All state land open for tundra travel

On March 1 the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, announced the opening of the lower foothills area of state land for winter off-road tundra travel. Monitoring of the area has found the required opening criteria of 9 inches of snow and temperatures below minus 5 degrees C, DNR said. The announcement means that all state land north of the Brooks Range is now open for tundra travel for operators with appropriate permits.

DNR cautioned that although overall snow cover is good, the snow may be thin in some areas — off-road vehicle travel requires adequate frost and snow cover.

The department opened the western coastal area of state land on Dec. 23, the upper foothills on Jan. 4 and the eastern coastal area on Jan. 31. Although it is not permissible to drive off-road on the tundra with a regular vehicle until DNR has opened the land for tundra travel, companies planning to conduct winter activities off the road system often use vehicles certified to operate on the tundra to pre-pack ice roads prior to the tundra travel opening, to achieve a prompt start to ice-road construction.

—Alan Bailey