In a great victory for the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the support and urging of Wilderness Watch and our supporters around the country, decided in 2016 to site the Angoon Airport outside the boundaries of the Kootznoowoo Wilderness in southeast Alaska. The nearly million-acre Wilderness on Admiralty Island is home to a large population of grizzly bears and many other species of wildlife. A provision in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which designated this Wilderness, has a process that could allow for transportation and utility systems to be sited within Wilderness in Alaska.
Wilderness Watch fought to keep the Angoon Airport out of the Kootznoowoo Wilderness. We were the only conservation organization to testify against the State of Alaska’s proposal at a hearing in D.C. and we also urged the public to comment on the Angoon Airport Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
We learned earlier in 2016 that the Angoon City Council passed a unanimous resolution that supported siting the Angoon Airport withint he town limits of Angoon rather than in the Wilderness. The federal agencies involved in the decision had also been supporting the non-Wilderness option. Only the State of Alaska opposed the option to build the airport and its access road outside the Kootznoowoo Wilderness.
Thank you to all who opposed this intrusion in the Kooztnoowoo Wilderness—your public comments were not only noted by the FAA at the D.C. hearing, but made a difference!
Read our comments:
- DEIS comments
- Supplement to DEIS comments
- Read the decision
Photo: Don MacDougall (courtesy of Flickr)
