Conservationists blocked the effort in two major struggles in the past 25 years, but the state now wants to make the rail bed into a trail. Serious planning would start this year, with construction in 2001. Conservationists are gearing up to fight those plans too. The syndicate planned to extend its railroad into interior Alaska, using coal from the nearby fields. But Roosevelt stymied the powerful businessmen, putting the region off-limits to development and creating Chugach National Forest.
Conservationists hope the past is prologue.
Last fall, Congress refused to allow construction of a 30-mile road along the eastern side of the Copper River Delta. The defeat for the Alaska congressional delegation, which introduced the proposal, came after NWF and a coalition of other environmental groups and Alaska Native organizations argued that the proposal bypassed normal environmental review. Conservationists warn the road, which would enable extraction of rain-forest timber from land owned by Chugach Alaska Corporation, could harm 250 streams, many of which support spawning fish such as sockeye salmon. NWF now hopes to convince the Native-owned corporation to sell a conservation easement rather than cut its trees. Copyright 1999 National Wildlife Federation.