Hatcher Pass Management Plan adopted by state

The State of Alaska recently adopted the Hatcher Pass Management Plan.

The plan affects almost 300 thousand acres of state land in the Hatcher Pass area.  It primarly deals with recreation, both motorized and non motorized and mining.  The plan is the revision of the 1986 management plan. There are more motorized restrictions than in the 1986 plan.  Government Peak is now a non-motorized area.  The West side, generally considered west of Summit Lake, is an area that remains open to year round motorized use.  There are no additional restrictions on that area.  The plan also modified the boundaries of the 2002 Hatcher Pass Special Use Area.  The modification was made to correspond to topographical features to help make the area more recognizable from the ground.  A number of other changes were made to the 1986 document.

By law, there is a 20 day period for reconsideration which begins on December 9^th. The state has requested that anyone affected by the decision to adopt the plan may request reconsideration.  Those requests are due to the state on December 28^th.