A miner wants to run a cable across the Koyukuk and camp on its bank for five years

A proposal before the state would string a 530-foot supply cable across the Middle Fork Koyukuk River and run a six-person mining camp on the east bank for five years. The public can comment through Sept. 2.

Ash Berringer is seeking a state land use permit for temporary use of the site, near Chapman Island off Chapman Road at about milepost 161 of the Dalton Highway. The camp would clear a 40-by-60-foot patch for three campers, a van trailer and an outhouse. The cable, rated at 25,000 pounds and strung 30 feet above the water, would be anchored to trees on both banks to haul supplies. Both would serve a mining crew from May through October, in each year from 2026 through 2031. An amendment in late July added the cable and moved the camp.

The state's notice includes no environmental or hydrology review specific to the site and does not address subsistence or recreational use of the corridor. The Gates of the Arctic Subsistence Resource Commission has said the Koyukuk drainage's spawning grounds and subsistence fishery are at stake — a concern about the broader drainage, not an effect established for this particular proposal. Subsistence fishing in the Koyukuk above Bettles, including at Wiseman, requires a permit for all species, and Fish and Game has listed Koyukuk drainage Chinook as a stock of concern since 2000.

Written comments are due to the state's land office in Fairbanks by Sept. 2. The state may issue a permit with conditions after its review.