Drama in an Untamed Ecosystem - Alaska's Copper River Delta - includes related article on federal and state regulations

National Wildlife, April-May, 1999 by Sharon Begley

Corporations may be leading the push for development, but they are not alone. The state of Alaska has long wanted to turn the old railroad grade along the Copper River into a road. Conservationists blocked the effort in two major struggles in the past 25 years, but the state now wants to make the rail bed into a trail. "Its intent is to provide access into the backcountry for mountain biking and hiking, and the concern is that the ever-present road advocates would turn it first into a four-wheel-drive trail and then into a true road," says Peter Van Tuyn, litigation director of the conservation group Trustees for Alaska. Serious planning would start this year, with construction in 2001. Conservationists are gearing up to fight those plans too.

History is on their side: In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt faced down the J.P. Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate that built and owned the railroad. The syndicate planned to extend its railroad into interior Alaska, using coal from the nearby fields. But Roosevelt stymied the powerful businessmen, putting the region off-limits to development and creating Chugach National Forest. Conservationists hope the past is prologue.

NWF Takes Action

Conserving the Delta

Last fall, Congress refused to allow construction of a 30-mile road along the eastern side of the Copper River Delta. The defeat for the Alaska congressional delegation, which introduced the proposal, came after NWF and a coalition of other environmental groups and Alaska Native organizations argued that the proposal bypassed normal environmental review.

Conservationists warn the road, which would enable extraction of rain- forest timber from land owned by Chugach Alaska Corporation, could harm 250 streams, many of which support spawning fish such as sockeye salmon (above).

"Cutting across the delta, the road would degrade thousands of acres of tidal marshes and other wetlands," warns Anthony Turrini, director of NWF's Alaska Office. NWF now hopes to convince the Native-owned corporation to sell a conservation easement rather than cut its trees.

To stay informed about efforts to protect the delta, e-mail copperriver@nwf.org, call 907-258-4808 or write NWF's Alaska Office, 750 West Second Avenue, Suite 200, Anchorage, Alaska 99501.