"JUNEAU -- A bill moving through the Alaska Legislature would eliminate wilderness restrictions in a portion of a state park in the Bristol Bay region so a utility can study a hydroelectric project on a lake where such development now is banned."

"Senate Bill 32, sponsored by Sen. Lesil McGuire, an Anchorage Republican, directs the state Parks division to throw out part of a 10-year-old management plan approved by local residents that declares Chikuminuk Lake and its surroundings in Wood-Tikchik State Park a wilderness.

State park officials, in observance of the management plan, refused to allow Nuvista Light & Electric Cooperative to fly helicopters into the area and conduct drilling and seismic work under a $10 million legislative grant approved in 2011. McGuire's bill would reverse that ruling."

Richard Mauer reports for the Anchorage Daily News February 18, 2013. [2]