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The
Alaska Region of the National Park Service has released the region's
first comprehensive procedural guide for owners of land within national
parks who access that property over park land. The "Interim Guide
to Accessing Inholdings in National Park System Units in Alaska"
provides guiding principles in how access law and regulation will
be applied, the procedural steps that landowners and the NPS will
follow, and examples of the applications and supporting documentation.
Within national park units in Alaska are about 1.6 million acres
of non-federal land. Title 11 of the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act of 1980 requires that the NPS provide access across
public lands to inholdings, subject to reasonable regulations to
protect park values. Very few access routes have been formally documented.
Along with issuing the access guide, the Park Service has started
an environmental assessment of about 40 existing access routes in
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The assessment will
be release for public comment later this year. One result of the
assessment could be the issuance of ANILCA 1110(b) Right of Way
Certificates of Access to document route location, the extent of
allowable maintenance, and limits on the impacts to natural and
cultural resources on public land. The process will generally apply
to motorized access across park land. Work on the access guide has
been under way for about three years, and began as the result of
an agreement between then-Gov. Frank Murkowski and Department of
the Interior Secretary Gale Norton. The document is available by
following the link to Access Guide to Inholdings at www.nps.gov/akso.
A printed copy of the guide is available by calling the National
Park Service regional office at (907) 644-3510. -- NPS --
Privacy
& Disclaimer
Author:Jane
Ahern
www.nps.gov/akso
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