involved might be, as a maximum, some $275,000, rather than $600,000. Senator BARTLETT. It is an additional charge upon the State then not of $600,000, but slightly less than $300,000? Mr. LEFFLER. Could be. Senator BARTLETT. I could mention that to the legislators in Juneau and they might think this is a lot of money to put up instead of Uncle Sam. Mr. LEFFLER. I would visualize there would be within a very short time a great deal more revenue to the State of Alaska than $275,000. Would I be out of order if I spoke of a very remote area that was set aside a few years ago-this is not in the United States-where people felt this is too remote, the Kenai Wildlife Reserve. In 1957-I am sorry I do not have the figures for this year-there were 115,000 visitors to that area, which brought a lot of money into that particular area. Senator BARTLETT. I am sure it did, Mr. Secretary. How long do you think it would be before there would be 500 people a year going to this Arctic wildlife? Mr. LEFFLER. How many? Five hundred? Senator BARTLETT. Five hundred. Mr. LEFFLER. I would guess there is almost that many going there now from what I have been told. Senator BARTLETT. Private citizens? Mr. LEFFLER. Yes, sir. By private citizens, I mean military personnel, too. Senator BARTLETT. How many people are going there on their own money and not under Government TR's? I bet there aren't 10 a year really. Mr. LEFFLER. I would like to get those figures for you and submit them. (The material referred to follows:) Annual checks by the Fish and Wildlife Service indicate that about 10 to 12 parties a year, made up of 3 to 5 hunters each, a total of about 50 citizens traveling at their own expense visit the area for hunting. Probably another 25 visit the area for fishing or other purposes. Our estimate then is about 75 people a year who visit the area at their own expense. Senator BARTLETT. I suspect the military goes up on military aircraft with military aviation for recreation which the taxpayers pay. Mr. LEFFLER. There have been quite a lot of people going in there, I am sure. Senator BARTLETT. That may be. I certainly agree with you, Mr. Secretary, when you say in the future Alaska's outdoor recreation resources may contribute more revenue than any other industry. That could well be the case and we hope it is. Let me ask you, why it was that you selected this particular area as opposed to any other within the great and large State of Alaska? Mr. LEFFLER. It was remote, it is true. We took into consideration the fact that it was the one hauling out ground for the polar bear in the United States. There was a unique ecological area there and I wonder, Mr. Chairman, if I could just say something which could be embarrassing if I cannot speak off the record. Senator BARTLETT. Why surely. Off the record. (Discussion off the record.) Senator BARTLETT. On the record. There are lots of other areas in Alaska containing, I suspect, as much game and perhaps more species of game than way up here in the northeast Arctic and I am not quite clear yet, if you will permit me to say so, why this was chosen above all others. Mr. LEFFLER. This is the best area for the caribou in this particular part of Alaska. They do winter on the south side of the Brooks Range. Many of them, however, do cross over on to the Canadian side, but it is more as a protection to the caribou, frankly, than it is for the other species of game except for the polar bear. Senator BARTLETT. Protection from the bullets of hunters? Mr. LEFFLER. And for the destruction of their possible range. They have to have food. Senator BARTLETT. How many caribou, Mr. Secretary, do you estimate there are in Alaska now? Mr. LEFFLER. The herd that we observed, which was pointed out to me as the herd that frequented this area most frequently, numbered in the neighborhood of 30,000. Senator BARTLETT. Do you have any estimate, though, of the total caribou population? Mr. LEFFLER. May I ask Dr. John Buckley? Dr. BUCKLEY. Probably about 300,000 in the State as a whole. Senator BARTLETT. How many? Dr. BUCKLEY. About 300,000 in the State as a whole. Senator BARTLETT. I will put this question to you, Mr. Secretary. You might want Dr. Buckley to answer. How does that compare with the number of caribou 30 years ago? Mr. BUCKLEY. May I qualify my answer, Senator Bartlett? The estimates of caribou in years past were even more fragmentary and difficult to arrive at than they are now in that until aerial transportation became available and it was possible to make estimates over much of the area at the same time, it was almost impossible to say. There are figures that range any place from one-half million to five and six million caribou estimated for 20 to 30 years ago. I would think that probably a million caribou might have been an optimistic estimate of the maximum population of caribou. Mr. LEFFLER. May I just answer another part of your question as to why? Also, that this particular area, while it is extremely valuable