On May 11th, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will hold a public meeting in Anchorage allowing individuals to learn about and provide comments on the planned update of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 22 year-old Comprehensive Conservation Plan. The meeting will be held in the Service’s Alaska Regional Office, at 1011 East Tudor Road. An information/poster session will be held in the building’s atrium from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Public comments will be taken in the Gordon Watson Conference Room from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Comprehensive Conservation Plan is intended to establish refuge management goals and objectives and will include wilderness and wild and scenic river reviews. A comprehensive conservation plan is required for each national wildlife refuge national wildlife refuge
A national wildlife refuge is typically a contiguous area of land and water managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the conservation and, where appropriate, restoration of fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.
Learn more about national wildlife refuge , guides stewardship of the refuge and is normally updated every 15 years.
In addition to the Anchorage meeting, similar gatherings will be or have been held in Washington D.C., Arctic Village, Fairbanks, Fort Yukon, Kaktovik, and Venetie. The meetings are intended to help the Service identify issues and draft alternatives for future stewardship of the refuge. After evaluating public comments, the Service will release a draft plan for public review and comment in February 2011. Based upon a thorough review of comments, the Service plans to issue the final plan and record of decision in April 2012.
As part of the planning process for Alaska refuges, the Service may inventory, study, and possibly propose areas suitable for wilderness within the National Wilderness Preservation System. Wilderness areas preserve a landscape’s natural conditions for the benefit and use of the American people. A wilderness area wilderness area
Wilderness areas are places untamed by humans. The Wilderness Act of 1964 allows Congress to designate wilderness areas for protection to ensure that America's pristine wild lands will not disappear. Wilderness areas can be part of national wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests or public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Learn more about wilderness area recommendation by the Service is forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior for consideration. Any new wilderness designation requires Congressional approval.
Additional information about the planning process, including instructions on how to submit written comments, is posted at: http://arctic.fws.gov/ccp.htm.
