Chairperson Residents of the Wrangells
National Park Service (NPS) Regional Director Marcia Blaszak invited a small group of local residents and business owners to meet with her on June 3, 2006 in McCarthy at the Tony Zak house. She was accompanied by Wrangell-St. Elias Park (WRST) Acting Superintendent Will Tipton, Park Planner Vicki Snitzler, and Park Ranger Stephens Harper. Based upon comments received on the second draft of A User’s Guide to Accessing Inholdings in a NPS Area in Alaska, including one strong letter from Governor Frank Murkowski, Director Blaszak arranged the meeting to update locals on their plans for the next step in the access documentation and authorization process.
First of all, the comment period for draft two has been extended for 90 days until September 1, 2006. NPS does not maintain a complete mailing list of all landowners within park boundaries. Some inholders are still being found within WRST and other Alaskan parks who know nothing of the User’s Guide process, but will be expected to abide by it. Hopefully, this extension will allow all affected landowners to be notified.
NPS has decided to pursue an alternative to their nationwide permitting process to document Alaskans’ ANILCA-mandated access. Director Blaszak proposed instead the issuance of an access certificate of some form to each landowner. She confirmed that our right to access our property is not revocable. However, NPS continues to maintain that the certificate cannot be attached to our parcels, but must be issued to individual landowners with a 30-year term.
