Public workshops upcoming for the proposed Susitna Basin Plan overhaul

A potentially controversial overhaul of the 30-year-old Susitna Basin Recreation Rivers Management Plan continues by a panel of local officials, recreation users and stakeholders, local residents are invited to participate in the first in a set of public workshops and an online questionnaire on the subject.

The current plan, approved in 1991, is an almost 300-page document outlining use and management of six rivers in the Susitna Basin: Alexander Creek, Deshka River, Lake Creek, Little Susitna River, Talachulitna River and Talkeetna River. The plan impacts about 460 miles of waterway and about 260,000 acres. The vast majority of that land is state owned.

Officials with the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) say the plan update is needed thanks to changes in area use since the original was put in place through a law passed in 1988.

“Planning is a way of sorting through concerns and the many possibilities for using the river corridors,” DNR officials said in a release. “Developing plans can be challenging because people have differing ideas of how land and waters can best be used – and not all desired uses are compatible in the same place at the same time.”

The original plan includes fish camp limits; motorized boating, vehicle and aircraft landing restrictions; commercial and private permitting and construction limits; and strict mining restrictions, among other rules.

It’s thanks in part to those future mining projects that state officials are now pushing for change. A proposed 100-mile gravel road known as the WestSusitna Access Project would create access from Port Mackenzie to the Yentna Mining District, traversing over a section of the area protected by the current plan.

But building the road means overhauling the plan. A law proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2021, SB 97, would have instead effectively eliminated the management plan by repealing the recreational status of the five rivers, among other sweeping changes. That bill died in committee. Dunleavy at the same time also directed DNR to convene the current 13-member management plan committee, a step that did not require passing any new legislation.

Without the road project, the plan overhaul isn’t controversial beyond the normal squabbles between motorized and non-motorized recreation users, said Lee McKnight, a business owner in Wasilla and river user who recently wrote an op-ed calling the proposed road “a waste of money and a dead end.” It’s the combination of the two projects that makes the overhaul problematic, he said.

“What makes it controversial is the timing — trying to revamp this while trying to shove the road through. If they could wipe this plan out that would only pave the way for the road,” he said.

The proposed road project also requires approval of the Army Corps of Engineers and the completion of a federal-level environmental impact study. The state submitted that wetlands permit application to the Corps in late May. Their review process will likely take more than a year.

While the river planning committee holds an open meeting monthly with time set aside for public comment, the newly announced workshops and an online use questionnaire were created specifically to allow broader input, according to a DNR announcement.

“Alaskans are invited to become part of this planning effort by assisting DNR in identifying the range of issues that should be addressed during this effort and later by reviewing and commenting on draft documents,” they said in the release. “Public workshops will be held to gather information and discuss issues.”

Those workshops include:

June 29, 12-2 p.m.; Robert Attwood Room (104), Robert B. Atwood Building, Anchorage

June 30, 4:30-6:30 p.m.; Wasilla Public Library

Aug. 2, 1-3 p.m.; Virtual meeting via Microsoft Teams; more login information on the project website at https://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/planning/mgtplans/susitna-revision/.

A link to the questionnaire is also available on the project website.