Supreme Court says moose hunter can use hovercraft on rivers flowing through federal preserves, but only in Alaska

Map by University of Alaska-Fairbanks

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the National Park Service can't prevent someone from using a hovercraft on a river that flows through federal land in Alaska.

The ruling stemmed from a 2007 incident in which Park Service rangers told moose hunter John Sturgeon that he could not operate his hovercraft on the Nation River, which flows through the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Laura Maggi reports for Route Fifty. The Park Service bans hovercraft, saying they can make it easier for people to access remote locations that could be spoiled by motorized equipment. However, the state of Alaska does not ban hovercraft.

Sturgeon sued the Park Service in 2011, arguing that Alaskans get special access to federal lands as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980.  "The state of Alaska supported the lawsuit, saying in a brief this summer that it doesn’t make sense to ban hovercraft in a place where people need access to wilderness areas, often using rivers to get to distant communities," Maggi reports. For its part, the Park Service said it had the power to regulate what happens on navigable waters in national parks, even if the land is owned by the state.

The Supreme Court unanimously sided with Sturgeon. "Justice Elena Kagan agreed with Sturgeon that the federal law that set aside 104 million acres of land in Alaska for preservation constrained the authority of the Park Service on land or waters not owned by the federal government," Maggi reports. "In part, that's because when national preserves were set up, they included millions of acres of state, native and private land that aren't completely regulated by the federal agency. The Nation River is included in that exemption."

Kagan noted that the case was Alaska-specific, and Sturgeon could not have won in any other state. The narrow scope of the case could raise questions about the Park Service's authority to protect federal park lands and rivers in Alaska, but in a concurring opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor recommended that Congress amend ANILCA to clarify it if there were any concerns, Maggi reports.