Icemen now allowed to use snowmachines on base

  • Published
  • By Compiled from staff reports
  • Natural Resources Office
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Snowmobile season is officially open within the cantonment area on Eielson. As of now, snowmobiles are restricted to the most direct route across the lawns to the outer areas of base. Snowmobiles will not be operated on any paved or maintained gravel roads or parking areas.

Snowmobile use is prohibited in the following areas: 

1. The airfield. 

2. Firing range and impact area. 

3. Asbestos landfill, soil remediation area, and fire training area. 

4. Engineer Hill Munitions Storage Area. 

5. Quarry Road Munitions Storage Area. 

6. Explosive Ordnance Disposal controlled area. 

7. Ski slope and sledding hill next to Ski Lodge. 

8. POL tank farms. 

9. Sewage lagoon and treatment area. 

10. Parcours and Self-Guided Nature Trail. 

11. Arctic Survival Training Area and Command Post. 

12. Det. 460, AFTAC, Remote Operating Facility. Beaver Creek Road which goes through the Det. 460, ROF can be used for access to open areas on either side of the ROF. Anyone using Beaver Creek Road as an access route is restricted to the road. 

13. School grounds to include the high school football field and track. 

14. Area bounded by Central Avenue, Transmitter Road, Garrison Slough, north base boundary, and Old Richardson Highway. This area includes the main gate and Alaska railroad tracks north of Transmitter Road. 

15. The cross-country ski area near the Ski Lodge bounded by the ski slope, Quarry Road, east and south boundaries of Eielson and including the 160 acres in the Yukon Maneuver Area permitted to Eielson by the Army for ski trails. 

16. The cross-country ski area between French Creek, the Youth Center, and cooling ponds. 

17. Archery practice and field ranges. 

18. Trap/skeet range. 

19. The forested buffer zone around Manchu Ponds.

Complete operating rules are available in 354th Fighter Wing Instruction 32-7002. For any additional questions or comments, please contact Natural Resources at 377-5182.