Testimony on SB 85 G. Ray Bane Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the proposed legislation, SB 85. I believe that this bill has the potential to cause significant, widespread environmental damage both to the Alaska Pipeline Corridor and to adjacent lands. I lived, worked and traveled extensively in the vicinity of the pipeline corridor for approximately eighteen years. My work included cultural research and environmental planning for proposed new parklands. I frequently dealt with access related issues, including the use of all-terrain vehicles. In 2000, I carried out a study into ATV access issues affecting conservation lands in Alaska. This work involved an extensive review of research into ATV environmental impacts. The report, Shredded Wildlands, was published in 2001. If the Committee desires, copies can be made available for review. The overwhelming consensus of research into the environmental impacts of all-terrain vehicle access is that such use tends to cause significant environmental damage. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, federal agencies and independent environmental scientists concur these findings. Impacts include the loss of soil and vegetation cover, degraded habitat, reduced water quality and increased stress on wildlife populations. Permafrost lands, such as those occurring along the pipeline corridor, are particularly prone to severe damage from ATV passage. Without sufficient ground frost and adequate snow cover, the fragile vegetation mat is crushed and abraded by tires and tracks exposing the ice rich soil to erosion and subsidence. Entire hillsides can be destabilized setting off a chain reaction of environmental impacts. Once damaged, recovery can take scores of years, if not centuries. In 1990, a report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game describes a cycle of initial ATV incursions drawing more use resulting in the ongoing pioneering of new trails. Ultimately, a maize of interconnecting ATV trails is created. Such trails tend to rapidly deteriorate becoming more troughs than trails. Successive users are forced to skirt damaged areas further expanding and exacerbating the impact. I have seen entire small tributary streams diverted by ATV trails and severe erosion along sloping terrain. It is virtually impossible to effectively monitor and control ATV access in remote areas. An overflight of the lower Kenai Peninsula, lands adjacent to the Denali Highway and sections of the Richardson Highway provides graphic examples of this process at work. As a general rule, the further north one travels the more fragile the land becomes. The damage caused by ATV use in the more southern regions of the state will be greatly amplified north of the Yukon River. This will include extensive surface scarring, widespread erosion, altered drainage patterns, changes in vegetation make up, degraded habitat and displacement of wildlife. Many have cited the Trans Alaska Pipeline corridor as an example of responsible environmental stewardship. The State and federal governments have cooperated to minimize environmental damage and protect the safety of the pipeline. Increasing public use of the Dalton Highway has focused attention on the relatively intact natural setting beyond the immediate structure of the pipeline itself. In effect, the pipeline corridor has become Alaska’s billboard for responsible resource development. If this bill becomes law, it is quite likely that image will be lost. |