WW has been urging the Forest Service (FS) to protect and improve the wilderness character of the largest Wilderness Study Area (WSA) in the country—the nearly two million-acre Nellie Juan-College Fiord WSA in Alaska. On October 29, 2019, we filed an Objection to the FS's Chugach Forest Plan Revision Draft Record of Decision, the Final Land Management Plan, and the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
The Congressionally-designated Nellie Juan-College Fiord WSA on the Chugach National Forest in Alaska’s western Prince William Sound is an ecological and scenic treasure of ancient rainforest, wild salmon, remote islands, and stunning mountains and glaciers.
In January 2020, Wilderness Watch participated in an objection resolution meeting with the Forest Service and later that month, the Forest Service responded to our Objection by denying nearly all of our concerns. The one silver lining is that the Forest Service will define the baseline character of the WSA within a year. Such a study will help conservationists hold the FS accountable for degradation of the WSA going forward, but of course will not measure the degradation that has occurred from 1980 until the present.
Background: The FS’s Draft Land and Resource Management Plan for the Chugach National Forest (NF) in Alaska was an improvement over its 2016 proposed plan. However, WW had urged the FS to strengthen the current proposed Forest Plan with the following changes:
In 2016, WW urged the Forest Service to:
Photo: Nellie Juan-College Fiord WSA by Frank Kovalchek
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