small land exchange to allow the state to trade 1,145 acres of its lands and gain access to the site.

“If current state-owned lands around Long Lake are exchanged for land removed from Glacier Bay NP, it would be done on an "equal value" basis, that is, lands traded between the State and the NPS would have approximately the same monetary value, which would be established by real estate appraisals,” said Chuck Gilbert, who is the Chief of the Land Resources Program Center for NPS in Anchorage.

According to Bob Loeffler, head of Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, there would be public notice if the project is approved. If the Long Lake lands are included, most likely a public meeting in McCarthy would be held.

Whether the hydro project is ever approved remains to be seen.

Since the hydro project would replace diesel generation with earth-friendly hydro power, people expected the environmental groups as well as the Park Service to support the project. Not so.

Jack Hession, the Sierra Club's senior representative in Alaska, said damming rivers in national parks is where his organization draws the line, even though the proposed Falls Creek dam is small.

Hession went on to say the Sierra Club also opposes minor boundary changes and small land exchanges on principle. One small boundary change usually leads to others to the point where parks are nibbled away in increments, he said.

There's also been a lot of work on environmental issues, including an Environmental Assessment and a formal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Another issue that has hindered the project are 700 Dolly Varden trout. Levitt said that until recently state fish and game biologists refused to consider off-site mitigation to compensate for any loss of trout. Off-site mitigation, which typically involves improvement of fish habitat elsewhere, is routinely done by federal agencies.

With a new state administration in Juneau, fish and game officials are now willing to discuss mitigation for the trout, he said. The NPS has been steadily adding lands to WRST ever since it’s inception in 1980—some 21,000 acres to date. Some have been large tracts purchased from or donated by mining concerns who felt they could no longer operate under park regulations. Recently the trend has been towards purchasing very small inholdings—sometimes less than one-fifth acre—from private landowners.

So, although National Parks cannot shrink, even by 300 acres for a worthwhile earth-friendly energy project, apparently they can grow to any size—limited only by the taxpayers’ willingness to finance the growth.