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Sixty Foot Tower Proposed for Glacier Bay |
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The U.S. Coast Guard is seeking National Park Service approval to install one or two search-and-rescue communication towers in Glacier Bay
One of the proposed sites is located in the Deception Hills area of the national preserve and would provide communication capability for the Fairweather Banks area of the Gulf of Alaska. A second proposed site would provide improved communication capability for the inside waters of Glacier Bay proper, according to the Park Service.
A typical installation consists of a 40- to 60-foot self-supporting tower with microwave dish, generator shed, fuel and battery storage, communication shed, wind generator, solar panel array, and, for the Deception Hills site, a 12-foot x 12-foot helicopter landing pad, the agency explained.
FOGB is concerned about a proposal to place one of these installations atop Willoughby Island--where it would visually mar an otherwise wild and natural viewshed for hundreds of thousands of visitors each summer.
To see the FOGB comment letter, click HERE.
To see the NPCA comment letter, click HERE.
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Friends of Glacier Bay held its annual meeting on September 19th, 2009. We heard from Cherry Payne, superintendent of the park, on various aspects of park business. We also listened to a great presentation from Jim Macoviak about the early history of industrial logging in the Tongass National Forest. Minutes from the meeting are below.
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Read more...
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New legislation could give hundreds of thousands of Tongass and Glacier Bay acres to native corporations.
Two pieces of legislation have recently cropped up again. One would allow Sealaska to cherrypick top Tongass wildands in order to finalize its lands entitlements. The other would create five new native corporations.
Sealaska Bill
Senator Murkowski and U.S. Rep. Don Young introduced “revised” Sealaska bill (S. 881 and H.R 2099), on April 23, 2009, and Senator Begich co-sponsored the Senate legislation.
The “revised” bills fail to address major public concerns and comments raised with earlier versions of the bill. The Alaska Delegation needs to hear from you that this bill misses the mark. We need to see a balanced approach that addresses all the needs of the forest.
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 Mission
Friends of Glacier Bay is dedicated to ecological integrity, opportunities for solitude and appropriate research in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
The purposes of Friends of Glacier Bay are to:
- Serve as a forum for discussion, education and action on issues affecting Glacier Bay national Park and Preserve.
- Provide an organized means by which individuals' experience and knowledge of the Park can be retained as an influence on the management and management philosophy of the Park.
- Work with the National Park Service to ensure that Park management strives to maintain the natural environment in a pristine condition.
- Support scientific research that provides a better understanding of Park ecosystems and practices sound ethics in order to have the least possible impact on the Glacier Bay landscape.
- Support the interests of human communities associated with the Park to the extent compatible with Friends of Glacier Bay core purposes.
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