STATEMENT OF KAREN TAYLOR-GOODRICH, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, VISITOR AND RESOURCE PROTECTION, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES, CONCERNING S. 3017, A BILL TO DESIGNATE THE BEAVER BASIN WILDERNESS AT PICTURED ROCKS NATIONAL LAKESHORE IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
June 17, 2008
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to present the Department of the Interior’s views on S. 3017, a bill to designate the Beaver Basin Wilderness at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the State of Michigan.
The Department strongly supports enactment of S. 3017. The Administration transmitted a similar proposal to Congress on May 8, 2008.
S. 3017 would designate 11,740 acres, or 16 percent of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as federally protected wilderness. It defines the boundary of the wilderness area as the line of demarcation or the point on the bank or shore at which the surface waters of Lake Superior meet the land or sand beach. Management of the wilderness area would be in accordance with the 1964 Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.).
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was authorized in October, 1966 as America’s first National Lakeshore “to preserve for the benefit, inspiration, education, recreational use, and enjoyment of the public a significant portion of the diminishing shoreline of the United States and its related geographic and scientific features.”
The park extends over 40 miles along the southern shore of Lake Superior, the largest and cleanest of our Great lakes. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world and contains approximately 10 percent of the planet’s surface supply of fresh water. The National Lakeshore protects and preserves superlative scenic and recreational resources including fifteen miles of spectacular multi-colored sandstone cliffs that rise over 200 feet above Lake Superior; miles of beautiful white sand beaches and numerous backcountry lakes, streams and waterfalls; five square miles of perched sand dunes that rise as high as 300 feet; important wetlands, and a upland beech-maple Northern Hardwood Forest. This landscape is home to timber wolf, moose, black bear, deer, fisher and marten, raptors and many species of songbirds. Federally threatened and endangered species include the Piping Plover and Pitcher’s Thistle as well as several state listed species.
The park includes historic U.S. Life Saving, Lighthouse Service, and Coast Guard facilities. Many of these facilities including the Au Sable Light Station, a majestic lighthouse and keeper’s quarters that dates to 1874, remain open for public enjoyment. There are also remnants and active interpretation of historic mining activity, white pine and hardwood logging, and commercial fishing.
The park operates three drive-in campgrounds, over 100 miles of backcountry trails, and 14 backcountry camping areas. It receives over 425,000 visitors each year who enjoy commercial boat cruises to view the Pictured Rocks cliffs and underwater shipwrecks, hiking, camping, backpacking, hunting, fishing, bird watching, kayaking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ice climbing and more. The National Park Service (NPS) estimates that the presence of the National Lakeshore brings nearly $20 million of economic benefit to the local community each year. Native American use of the area extends some 4,000 years into the past and is represented today by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the nation’s second largest tribe. Nothing in S. 3017 would modify, alter, or affect any treaty rights.
The park encompasses a total of 73,235 acres, managed in two zones: (1) the Shoreline Zone, 33,929 acres owned in fee simple by the NPS, and (2) the Inland Buffer Zone, 39,306 acres of mixed ownership, where sustained yield timber harvests and other residential and commercial activities are permitted by the park’s enabling legislation. Pictured Rocks is the only unit of the National Park System with a legislated buffer zone.
The Beaver Basin portion of the park, including the entire proposed 11,740-acre wilderness area, has been managed as a backcountry/wilderness area, or a “Primitive Management Prescription”, since the first comprehensive General Management Plan (GMP) was published in 1981. Since that time, motor vehicles have been prohibited in this portion of the park. Also, for over 25 years, this area has provided outstanding recreational opportunities for hikers, backpackers, anglers, boaters and hunters (allowed in accordance with State regulations). A network of hiking trails and designated campsites will continue to be maintained in this portion of the park, even with wilderness designation. Since formal wilderness designation would not change the way in which visitor use is currently managed in this portion of the park, there is no reason to believe it would have any detrimental impact on visitation or the local economy.
The proposed wilderness area does not include Little Beaver Lake, Little Beaver Lake Campground, the campground access road corridor, and the access road to the Beaver Basin Overlook. Although the National Lakeshore boundary extends one-quarter mile out into Lake Superior, none of the waters of Lake Superior are proposed as wilderness. S. 3017 would authorize the use of boats powered by electric motors on Little Beaver and Big Beaver Lakes as well as the use of motors on the surface water of Lake Superior adjacent to the wilderness and beaching of those boats at the line of demarcation, subject to applicable laws. This is to ensure continued access by boaters to the shoreline beach adjacent to the wilderness area. This has been an area of significant public concern.
Designation of the Beaver Basin Wilderness Area will not limit public access to this area or change the way this portion of the park is currently being managed for public use and enjoyment. County Road H-58, the dirt and gravel primary access road to and through the National Lakeshore, is scheduled to be reconstructed and paved within the next two years. While the NPS supports this upgrade and improved access, we anticipate it will lead to increases in both overall park visitation and development outside the park as well as impacts to front and backcountry resources. Permanent wilderness designation in the Beaver Basin area will ensure protection of significant ecological resources and wilderness values along with solitude, quiet, and unconfined recreation for this and future generations in this portion of the National Lakeshore.
Between 1999 and 2004, the NPS developed an updated GMP for the park. In compliance with law and NPS policy, a formal Wilderness Study was conducted as part of this comprehensive planning effort. During the Wilderness Study, 18,063 acres within the Lakeshore were identified as being potentially eligible for wilderness designation (12,843 acres in Beaver Basin and 5,220 acres in the Chapel Basin area of the park). All of the lands and waters in the study area are in fee-simple Federal ownership within the Shoreline Zone of the park. After extensive public involvement, review, and comment, including overwhelming public support for this wilderness designation, the preferred alternative in the final GMP/Wilderness Study was approved by the Midwest Regional Director on November 23, 2004. The final GMP/Wilderness Study does not propose wilderness in the Chapel Basin area of the Lakeshore. Also, the removal of the one-quarter mile strip of surface water from the proposed wilderness resulted in the reduction of proposed acres from 12, 483 to 11,740 in the Beaver Basin area.
Passage of S. 3017 would support the overarching concept in the new GMP for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which is to provide additional and more convenient access to significant lakeshore features on the east and west ends of the park and to preserve the central portion of the national lakeshore in a primitive, relatively undisturbed state.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to comment. This concludes my prepared remarks and I will be happy to answer any questions you or other committee members might have.