Help Us Secure Enduring Wildness For Denali National Park

The National Park Service is drafting a management plan that will govern the Park's backcountry for the next decade and beyond.

The agency has proposed only one alternative in the draft plan that adequately protects Denali's wilderness, wildlife, clean water, clean air, natural quiet and opportunities for primitive recreation. That is Alternative B. Please take a moment today to contact the National Park Service and urge adoption of Alternative B.

IMPORTANT: Federal agencies are increasingly discounting "form" letters sent via email. If you want your letter to have real impact, please add a sentence or two about why protecting wilderness (or wildlife) is important to you. Thanks so much!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Choose Alternative B for Denali

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Denali Backcountry Plan. Denali's wilderness character, world-famous wildlife, spectacular landscapes, clean air and water, natural sounds, and opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation must be protected. Only Alternative B promises to do so and to do so by complying with existing policy and law. I strongly support that alternative.

Denali's wilderness and wildlife face an unrelenting siege of human demands and uses. Recreational snowmobiling is incompatible with the purposes of the Park and should not be allowed in Denali. It produces unacceptable noise, air and water pollution, and disturbances to wildlife. Where recreational snowmobiling occurs, it quickly becomes the dominant use, sometimes the only use, degrading the experience of other visitors by destroying solitude and other intangible, symbolic values of wilderness. Ignoring this information would be inconsistent with NPS management policies, the Organic Act and the Redwood Act, all of which are aimed at keeping our National Parks unimpaired for future generations.

Growing demand for so-called "flightseeing" tours has caused a dramatic rise in air traffic and in conflicts. Now is the time for the National Park Service to establish meaningful overflight regulations and limits on landings, not to casually open Denali's backcountry to even more landings. Natural quiet, and the opportunity to hear and enjoy natural sounds, is rapidly disappearing from our public lands. Denali is no exception. But it surely ought to be.

The Park Service must complete the wilderness review and recommendation process that the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act mandates before it makes other management decisions. NPS management policies and the Wilderness Act of 1964 clearly direct the Park Service manage suitable wilderness lands as though they were designated wilderness until the Congress acts on a wilderness recommendation. I strongly urge you to do so.

I look forward to completion of a Denali Backcountry Plan that will protect and enhance the values of this great National Park for present and future generations.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
May 19, 2003

Background Information

BACKGROUND
Denali is the oldest and most famous National Park in Alaska. The Congress set it aside in 1917 to protect the its extraordinary wildlife populations. In 1980 Congress expanded the Park to 6 million acres and formally designated the original 2 million-acre core as wilderness. The National Park Service (NPS) is now accepting public comment on a backcountry management plan that will determine the future of this matchless place.

We're encouraged by the NPS's continued commitment to safeguard the 2- million-acre Wilderness core of Denali, also known as "the Old Park." The designated Wilderness of Denali has been closed to snowmachines since it was established in 1917. We also support the plan's proposal to allow aircraft to land in the Old Park only for emergencies and essential administrative purposes. Those provisions are consistent with the Park's enabling legislation.

A MOTORIZED INVASION OR QUIET BEAUTY?
But we adamantly oppose the Park Service's proposal to allow recreational snowmobiling and increased airplane landings in the other 4 million acres of Denali. The Denali we treasure today would not survive such uses.

Recreational snowmobiling is flatly incompatible with the purposes for which Denali was set aside and shouldn't in the Park. Anywhere. Period. The physical impacts of recreational snowmobiling are severe and well documented: unacceptable air and water pollution and disturbances to wildlife. Just as real are the impacts on the intangible but fundamental values of wilderness: solitude, natural quiet and natural sounds, the unhurried pace of human-powered recreation set against the noise and stink of motors.

Growing demand for airborne sightseeing tours has driven up dramatically air traffic over the Park's wilderness. By some estimates, Denali is second only to the Grand Canyon now as the Park with the most congested airspace. The swelling use has increased conflicts with hikers, climbers and local property owners. Natural quiet and the opportunity to hear and enjoy natural sounds are rapidly disappearing on nearly all of Alaska's accessible public lands. Denali is so far no exception, but it ought to be. The Park Service should do whatever it takes to establish meaningful overflight regulations and limits on landings.

Denali National Park and Preserve is, in fact and in law, a wilderness park. The 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act declared the Park's purposes to be preservation of those wilderness values. The National Park Service has found that virtually all 4 million acres of the 1980 additions qualify for wilderness designation. But the agency is now proposing uses incompatible with wilderness designation. The agency must protect all inventoried suitable wilderness until the Congress has acted on the wilderness recommendation.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please amend the letter we've provided to reflect your views, then click on Send This Message.