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North Slope closed for off-road travel
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
All North Slope lands, state and federal, are now closed for winter off-road travel.
The latest closing was for National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Mike Worley of BLM’s Arctic field office said April 29 that NPR-A tundra travel would close at 12:01 a.m. May 1. “Ice roads and snow-packed trails have become soft and impassable, requiring an end to their use. All stream crossings have been breached,” he said in an e-mail.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Mining, Land and Water closed off-road travel in the upper and lower foothills areas as of noon April 26 and said that off-road travel in progress within the upper and lower foothills must be completed within 72 hours — by noon April 29.
State-owned North Slope coastal lands were closed for off-road winter travel effective noon April 28; the 72-hour completion window for off-road now in progress in eastern and western coastal areas is noon May 1.
Any exceptions must have prior approval from the division, Gary Schultz, Division of Mining, Land and Water natural resources manager, said in notices for closures issued April 26 and April 28.
Spring on the slope “Spring has come to the North Slope,” Schultz said in an e-mail accompanying the April 26 closure notice. He said current temperatures in the foothills were above 40 degrees Fahrenheit with a chance of rain or snow forecast.
He said in an e-mail accompanying the April 28 closure notice: “Due to the record-breaking warm temperatures we are experiencing on the North Slope, snow has deteriorated to the point where DNR is closing state-owned lands to off-road travel.”
Schultz said temperatures were forecast to moderate toward the end of the week of April 27 and ice roads might still be in good shape, so extensions for the continued use of ice roads might be available from the division.
Summer off-road travel on state lands will begin at 6 a.m. July 15 unless the division notifies otherwise. Summer off-road travel approval applies only to those holders of valid permits who obtain specific approval and is further limited to those vehicles approved by the division for summer off-road travel.
The division opened the upper foothills for tundra travel Feb. 10, the last of the North Slope state areas to be opened for travel. The eastern and western coastal areas opened Dec. 29; the lower foothills opened Jan. 14.
BLM opened NPR-A to tundra travel Dec. 19.
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