[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 873 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 873
To designate the wilderness within the Lake Clark National Park and
Preserve in the State of Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 26, 2015
Ms. Murkowski (for herself and Mr. Sullivan) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To designate the wilderness within the Lake Clark National Park and
Preserve in the State of Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) on July 21, 1922, Jay Sterner Hammond was born in Troy,
New York;
(2) Hammond studied petroleum engineering at Penn State
University, where he was a member of the Triangle Fraternity;
(3) Hammond later served as a Marine Corps fighter pilot,
serving--
(A) during World War II with the famous Black Sheep
Squadron in the South Pacific; and
(B) in China from 1945-1946;
(4) after leaving military service, Hammond flew to Alaska,
where Hammond worked as a Bush pilot, trapper, guide, and
laborer;
(5) a war-related illness caused Hammond to enroll at the
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where Hammond earned his
degree in biological sciences in 1949;
(6) after graduating from the University of Alaska,
Fairbanks, Hammond went to work as a biologist, field agent,
and hunter for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service;
(7) in 1950, Hammond was transferred to Southwest Alaska,
where Hammond--
(A) conducted predator and prey studies on the
caribou herd of the Alaska Peninsula; and
(B) conducted fisheries enforcement efforts out of
Dillingham as a pilot;
(8) Hammond--
(A) was 1 of the first people to count 64 brown
bears at McNeil River in Southwest Alaska; and
(B) once recorded nearly 500,000 Black Brant geese
eclipsing the sun at Izembek Bay;
(9) Hammond later cruised the entire shoreline of 45-mile-
long Lake Clark counting wildlife and finding a future
homestead site on the shore of Lake Clark;
(10) upon Alaska entering the Union in 1959, Hammond ran
and won election to the Alaska State House of Representatives;
(11) Hammond served as an independent in the Alaska State
House of Representatives from 1959 to 1965;
(12) in 1960, Hammond changed his party affiliation to
Republican;
(13) after 3 terms in the Alaska State House of
Representatives, Hammond served as a State senator from 1967 to
1973;
(14) from 1972 to 1974, Hammond served as mayor of the
Bristol Bay Borough;
(15) during the 1960s and early 1970s, Hammond served as
the manager of Bristol Bay Borough during periods in which the
State legislature was not in session;
(16) in 1974, Hammond was drafted by friends to run for
Governor of Alaska, defeating former Republican Walter J.
Hickel in the primary, and defeating the first Governor of the
State, Democrat William A. Egan, in the general election;
(17) the 1974 campaign for Governor was dominated by--
(A) the opposition of Hammond to oil leasing in
Kachemak Bay;
(B) concern about State salmon fisheries and
environmental management; and
(C) fear about State overspending after the
discovery of oil on the North Slope;
(18) Hammond--
(A) won the Republican primary for Governor in 1974
by 7,874 votes; and
(B) won the general election for Governor in 1974
by a mere 221 votes after 2 recounts;
(19) in 1978, Hammond again defeated Walter J. Hickel in
the Republican primary by 98 votes, the closest margin in a
statewide election in the history of Alaska;
(20) Hammond defeated Walter J. Hickel, a write-in
candidate, and Democrat Chancy Croft in the 1978 General
Election by 16,000 votes;
(21) as Governor, Hammond--
(A) oversaw construction of the Trans-Alaska
Pipeline;
(B) championed the creation of the Alaska Permanent
Fund;
(C) authored the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend
program, which provides citizens of Alaska a yearly
dividend check from interest earnings of the State
share of petroleum revenues placed in the Alaska
Permanent Fund;
(D) won approval of a constitutional budget
reserve;
(E) opposed the repeal of the State income tax;
(F) championed agricultural development in Interior
Alaska; and
(G) oversaw the purchase of the Alaska Railroad by
the State;
(22) with respect to environmental issues, Hammond--
(A) opposed construction of a proposed Ramparts
hydroelectric dam on the Yukon River;
(B) supported the congressional creation of a 200-
mile fisheries zone off the coast of the State, which
improved State fishery stocks;
(C) oversaw the creation of a limited entry
fisheries regime in the State;
(D) oversaw the creation of the largest State park
in the United States, the Wood Tikchik State Park in
Southwest Alaska, which contains 1,600,000 acres of
wilderness; and
(E) in 1980, as Governor, oversaw the enactment of
the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (16
U.S.C. 3101 et seq.), which--
(i) dissolved the placement of 120,000,000
acres of Alaska into protected status under
chapter 3203 of title 54, United States Code;
(ii) designated 104,000,000 acres of land
as units of the National Park System, units of
the National Wildlife Refuge System, National
Monuments, components of the National
Wilderness Preservation System, and components
of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System;
(iii) added 5,500,000 acres in 14 new units
of the National Wilderness Preservation System;
(iv) added more than 40,000,000 acres in 10
new units of the National Park System,
including the 3,860,000-acre Lake Clark
National Park and Preserve, bringing to
54,000,000 acres the total size of National
Park System holdings in the State;
(v) added a number of new units of the
National Wildlife Refuge System in the State,
bringing to 19 the number of units of the
National Wildlife Refuge System covering
76,800,000 acres in the State;
(vi) created 13 components of the National
Wild and Scenic Rivers System running 3,131
miles; and
(vii) resulted in Alaska containing
57,900,000 acres of wilderness;
(23) a talented and prolific writer and poet, Hammond--
(A) presented to the University of Alaska Library
Archives an impressive collection of speeches,
testimony, notebooks, and papers; and
(B) wrote several books on life in Alaska,
including his first book entitled ``Tales of Alaska's
Bush Rat Governor'';
(24) Hammond died on August 2, 2005, at age 83, in his
sleep, at his homestead at Port Alsworth, Alaska, after having
survived--
(A) 5 plane crashes; and
(B) innumerable close calls with death, including
during--
(i) Hammond's first flight to Alaska and
numerous subsequent flights during Hammond's 59
years in the State; and
(ii) a fire at the homestead at Lake Clark;
(25) Hammond was survived by--
(A) his wife, Bella; and
(B) his daughters, Heidi and Dana;
(26) Hammond--
(A) was well-respected for reaching across the
aisle to forge bipartisan alliances; and
(B) enjoyed many close friendships--
(i) with colleagues in both political
parties; and
(ii) members of his staff, who were deeply
loyal to Hammond; and
(27) the designation of the 2,600,000 acres of wilderness
in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, in which the
homestead of Hammond is located, would--
(A) honor Hammond; and
(B) be a fitting tribute to the honorable life and
legacy of Hammond, who was described by the Anchorage
Municipal Assembly on August 7, 2005, as ``the finest
example of a true public servant . . . there are few
men who have influence through their quiet articulation
of what is right and fair in the way of Jay Hammond''.
SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF JAY S. HAMMOND WILDERNESS AREA.
(a) Designation.--The approximately 2,600,000 acres of National
Wilderness Preservation System land located within the Lake Clark
National Park and Preserve designated by section 201(e)(7)(a) of the
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (16 U.S.C.
410hh(e)(7)(a)) shall be known and designated as the ``Jay S. Hammond
Wilderness Area''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document,
paper, or other record of the United States to the wilderness area
referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be a reference to the
``Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area''.
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