II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 873 

To designate the wilderness within the Lake Clark National Park and 

Preserve in the State of Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 26, 2015 

Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. SULLIVAN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To designate the wilderness within the Lake Clark National 

Park and Preserve in the State of Alaska as the Jay 

S. Hammond Wilderness Area. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Jay S. Hammond Wil5 derness Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 

8 (1) on July 21, 1922, Jay Sterner Hammond 

9 was born in Troy, New York; 


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1 (2) Hammond studied petroleum engineering at 

2 Penn State University, where he was a member of 

3 the Triangle Fraternity; 

4 (3) Hammond later served as a Marine Corps 

5 fighter pilot, serving— 

6 (A) during World War II with the famous 

7 Black Sheep Squadron in the South Pacific; 

8 and 

9 (B) in China from 1945–1946; 

10 (4) after leaving military service, Hammond 

11 flew to Alaska, where Hammond worked as a Bush 

12 pilot, trapper, guide, and laborer; 

13 (5) a war-related illness caused Hammond to 

14 enroll at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where 

15 Hammond earned his degree in biological sciences in 

16 1949; 

17 (6) after graduating from the University of 

18 Alaska, Fairbanks, Hammond went to work as a bi19 ologist, field agent, and hunter for the United States 

20 Fish and Wildlife Service; 

21 (7) in 1950, Hammond was transferred to 

22 Southwest Alaska, where Hammond— 

23 (A) conducted predator and prey studies 

24 on the caribou herd of the Alaska Peninsula; 

25 and 


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1 (B) conducted fisheries enforcement efforts 

2 out of Dillingham as a pilot; 

3 (8) Hammond— 

4 (A) was 1 of the first people to count 64 

5 brown bears at McNeil River in Southwest 

6 Alaska; and 

7 (B) once recorded nearly 500,000 Black 

8 Brant geese eclipsing the sun at Izembek Bay; 

9 (9) Hammond later cruised the entire shoreline 

10 of 45-mile-long Lake Clark counting wildlife and 

11 finding a future homestead site on the shore of Lake 

12 Clark; 

13 (10) upon Alaska entering the Union in 1959, 

14 Hammond ran and won election to the Alaska State 

15 House of Representatives; 

16 (11) Hammond served as an independent in the 

17 Alaska State House of Representatives from 1959 to 

18 1965; 

19 (12) in 1960, Hammond changed his party af20 filiation to Republican; 

21 (13) after 3 terms in the Alaska State House 

22 of Representatives, Hammond served as a State sen23 ator from 1967 to 1973; 

24 (14) from 1972 to 1974, Hammond served as 

25 mayor of the Bristol Bay Borough; 


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1 (15) during the 1960s and early 1970s, Ham2 mond served as the manager of Bristol Bay Borough 

3 during periods in which the State legislature was not 

4 in session; 

5 (16) in 1974, Hammond was drafted by friends 

6 to run for Governor of Alaska, defeating former Re7 publican Walter J. Hickel in the primary, and de8 feating the first Governor of the State, Democrat 

9 William A. Egan, in the general election; 

10 (17) the 1974 campaign for Governor was 

11 dominated by— 

12 (A) the opposition of Hammond to oil leas13 ing in Kachemak Bay; 

14 (B) concern about State salmon fisheries 

15 and environmental management; and 

16 (C) fear about State overspending after the 

17 discovery of oil on the North Slope; 

18 (18) Hammond— 

19 (A) won the Republican primary for Gov20 ernor in 1974 by 7,874 votes; and 

21 (B) won the general election for Governor 

22 in 1974 by a mere 221 votes after 2 recounts; 

23 (19) in 1978, Hammond again defeated Walter 

24 J. Hickel in the Republican primary by 98 votes, the 


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1 closest margin in a statewide election in the history 

2 of Alaska; 

3 (20) Hammond defeated Walter J. Hickel, a 

4 write-in candidate, and Democrat Chancy Croft in 

5 the 1978 General Election by 16,000 votes; 

6 (21) as Governor, Hammond— 

7 (A) oversaw construction of the Trans8 Alaska Pipeline; 

9 (B) championed the creation of the Alaska 

10 Permanent Fund; 

11 (C) authored the Alaska Permanent Fund 

12 Dividend program, which provides citizens of 

13 Alaska a yearly dividend check from interest 

14 earnings of the State share of petroleum reve15 nues placed in the Alaska Permanent Fund; 

16 (D) won approval of a constitutional budg17 et reserve; 

18 (E) opposed the repeal of the State income 

19 tax; 

