State-owned lands in the upper and lower foothills closed for off-road travel April 26.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining, Land and Water said April 26 that off-road travel in progress within the upper and lower foothills must be completed within 72 hours — by noon April 29. Any exceptions must have prior approval from the division, Gary Schultz, Division of Mining, Land and Water natural resources manager, said in an April 26 notice.
“Spring has come to the North Slope,” Schultz said in an e-mail accompanying the closure notice. He said current temperatures in the foothills were above 40 degrees Fahrenheit with chance of rain or snow forecast.
He said conditions were near freezing in the coastal areas, with a chance of rain or snow forecast there.
Schultz said DNR is not closing the coastal tundra opening areas because those areas “have a lot of snow on the ground” and cooling temperatures are forecast for later in the week.
Conditions are not good for travel in the coastal areas during the day, he said, and advised limiting travel in those areas to nights when temperatures are below freezing.
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early, even the slimmed-down version is going to be in for a little more surgery.”
The White House objects to the bill’s multibillion-dollar price tag of tax incentives and appropriations, and House and Senate leaders still disagree whether to include a liability waiver for manufacturers of the octane-enhancing gasoline additive MTBE. The Senate Energy Committee version does not include the waiver — which was in the bill that failed to pass the full chamber last fall — and House leaders want it back in.
