Dear Chairman Wagoner and members of the Senate Resources Committee, My name is Syndonia Bret-Harte, I am research assistant professor with the Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Associate Science Director for the Toolik Field Station. I write to you today as a manager of the Toolik Field Station (TFS). As a manager of TFS, I have concerns that off-road vehicle use could harm our extensive research program, which is located primarily within the Dalton Highway Corridor. TFS is located at mile 284.5 on the Dalton Highway, and has been a national center for Arctic research for 30 years. Research there focuses on the adaptations of animals, birds, insects, and plants to the arctic environment. Research also focuses on the Arctic environment as a whole system, and how this system feeds back to affect global climate patterns. Research focuses on the controls over productivity in arctic ecosystems, and how productivity is influenced by the movement of water, nutrients and sediment between different types of arctic landscapes, as well as between land and freshwater streams and lakes. My own research is focused on how plant species affect the processing of carbon and nitrogen, and how changes in the balance of plant species with climate warming is likely to affect ecosystem function and feedbacks to further warming. Research at TFS involves monitoring as well as long-term experiments, and much of what we know about the functioning of arctic ecosystems comes from the 30-year record of scientific research at TFS. There are over 13,000 research plots within the Dalton Highway Corridor near TFS. Currently, about 350 researchers work at TFS every year, coming from 70 universities and other institutions representing all 50 states and from some international institutions. The National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America has made a substantial investment in research at TFS. Currently, funding for research at TFS totals $36,000,000 (averaging $8,600,000 annually), and the TFS receives annual support from NSF for operations, logistics, facility support and facilities upgrades of approximately $2,700,000. More than 500 scientific papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals on work done at TFS, including publications in high-profile journals such as Science, Nature, BioScience, and Ecology. Research based at TFS has also been instrumental for critical policy and management documents such as the National Research Council's report on Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on the Alaska's North Slope (2003). The Bureau of Land Management has recognized the area around TFS as Research Natural Area/ Area of Critical Environmental Concern. TFS is the flagship U.S. terrestrial arctic research station, and the NSF anticipates that research activity will continue to grow and expand. Continued integrity of the landscape is critical to continued federal support of TFS. Currently, off-road vehicle use is prohibited around TFS, except that limited snow-machine use is allowed during a short window in late winter each year, for point-to-point use in support of science, under permit from BLM. Because off-road vehicle use, especially by 4-wheelers in summer, can damage vegetation, cause permafrost melting and change drainage paths for water, it could severely compromise our research programs. Many of the nutrients that we follow, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are present in the environment at very low concentrations. Even if a vehicle does not run over an experimental plot directly, changes in the drainage caused by off-road vehicle use upstream have the potential to affect research negatively. As a managers of TFS, I urge that off-road vehicle activity be restricted within the Dalton Highway Corridor from mile 275 (Atigun River Bridge #2) to mile 300 (Okskuruyuk Creek Bridge), so that only limited snow machine use is allowed in winter, only in support of science, and only with permits from the land manager. No summer 4-wheeler use near research plots is acceptable, because of the high environmental impact. I urge that this restriction be written in as an amendment to SB 85 or to 19.40.210, because of the magnitude of the research investment at TFS. If enforcement is adequate, restricting off-road vehicles to snowmachines only in support of science, under permit, from miles 275-300, could meet the needs of TFS. However, I am concerned about enforcement of these restrictions, because the current state trooper with responsibility for the area around TFS is based in Barrow, and the Fish and Game representative based in Coldfoot has to cover almost the entire Brooks Range and the North Slope by himself. The BLM similarly has very few people with responsibility for a very large area. Passage of this bill should not occur without adequate funding to enforce a restriction on off-road vehicle use from mile 275-300 within the Dalton Highway corridor to protect the scientific integrity of research based at TFS. Please make these comments part of the official record for SB 85 and for the Senate Resources Committee. Thank you, Sincerely, Dr. Syndonia Bret-Harte Institute of Arctic Biology University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK 99775 Back to Alaska Conservation Voters legislation page