20 (F) championed agricultural development 

21 in Interior Alaska; and 

22 (G) oversaw the purchase of the Alaska 

23 Railroad by the State; 

24 (22) with respect to environmental issues, 

25 Hammond— 


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1 (A) opposed construction of a proposed 

2 Ramparts hydroelectric dam on the Yukon 

3 River; 

4 (B) supported the congressional creation of 

5 a 200-mile fisheries zone off the coast of the 

6 State, which improved State fishery stocks; 

7 (C) oversaw the creation of a limited entry 

8 fisheries regime in the State; 

9 (D) oversaw the creation of the largest 

10 State park in the United States, the Wood 

11 Tikchik State Park in Southwest Alaska, which 

12 contains 1,600,000 acres of wilderness; and 

13 (E) in 1980, as Governor, oversaw the en14 actment of the Alaska National Interest Lands 

15 Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.), 

16 which— 

17 (i) dissolved the placement of 

18 120,000,000 acres of Alaska into protected 

19 status under chapter 3203 of title 54, 

20 United States Code; 

21 (ii) designated 104,000,000 acres of 

22 land as units of the National Park System, 

23 units of the National Wildlife Refuge Sys24 tem, National Monuments, components of 

25 the National Wilderness Preservation SysVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:31 Apr 03, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S873.IS S873

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1 tem, and components of the National Wild 

2 and Scenic Rivers System; 

3 (iii) added 5,500,000 acres in 14 new 

4 units of the National Wilderness Preserva5 tion System; 

6 (iv) added more than 40,000,000 

7 acres in 10 new units of the National Park 

8 System, including the 3,860,000-acre Lake 

9 Clark National Park and Preserve, bring10 ing to 54,000,000 acres the total size of 

11 National Park System holdings in the 

12 State; 

13 (v) added a number of new units of 

14 the National Wildlife Refuge System in the 

15 State, bringing to 19 the number of units 

16 of the National Wildlife Refuge System 

17 covering 76,800,000 acres in the State; 

18 (vi) created 13 components of the Na19 tional Wild and Scenic Rivers System run20 ning 3,131 miles; and 

21 (vii) resulted in Alaska containing 

22 57,900,000 acres of wilderness; 

23 (23) a talented and prolific writer and poet, 

24 Hammond— 


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1 (A) presented to the University of Alaska 

2 Library Archives an impressive collection of 

3 speeches, testimony, notebooks, and papers; and 

4 (B) wrote several books on life in Alaska, 

5 including his first book entitled ‘‘Tales of Alas6 ka’s Bush Rat Governor’’; 

7 (24) Hammond died on August 2, 2005, at age 

8 83, in his sleep, at his homestead at Port Alsworth, 

9 Alaska, after having survived— 

10 (A) 5 plane crashes; and 

11 (B) innumerable close calls with death, in12 cluding during— 

13 (i) Hammond’s first flight to Alaska 

14 and numerous subsequent flights during 

15 Hammond’s 59 years in the State; and 

16 (ii) a fire at the homestead at Lake 

17 Clark; 

18 (25) Hammond was survived by— 

19 (A) his wife, Bella; and 

20 (B) his daughters, Heidi and Dana; 

21 (26) Hammond— 

22 (A) was well-respected for reaching across 

23 the aisle to forge bipartisan alliances; and 

24 (B) enjoyed many close friendships— 


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1 (i) with colleagues in both political 

2 parties; and 

3 (ii) members of his staff, who were 

4 deeply loyal to Hammond; and 

5 (27) the designation of the 2,600,000 acres of 

6 wilderness in Lake Clark National Park and Pre7 serve, in which the homestead of Hammond is lo8 cated, would— 

9 (A) honor Hammond; and 

10 (B) be a fitting tribute to the honorable 

11 life and legacy of Hammond, who was described 

12 by the Anchorage Municipal Assembly on Au13 gust 7, 2005, as ‘‘the finest example of a true 

14 public servant . . . there are few men who have 

15 influence through their quiet articulation of 

16 what is right and fair in the way of Jay Ham17 mond’’. 

18 SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF JAY S. HAMMOND WILDERNESS 

19 AREA. 

20 (a) DESIGNATION.—The approximately 2,600,000 

21 acres of National Wilderness Preservation System land lo22 cated within the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve 

23 designated by section 201(e)(7)(a) of the Alaska National 

24 Interest Lands Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 


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1 410hh(e)(7)(a)) shall be known and designated as the 

2 ‘‘Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area’’. 

3 (b) REFERENCES.—Any reference in a law, map, reg4 ulation, document, paper, or other record of the United 

5 States to the wilderness area referred to in subsection (a) 

6 shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘‘Jay S. Ham7 mond Wilderness Area’’. 

Æ 


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