Lake Clark National Park and Preserve | Alaska National Park Service General Management Plan Amendment U.S
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Lake Clark National Park and Preserve | Alaska National Park Service General Management Plan Amendment U.S. Department of the Interior Alaska Lake Clark National Park And P reserve Lake Clark National Park and Preserve General Management Plan Amendment General General AUGUST 2016 Management Plan Amendment AUGUST 2016 AUGUST U.S. Department of the Interior | National Park Service | Denver Service Center As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural resources. This includes fostering sound use of our land and water resources; protecting our fish, wildlife, and biological diversity; preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historic places; and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to ensure that their development is in the best interests of all our people by encouraging stewardship and citizen participation in their care. The department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S. administration. NPS 188/120817 August 2016 Cover photo of red kayak: © Kent Miller. All other cover photos: NPS. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Alaska August 2016 LAKE CLARK NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE GENERAL MANAGEMENT PLAN AMENDMENT SUMMARY LAKE CLARK NATIONAL PARK PLANNING PURPOSE AND NEED AND PRESERVE General management plans are required for all Lake Clark National Park and Preserve was units of the national park system and are established on December 2, 1980, under the intended to establish the future management Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation direction of a park unit. General management Act (ANILCA) and is a unit of the national plans look 15 to 20 years into the future and park system. Located in southwest Alaska, consider the park system holistically in its full Lake Clark National Park and Preserve covers ecological and cultural context and as part of a approximately 4 million acres of land and is a surrounding region. This Lake Clark National microcosm of many regions of Alaska. Park and Preserve General Management Plan Elevations range from sea level to Mount Amendment provides comprehensive Redoubt’s 10,197 feet. Approximately guidance for conserving natural and cultural 2,572,000 acres of the park are designated resources, protecting wilderness values, and wilderness. The park’s spectacular scenery providing opportunities for a quality visitor stretches from the shores of Cook Inlet, across experience at Lake Clark National Park and the Chigmit Mountains, to the tundra-covered Preserve. hills of the interior. The Chigmits, where the Alaska and Aleutian ranges meet, are an A comprehensive general management plan awesome, jagged array of mountains and for the park and preserve was developed in glaciers, which include two active volcanoes, 1984. This plan amendment updates the 1984 Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna. Lake general management plan. This plan is part of Clark, 42 miles long and the sixth-largest lake a larger planning framework for Lake Clark in Alaska, and many other lakes and rivers National Park and Preserve, which includes within the park are key salmon habitat for the this plan, a park foundation, and other Bristol Bay salmon fishery, one of the largest elements of the park’s planning portfolio. sockeye salmon fishing grounds in the world. The park also contains three designated wild The purpose of this plan amendment is to rivers: the Chilikadrotna, Mulchatna, and the address how the National Park Service (NPS) Tlikakila rivers. can best fulfill Lake Clark National Park and Preserve’s purpose, maintain its significance, Lake Clark National Park’s nearly 2.6 million and protect its resources unimpaired for the acres include the rugged Chigmit Mountains enjoyment of present and future generations. as well as 123 miles of coastline along Cook It updates the 1984 plan to current NPS Inlet. Lake Clark National Preserve adjoins standards for zoning and articulates desired the national park to the south and west. It future conditions for resources and visitor contains more than 1.4 million acres and experience. The plan amendment does not adjoins the park, with rolling foothills, boreal provide specific and detailed answers to every forests, alpine lakes, wild rivers, and sweeping issue, but serves as a framework to assist NPS expanses of tundra. Sport hunting is allowed managers in making decisions today and in the in the preserve under federal and future. nonconflicting state laws and regulations, pursuant to ANILCA sections 203 and 1313 and 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 13.40(d). Federally qualified subsistence use, including hunting and trapping, are allowed in both the park and preserve. i HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PLAN Three to eight cabins will be designated for AMENDMENT public use. The Richard L. Proenneke Historic Site will be managed as an open-air exhibit. The Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Any cabins designated beyond the first three General Management Plan Amendment will require a cost benefit analysis to expands opportunities for a diversity of visitor determine whether visitor need exists and activities and would protect and maintain park resources are available to support wilderness and park resources. It provides management of the additional cabins. A range more prescriptive management in areas that of management actions are available to protect receive higher visitor use such as in the the resources in high-use destination areas. A preserve near Lake Clark and in some coastal modest approach to improved infrastructure areas. Other changes include expanded will be provided, such as support for some interpretive services and commercial expanded primitive camping areas and trails. activities, backcountry hiking trails, and water routes. ii CONTENTS Summary .................................................................................................................................................... i Lake Clark National Park and Preserve......................................................................................................... 1 Planning Purpose and Need ........................................................................................................................ 1 Highlights of The Plan Amendment ............................................................................................................ ii Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Brief Description and History of the Park ..................................................................................................... 3 Purpose of and Need for the GMP Amendment .................................................................................... 9 Portfolio of Management Plans for Lake Clark National Park and Preserve ................................................ 10 Guidance for Planning ............................................................................................................................ 13 Purpose of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve ................................................................................. 13 Significance of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve ........................................................................... 13 Fundamental Resources and Values ...................................................................................................... 14 Special Mandates and Administrative Commitments Related to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve . 14 Key Laws, Regulations, and Policies ....................................................................................................... 15 Planning issues and concerns addressed by the GMP amendment ............................................................ 17 Human Impacts on Natural and Cultural Resources ............................................................................... 17 Visitor Use and Experience .................................................................................................................... 17 Cabin Management .............................................................................................................................. 18 Management of the Richard L. Proenneke Historic Site ......................................................................... 18 Commercial Services ............................................................................................................................. 18 Determination of Eligibility for Wilderness Designation.......................................................................... 19 Planning issues and concerns not addressed in the GMP amendment ....................................................... 19 Subsistence Use .................................................................................................................................... 19 Proposals for Wilderness Designation .................................................................................................... 20 Port Alsworth Area ............................................................................................................................... 20 External Pressures and Boundary Issues ................................................................................................