Scoping sessions are underway through June 29 in 16 communities, including Anchorage, to gather information about resources and related issues in advance of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources update of the 1986 Copper River Basin Area Plan, or CRBAP.
The scoping sessions, which are to conclude on Tuesday, June 29, at the Atwood building in downtown Anchorage, did not include one at Cordova because Cordova is in the Prince William Sound Area Plan boundary, said Monica Alvarez, section chief for the resources assessment and development section of DNR.
“Scoping is just that, to learn about the issues and help aid in revision of the plan,” Alvarez said.
“The plan only applies to state land within the plan boundary.”
The boundary of the CRBAP encompasses some 16 million acres of land within the Copper River Basin in the eastern portion of Southcentral Alaska. The state plan will address management of approximately 3.3 million acres of general state lands and waters within the plan boundary. It will not affect federal lands, university or mental health trust lands, borough or municipal lands, private lands, acreage owned by Alaska Native entities, or other state lands withdrawn from the public domain, according to Kevin Husa, CRBAP project manager.
Native corporations within the plan area are entitled to some 1.8 million acres. There are also numerous small tracts of privately owned land, particularly near Glennallen, Copper Center and Kenny Lake, and the University of Alaska manages some small tracts near Glennallen and McCarthy, DNR officials noted.
The bulk of the Copper River Basin planning area is rugged, mountainous landscape with large glaciers, wild and scenic rivers and boreal forests. Most of this acreage is federally owned and managed by the National Park Service or federal Bureau of Land Management. Its inhabitants include roust populations of caribou, Dall sheep, mountain goat, moose, bears and various fur-bearing mammals. The Copper River and its tributaries are the spawning grounds for the famed Copper River salmon fishery.
Alaska Native people have been at home in this environment for several thousand years. The area also includes several mining districts, some of which date back to the 19th century, with the discovery of gold, silver, copper and lead deposits. A portion of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline also runs through the plan area, terminating at Valdez, just southeast of the plan boundary.
All meetings were open to the public, even if they did not reside in specific communities where meetings were scheduled.
The first session, for the communities of Glennallen, Tazlina, Tolsona, Mendeltna, Gakona, Gulkana and Copper Center, was held on June 21 at Glennallen. Ohers were for Valdez in Valdez on June 22, for Kenny Lake, Tonsina and Willow Creek at Kenny Lake June 23, at Chitna for China and McCarthy on June 23, and at Mentasta Lake for Slana, Nabesna and Mentasta Lake on June 24.
Detailed information on the CRBAP planning process is online at cdv.tiny.us/crbap. Questions on the project can be directed to DNR at crbaprevision@alaska.gov.
