Alaska studies tundra impact

The Alaska Division of Mining, Land and Water is planning a study of the impact of various heavy equipment on tundra and will use approximately 80 acres of state land in the North Slope Borough to test impacts of tracked caterpillar D-7 dozer, wheeled front-end loader, tracked tucker snowcat, tracked challenger vehicle and other equipment.

The test will consist of operating the equipment off-road across tundra vegetation in two North Slope ecosystems: the coastal plain and foothill regions.

The division said it will use the study to generate data identifying the influence of snow depth, hoar frost depth, snow slab thickness, ground hardness and vegetation community with tundra resistance to disturbance from different types of travel vehicles.

Tests will be conducted from late October through mid-January.

The purpose of the study, the division said, is to determine environmental conditions that either exacerbate or mediate disturbance impacts associated with winter tundra travel. Test locations are near the Prudhoe Bay transportation infrastructure and the foothills study area is north of the Happy Valley staging area adjacent to the Dalton Highway corridor some 62 miles south of Prudhoe Bay.