OPINION: West Susitna Road would be a disaster

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority board chair said the quiet part out loud: Even he doesn’t want the disastrous West Susitna Industrial Access Road near his property.

I’ve been tracking and raising awareness of the disastrous, state-funded West Susitna Industrial Access Road among fellow hunters, fishermen and users of the area for a couple of years now. Even with all the inconsistencies, backtracking, and mixed messages I’ve heard from the industrial road’s powerful backers, the transcript of the March 6 AIDEA board meeting was staggering.

AIDEA, as you’ll remember, is the money-losing, state-owned corporation pushing this at least half-billion-dollar industrial gravel road over the protests of many Alaskans.

“See where it says Northwoods Lodge?” AIDEA Board Chair Dana Pruhs asked AIDEA Deputy Director Brendan Brefcyznski at around minute 41 of the March 6 meeting, as they looked at a map.

“Is that where I need to put the road?” Brefcyznski asked.

“That’s where I’m at,” Pruhs said.

“Oh, oh!” Brefcyznski interjected, laughing. “Wait.”

“My place is right there by Northwoods Lodge. Right where the ‘e’ is, or wherever,” Pruhs said. “So avoid that,” Brefcyznski said.

“Yeah. We don’t want a road there” Pruhs said.

After this portion of the conversation, amongst the laughter, you could hear him say he was “just kidding.” Clearly a backpedaling statement by someone who realized they just said something that sheds a negative light on their actions, all while being recorded. Similar to what one would say after insulting an individual. Unfortunately, “just kidding” doesn’t retract or amend a statement.

Those of us who fish, hunt, build, work and recreate in the West Susitna area do so because the region is semi-remote, yet accessible. My family and I spend much of our free time out there. One of my favorite memories is watching my daughter’s excitement there the first weekend my wife and I took the family out. Here, I thought, is a place near home, easily accessed — but where the kids can be away from screens, from the growing crowds. Here is a place to be in the woods, the way things used to be in Alaska. Here, they can grow up experiencing some of the same things I did, the things that have made me who I am today: a lifelong Alaskan hunter and fisherman fighting to maintain a fraction of Alaska that many Alaskans love and enjoy.

Presumably, Dana Pruhs doesn’t want a 100-mile industrial, publicly funded gravel mining road anywhere near his property for the same reason I and the thousands of other people who value, have businesses in, or live in the West Susitna region don’t: It would cross 182 streams and have fish passage at only some of those, fragmenting and damaging salmon habitat in a place where runs have already declined significantly. Because (assuming the road even gets used by mining companies — it’s all speculative) massive ore trucks rumbling by, spraying gravel and clouds of dust into the wetlands, would be destructive not only to the ecology of this place but also to the way people experience it.

Back an entire decade ago, the last time AIDEA estimated a cost for this disastrous project, they estimated it would cost as much as $450 million. That estimate has likely more than doubled even just with the cost of inflation — not to mention that, in an attempt to sell people on this industrial road, AIDEA is promising the moon, running up costs that aren’t budgeted for and mischaracterizing what the road, at its core, is: an Alaska-funded industrial gravel road for speculative foreign-owned mining companies.

I’ve looked at this project, I know this area and I can tell you: It’s a terrible idea, and the destruction in this case isn’t worth it. The state already knows it can’t compete with private industry on boat launch facilities: Just look at Susitna Landing, which is public, versus Deshka Landing, which is private. Susitna is all but abandoned. The state launch at the mouth of Willow Creek washed out and was abandoned. Why would this new boat launch be any different? Not to mention building a bridge then “studying the feasibility of roads on the other side,” according to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program proposal, which seems absurdly backward to anyone with any fiscal sense.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the silver salmon are following a similar declining trend as the king salmon. This would only exacerbate the problem. ADF&G is strongly considering removing the general harvest moose hunt in 16B due to the low population. This wouldn’t help that issue either. The industrial gravel road would contaminate the West Susitna area. It would take at least a half-billion dollars of Alaskan’s money away from road repair, infrastructure, education, and other priorities we actually need — all while destroying much of the reason to even be in the West Susitna area.

“That’s where I’m at. We don’t want a road there,” said AIDEA board chair Dana Pruhs. The recording speaks for itself.

Lee McKnight is a lifelong Alaskan, a business owner, and a Wasilla resident.

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