An Alaskan moose hunter who has spent a small fortune fighting for what he considers the spirit of the Last Frontier squares off against the government's top lawyers. For some, it is about the core spirit of preservation and conservation.
It will all come down to questions about the legislative intent behind the federally protected lands in Alaska and arguments over legal precedent. This will be discussed in court.
The results will either allow John Sturgeon to ride his hovercraft down to the shallow waters of the Nation River, hunting in and around Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve near Eagle, or the government will not allow him.
The case being filed is not just about one man and his boat anymore. The case itself raises questions regarding the scope of federal authority on public lands across Alaska. The state's power to exploit natural resources is pitted against the nation's most expansive conservation legislation.
Some argue that an adverse ruling for John Sturgeon could have much broader impacts. The appeals court ruling against Mr. Sturgeon has already been cited in proposed new gas and oil regulations which was released in October.
The tension between the federal government and the Alaskans is something that is common in the country, from personal dispute to arguments over hunting rules on preserves that override state regulations.
Meanwhile Bo Fay, former mayor and longtime gasoline owner in Eagle said that all these people are doing is seeing how far they can push. The mayor has an easy time detailing decades of what he says are transgressions from some park service employees, whom he also calls as 'very bad neighbors' who subject residents and visitors to harassment.
On September 2002, Joh Sturgeon stopped on a gravel bar in Nation River to fix the steering cable of his hovercraft, which measures 10-feet, he'd been using this vehicle to navigate during moose hints since 1990. He has been hunting around Eagle, of Yukon and Nation rivers, a year after he arrived in Alaska, back in 1971.
Two park employees pulled up and engaged in a friendly manner. Sturgeon said they were asking questions about his hovercraft. Then the conversation took a quick turn when one whipped out a rule book, read a regulation and demanded he put up is hovercraft for good. The regulation reads: "The operation or use of hovercraft is prohibited."
John Sturgeon says that the federal government shouldn't have any authority over the water he was in. Nevertheless, he loaded his hovercraft on a motor boat and it remains in his yard in Anchorage, the engine mothballed for safe-keeping, more than eight years later.
Sturgeon has supporters and this includes several Native groups and some members of congressional delegation. For him, it's just the principle. For John Sturgeon, he was just a moose hunter from the Yukon that thought he got wronged, and it's kind of way beyond him.
