9/5/78 • NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE IN ALASKA NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE IN ALASKA VALUES AND RESOURCE ANALYSIS - RECREATION RESOURCES PRESENT SITUATION AND RESOURCE POTENTIAL BY NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE IN ALASK~ TASK FORCE NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE IN ALASKA TASK FORCE STUDY REPORT 2-7 1978 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 PRESENT SITUATION 3 Recreation Resources and Uses 3 Backpacking/Hiking 4 Boating 7 Sightseeing 11 Hunting 20 Fishing 31 Winter Activities 34 Tourism 35 Management Areas 39 National Wild Rivers 40 RECREATION RESOURCE OPPORTUNITIES 45 Recreation Use 45 Activity Opportunities 46 Backpacking/Hiking 46 Boating 47 Sightseeing 48 Hunting and Fishing 49 Winter Activities 52 52 Tourism Management Areas 54 56 SELECTED REFERENCES ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Photograph of backpacker along the Ipnavik River in the De Long Mountains. 6 Figure 2 Photograph of boaters on the Utukok River. 6 Figure 3 Overlay showing areas suitable for some 8 recreation activities. Figure 4 Photograph of sightseers along the Colville 10 River. Figure 5 Photograph of kayakers at Noktuklek River 10 in Kasegaluk Lagoon. Figure 6 Overlay showing 9 wildlife viewing areas. 12 Figure 7 Photograph of house pit remains at Kinyiksukvik Lake. 21 Figure 8 Photograph of caribou herd near Kakvuiyat Bend on the Colville River. 23 Figure 9 Overlay showing major hunting areas. 25 Figure 10 Photograph of Lake Trout. 33 Figure 11 Photograph of cross-country skiers near Driftwood Creek. 33 Figure 12 Photograph of tourists boarding the tour 37 bus in Barrow. Figure 13 Overlay showing rivers examined for possible inclusion in the National Rivers System. 42 TABLES 1 Projected recreation participation and tourism 2 People participating in air tours to NPR-A. CONVERSION TABLE For those readers who may prefer to use metric {SI) units rather than the commonly used American units, the conversion factors for the units in this report area given below. Multiply American Units To obtain metric {SI) units Feet (ft) 0.304 Meter (m) Miles (mi) 1.609 Kilometers (km) Acres (ac) 0.407 Hectares (ha) Inches (in} 2.54 Centimeters (em} Gallons (gal) 3.785 Liters (L) 1 INTRODUCTION The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) is a vast Arctic land area with relatively limited recreation resources in comparison to its size. Certain areas of the Reserve are, however, well suited for such outdoor recreation activities as backpacking, floatboating, camping, fishing, hunting, and winter sports. With the small resident population, costly access, lack of facilities and few visitors, the Reserve is currently underutilitized and could support additional recreational use in the future. This report describes the recreational resources within NPR-A, existing recreational use of those resources, and opportunities to enhance or protect this land use. The use of resources in NPR-A by local residents is not addressed in this report (except for some data on wildlife harvest) because the local use of NPR-A resources is deeply entrenched in a predominantly subsistence lifestyle. Many Natives believe recreation to be an alien concept, one that does not apply to their use of the land. They view activities such as hunting and fishing as a necessary part of their subsistence culture and not as an amenity activity as it may 2 be considered by an outsider. An in-depth discussion of this use of resources by the local residents of NPR-A and an explanation of their perspective on recreation, including traditional and modern forms, can be found in the Community Value Chapter of the Overview volume. 3 PRESENT SITUATION Recreation Resources and Use Despite the immense size of NPR-A, recreational use of the Reserve represents only about 1 percent of total recreation use statewide. Most of the current recreation-oriented activity is in the form of organized tour groups; about 4,400 people came to Barrow in 1977. (See subsection on Tourism.) The number of additional people currently coming to NPR-A to enjoy the sightseeing, hiking, camping, boating, and other recreation opportunities available in portions of NPR-A is very small, probably less than 250 people annually. Estimates of existing and projected recreation oriented use in NPR-A are shown in table 1. Due to the lack of roads to or within NPR-A, access is by aircraft. Commercial air service is available to Barrow, and to Kotzebue and Bettles south of the Reserve. Aircraft are available for charter at these three airports as well as at Umiat on the Colville River. Charter costs generally start at between $100 and 125 per hour (Cessna 185) and increase depending on the type of aircraft chartered and flying time. Guide services are an additional cost and vary with the type of guided activity (for example, a three week hunting trip costs about $4,500 per person from Barrow). 