Park Service hires Everts Air Fuel to keep avgas at two remote Alaska park units through 2030

In two of Alaska's most remote national park units, the way in is by small plane, and the planes need fuel. The National Park Service has hired Fairbanks-based Everts Air Fuel to keep aviation gasoline on hand at both through June 2030.

The contracts total $54,506. One, worth $22,130, covers Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, which stretches along the Yukon River between Eagle and Circle in the Interior. The other, worth $32,376, covers the Dahl Creek airstrip in the Kobuk country of northwest Alaska, which serves Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Both took effect Wednesday.

Aviation gasoline, or avgas, is the fuel burned by the piston-engine planes common in rural Alaska. The Park Service says many parts of the state can be reached only by small aircraft. It describes Gates of the Arctic, which lies entirely north of the Arctic Circle, as a wilderness park with no roads or trails into its lands.