for wildlife, would also interfere less with the economy of Alaska. Senator BARTLETT. Now Frank Dufresne, who for many years was executive officer of the Alaska Game Commission, said that in 1930, a count of the caribou crossing the highway about 40 miles south of Fairbanks had a total of 430,000 animals. I remember as a boy that the mountains were literally covered with caribou. In any case, Mr. Secretary, we are pretty sure of one thing and that is there are fewer caribou in Alaska today than there were a number of years ago. Why is that? Mr. LEFFLER. There has been the encroachment of civilization and I think more have been killed by hunters. Remember that not all of this herd that comes into Alaska are killed on our side of the line. Senator BARTLETT. No, but an awful lot of our caribou, Mr. Secretary, don't wander that close to the Canadian boundary either. I'm sure of that. I have talked to many biologists, many game enforce ment officers, who maintain stoutly that the terrific diminution in the number of caribou cannot have been caused by hunting primarily. Mr. LEFFLER. I didn't mean to infer that was the only reason. said that was one of the reasons. I Senator BARTLETT. A very minor one probably, would you agree? Mr. LEFFLER. I would. Senator BARTLETT. Dr. Buckley perhaps can answer. Mr. LEFFLER. Some of the depletion of our herd is not caused by hunting, there is no question about that. Senator BARTLETT. How long does it take reindeer moss to reproduce itself. Mr. LEFFLER. Dr. Buckley, do you know? I understand it is several years. Dr. BUCKLEY. Yes, it is a rather lengthy period, maybe up to 100 years under certain circumstances following fire. Ordinarily, 20 to 50 years would be a good estimate. Senator BARTLETT. Could there be any substantial overgrazing? Might that be the primary cause? Mr. LEFFLER. Could be a contributing factor, yes. Senator BARTLETT. How much money, which is always a subject that comes up, do you think it will take the Federal Government annually to patrol and protect the wildlife in this range? How much additional appropriations will you have to come up to Congress for? Mr. LEFFLER. The first year, we estimated about $30,000. Senator BARTLETT. What can you do with that with 8,800,000 acres with all these people going in there? Mr. LEFFLER. As the accessibility increases, it will cost more to take care of the area. Senator BARTLETT. But, if so many people are going in now, Mr. Secretary, is that going to be an adequate amount to do anything? Mr. LEFFLER. We have a man in that area. Senator BARTLETT. You have a man in that area permanently? Mr. LEFFLER. I will have to ask Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker, will you tell me where that man is located? Mr. PARKER. That man is located either in Fairbanks or Fort Yukon. Senator BARTLETT. It is not in the range. Mr. LEFFLER. Not within the range. Senator BARTLETT. How many biologists have you had up there and for how long have they studied the habits of the wildlife there, their numbers and the quality of the range? Mr. PARKER. I would like to defer to Dr. Buckley on that in that I think he was actually one of them that did study that range. Dr. BUCKLEY. Do you refer, Senator Bartlett, to within the proposed range boundaries or in the northern part of the State? Senator BARTLETT. Right within the range boundaries. Dr. BUCKLEY. We have never had one stationed permanently within this area. We have had probably 20 different individuals who have spent some time in there at one time or another in the last 6 to 8 years. I miss the point of your question. If I knew what you were aiming at perhaps I could give a better answer. Senator BARTLETT. What I am trying to discover for the sake of the record is, how much do you really know about this area when you come before Congress and say that the wildlife range ought to be created? Do you really have any scientific, biological information of the type that would be approved by the scientific community? Dr. BUCKLEY. I think we do. We certainly would not pretend to have all the answers. We have a fairly good estimate of the numbers and kinds of animals that occur in the area. We have a fairly good idea of the kinds of vegetation and the relative distribution of that over the area. Senator BARTLETT. How many polar bear are there in this range? Dr. BUCKLEY. Relatively few and they would be mostly on the south slopes. Senator BARTLETT. How many would you estimate? Dr. BUCKLEY. This would be purely an estimate, but I would guess probably a thousand or less. Senator BARTLETT. How many brown bear? Mr. BUCKLEY. No brown bear as far as I know. The grizzly bear, which does occur in that area, there are perhaps a thousand throughout the entire range, perhaps less. They range widely in and out of the area. Senator BARTLETT. Any moose? Dr. BUCKLEY. There are moose even on the north slopes of the range. Senator BARTLETT. How many compared with Kenai Range? Senator BARTLETT. Do you