4 One of the more attrative features of NPR-A are those activities associated with the naturalness of the Reserve (backpacking, cross-country skiing, float trips, observing wildlife, etc.). They are not however, by themselves, exceptional. But coupled with the remoteness of the area makes these wilderness experiences almost incomparable to any other in the United States. Even in Alaska there are few areas, such as NPR-A, where one can be 100 or more miles from the closest village or location of human activity. The principal outdoor recreation activities available in NPR-A are described in the sections which follow. Backpacking/Hiking Very little backpacking (overnight trip) or hiking (day use) presently takes place within NPR-A. It is likely that less than five recreational backpacking parties (four people per party) enter NPR-A each year, and this use is probably limited to the upper Nigu River area. Most of the hiking occurs in the vicinity of the villages, particularly along the coast (see NPR-A Study Report 2-2}. It also occurs in the major river valleys in conjunction with floatboating activities. The backpacking/hiking season is rather short, generally from late June to early September. There are no 5 developed hiking trails. Access for backpacking is by aircraft to the larger lakes and gravel bars. Opportunities for cross country hiking or backpacking in the majority of NPR-A are very poor (fig 1). The vast areas of tussocks and/or wet, boggy terrain throughout all of the coastal plain, most of the foothills area, and some of the mountains are, for practical purposes, impassible. Most of the consistently good terrain for walking is in a narrow corridor of the De Long Mountains along the southern boundary of NPR-A (iig 1) . Along the many barren ridges and along the gravel creek beds the terrain is conducive to extended backpack trips. Travelers may cover many miles following creeks and ridge tops with only short distances on wet or tussock terrain between the ridges and creeks to be crossed. The scenery is more varied here than elsewhere in NPR-A, and good camping sites and drinking water are available. Within the mountains and foothills regions are numerous easily climbed rock outcrops, ridges, and low mountain peaks [not over about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) high] which provide excellent vantage points for viewing the landscape. Oppor­ tunities for technical rock climbing such as those found in the central Brooks Range east of NPR-A are not present in the De Long Mountains. Hiking possibilities also exist along some of the major rivers such as the Colville and Utukok. Travelers may hike 6 Figure 1 Ipnavik River in the De Long Mountains Figure 2 Rafters on the Utukok River 7 short distances along the river or to nearby ridges in conjunction with float trips. In a few locations the terrain is conducive for backpacking between major river systems, such as along Carbon Creek and Lookout Ridge between the Utukok and Colville River drainages. Boating Very little recreational use is made of the rivers in NPR-A. It is estimated that fewer than a half dozen multi­ day recreational float trips (four persons per trip) occur within NPR-A each year. Most of the boating is done with rubber rafts or foldable kayaks to facilitate access by aircraft which land on gravel bars or beaches, large pools on the rivers or lakes. The opportunities for floatboating on rivers in NPR-A are not outstanding in comparison to those opportunities offered elsewhere in Alaska. For example, few of the rivers in NPR-A offer any whitewater boating. The primary limitation, however, is the short boating season; rivers are usually ice free from about mid-June through early September, and most of the rivers have an insufficient flow of water during much of this summer period. The snow melts rapidly in spring and 8 Figure 3 Recreation Resources (Backpacking/Hiking (Floatboating Rivers) (Archaeological Sites) 9 the thin vegetative mat overlying the permafrost provides little runoff once the snow is gone. Subsequently, most of the runoff is discharged in a few days to at best several weeks. During the short use season certain rivers do, however, offer outstanding float trip opportunities. Some of the better boating rivers are the Utukok (from Driftwood Airstrip to its mouth) and the'Nigu-Etivluk (from the headwaters of the Nigu to the mouth of the Etivluk) (fig 3). These can be boated only a few weeks from late June through July. The situation on the Colville River is similar. However its watershed is much larger than that of the other rivers and the flow is corresponding greater and more sustained. Therefore, the Colville can be floated (from just above the Kiligwa River to below Umiat) for a longer period of time, usually well into August. The recreational value of rivers such as the Utukok, Colville, and the Nigu-Etivluk is the provision of a corridor for wilderness travel through the Arctic since cross-country movement for long distances is usually not possible except in the winter (fig 3).