I recommend that amendments be made to this bill that would encourage state and municipal land trades to add additional land to the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge (ACWR) while providing for a corridor for the future South Coastal Trail.
As background, most of the opposition to the South Coastal Trail has focused on cost, private property impacts and wildlife impacts. Friends of the Coastal Trail has recently completed a review of the project and has identified several areas where land trades would dramatically lower cost and reduce private property impacts that result from a coastal route, while adding significant unprotected public lands to the Refuge. The attached note describes this review. More information is available for the record to back up the analysis.
The review shows that less than 10 acres of the 32,000 acre refuge would be required to develop a corridor for a future trail. The trades would result in a future trail corridor that, compared to a trail that stays out of the refuge, reduces cost by $16-$18 million and reduces private property impacts by 85%, affecting only 25 parcels. In return, 150 acres of municipal and state land not currently in the refuge could be protected by inclusion in the ACWR.
The land trades would serve addition benefit by allowing the refuge boundaries to be better defined and managed from an ecosystem perspective. Currently, the boundaries are arbitrary, based on old section lines and surveys, and not based on biology.
If the Legislature wishes to help the Refuge manage surface transportation issues, then amending AS 16.20.031 to encourage or allow such land trades to occur would be the most useful step in managing the Refuge for its primary purpose..."for the use and enjoyment of the people of the state".
Moreover, the ADF&G Management Plan for the ACWR says "The refuge contains a very small slice of the wetland and wildlife resources in the state. Thus, its biological importance to survival of the wildlife species is less important that its role in promoting public education and appreciation of wetlands and wildlife". This management directive indicates that a trail corridor adjacent to the refuge is consistent and desirable.
As a professional engineer and former chief engineer for the Municipality of Anchorage, I can assure you the cost savings and property impact reductions in this review are real, achievable, and reasonable ideas that have been worked in some detail by engineers and construction professionals.
Please note that twelve community councils in Anchorage have passed resolutions supporting the coastal trail routing along the coast.
Thank you.
Dave Norton, P.E.
Friends of the Coastal Trail
907 229 4457