consider, Dr. Buckley, that most of the caribou migrate within the Arctic Range over to the Canadian boundary at one time or another? Dr. BUCKLEY. They cross it at one time or another. Senator BARTLETT. Go over to this side within this wildlife range area? Dr. BUCKLEY. May I use the map? Senator BARTLETT. Please. Dr. BUCKLEY. This group of animals ranges from this side of the range at different times of the year. In 1953, we followed them closely, a group of some 25,000. They ranged from nearly as far as the Sagavanirktok River across the range down through the Canadian side and they wintered between the Porcupine and Yukon Rivers in here [indicating]. They also went across the south side of the range and back, a distance of something in excess of a thousand miles in which they crossed the border four times that year. Senator BARTLETT. How about polar bear? Dr. BUCKLEY, Polar bear use only the fringes of the area. The only statement that we can make in regard to that is that of the polar bear dens that have been located in Alaska; all of them have been situated in this piece [indicating] to the east of the Colville River. Senator BARTLETT. Where are the rest of them? Dr. BUCKLEY. The rest are born, most of them, well to the east of us over on Baffin Island. This [indicating] is the principal area on which dens have been found. Senator BARTLETT. Has there been a single Fish and Wildlife man, whatever the scientific basis, who has ever wintered on this range? Dr. BUCKLEY. Not throughout the winter. There have been Geological Survey people-oh, many years back-who wintered in there and where we have some background information. Senator BARTLETT. What papers have been published relating to this area? I think you said, Dr. Buckley, that quite a little is known about it scientifically, which would lead to the conclusion that there has been something published pertaining to the various forms of wildlife and the geography and what not. Dr. BUCKLEY. Yes, sir. Probably we know more of the geology than anything else, and I would like to provide for the record a list of references pertaining to the area. I do not have this offhand. (The material referred to follows:) PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PUBLICATIONS, REPORTS AND MANUSCRIPTS CONTAINING INFORMATION ON THE AREA CONTAINED IN THE PROPOSED ARCTIC GAME RANGE PUBLICATIONS Anderson, J. P. 1941-50. Flora of Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada. Bea, J. W. and E. R. Hall. 1956. Mammals of northern Alaska. University Buckley, J. L. and W. L. Libby. Research and reports on aerial interpretation of terrestrial bioenvironments and faunal populations. Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory. Technical Report 57-32. 105 pages. Collins, G. L. and Lowell Sumner. 1953. Northeast Arctic-The last great frontier. Sierra Club Bulletin, December. Gabrielson, I. N. and F. C. Lincoln. 1959. Birds of Alaska. Stackpole Co., Harrisburg. 922 pages. Hulter, E. 1941-50. Flora of Alaska and Yukon. Hakan Ohlssons Boktryckeri, Lund. 10 vols. 1,902 pages. Leffingwell, E. Dek. 1919. The Canning River Region of Northern Alaska. USGS Prof. Paper 109. 251 pages. Leopold, A. S. and F. F. Darling. 1953. Wildlife in Alaska. Ronald Press, New York. 129 pages. Murie, O. J. 1935. Alaska-Yukon Caribou. North American Fauna, 54. 94 pages. Rausch. R. A. 1951. Notes on the Nunamiut Eskimos and mammals of the Anaktuvuk Pass Region, Brooks Range, Alaska. Arctic, 4(3). 147-195. 1953. On the status of some Arctic mammals. Arctic, 6(2): 91-148. Scott, R. F., E. F. Chatelain and W. A. Elkins. 1950. The status of the Dall sheep and caribou in Alaska. Trans. North American Wildlife Con. 15: 612-626. Williams, M. Y. 1925. Notes on life along the Yukon-Alaska Boundary. Canadian Field Naturalist, 39: 69-72. Additional references have been cited in the list provided to the committee by Howard Zahniser representing the Wilderness Society. Kessel, Brina. MANUSCRIPTS Birds of the Sheenjek River Valley, Alaska. In preparation. Small animals. Report on trapping (in the Sheenjek River Valley, Alaska). 4 pages manuscript—report. In addition to the material cited above, the following biologists have spent some time in various parts of the area and have knowledge of it: Dr. Frank A. Pitelka, University of California; Dr. Tom J. Cade, University of California; Dr. Raymond Hock, Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory; Sigurd T. Olson, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife; David R. Klein, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife; Dr. Max E. Britton, Office of Naval Research; Dr. Ira Wiggins, Director, Natural History Museum, Stanford University; Dr. Lloyd Spetzman, University of Minnesota; Dr. Lawrence Irving, Arctic Health Research Center; A. E. Porsild, National Museum of Canada; John Koranda, Arctic Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research; R. E. Shanks, Arctic Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research. |