Establishment of Moratorium on New Commercial Operations on the Gulkana National Wild River Throughout the Upcoming Limits of Acceptable Change Planning Process

Samenvatting

Public notice is hereby given that no new Special Recreation Permit applications for commercial operations on the Gulkana National Wild River will be authorized for a period of three years, the tentative time frame under which a Limits of Acceptable Change planning process to update the Gulkana National Wild River Management Plan of December, 1983, is expected to be completed. Only annual renewal applications submitted by qualified commercial operators authorized for at least one of the use seasons between 1995-1998 will be considered. No new types of use or requests for increases in levels of use by individual operators will be authorized during the moratorium. Since the original Gulkana National Wild River Management Plan was written in 1983, estimated visits to the river have nearly doubled, and commercial use, estimated in 1983 at 5% or less of all river use, is estimated to have increased to nearly 8%. This temporary moratorium is being established to stabilize the number of, and user days associated with, commercial outfitters during the planning process to update the Gulkana National Wild River Management Plan. Future use levels will be determined by the Limits of Acceptable