Fish and Wildlife begins ANWR plan update

Plan to consider new wilderness designations draws protests from Gov. Parnell, Sen. Begich; would require congressional approval

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said April 6 that it is beginning an update of the 22-year-old comprehensive conservation plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The plan will establish goals and objectives and include wilderness and wild and scenic river reviews, the agency said.

Alaska objections to consideration of new wilderness designations within ANWR were immediate and bipartisan, with protests from U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, and Alaska’s Republican governor, Sean Parnell.

“The Obama administration is wrong to pursue new wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or anywhere else in Alaska,” Begich said in a statement. “I’ll fight any effort to block development of the enormous oil and gas likely beneath the Arctic Refuge. I’ll work through my position on the Senate Budget Committee to cut any funding for this effort, and with the other members of Alaska’s congressional delegation to short-circuit this unnecessary, money-wasting review,” he said.

Parnell said the wilderness recommendations in ANWR would preclude oil and gas development in the region.

“The oil and gas, wilderness, and wildlife values of the coastal plain have already been studied and this study previously has been submitted to Congress,” the governor said in a statement. “It is a mistake for the federal government to initiate yet another planning process in ANWR, the most promising unexplored petroleum region in North America.”

The governor said the State of Alaska would participate “vigorously” in the public comment on the conservation plan and said oil development in ANWR would provide oil for the nation, tens of thousands of jobs throughout the country and ensure that the trans-Alaska oil pipeline continues to operate for years.

The planning process will begin with public meetings to discuss issues and future goals for stewardship of ANWR in April and May in Anchorage, Arctic Village, Fairbanks, Fort Yukon, Kaktovik and Venetie; dates and times will be announced later. There will also be a public meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 4.

A draft plan will be released for public review and comment in February 2011 and a final plan and record of decision will be issued in April 2012.

As part of the planning process, Fish and Wildlife may inventory, study and possibly propose areas suitable for wilderness within the National Wilderness Preservation System. A wilderness area recommendation would be forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior for consideration and any new wilderness designation would require congressional approval.

Alaska Regional Fish and Wildlife Service Director Geoffrey Haskett said the current plan for ANWR “is more than 20 years old, and much has changed since then. New laws and policies have been enacted, climate change has emerged as a concern, the Dalton Highway has opened to the public and visitor patterns have changed.”

Information about the planning process for ANWR is posted at http://arctic.fws.gov/ccp.htm.