Commentary: The real emergency in Alaska is keeping the public in public lands

Alaska is facing a public lands emergency. Some of our best and wildest places are being handed over to private, usually foreign, industry — and Alaskans and U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill in order to do it. The latest example is the proposed West Susitna Industrial Access Road, which the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, has convinced the Army Corps is an “emergency” to permit. Nothing could be further from the truth. At the end of September, the day the Army Corps announced this “emergency” and an incredibly short three-week comment period, I was returning from a trip doing one of my favorite things in the world — floating and fishing the Talachulitna River in the West Susitna region. The trip was bittersweet. Years ago, my first cast on the Tal, I landed a 50-pound king salmon. It was once a place you and some buddies could triple up on massive kings.

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