Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel (R-Anchorage) voiced her opinion opposing the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson boundary fence project, urging the base to find “a less intrusive solution” to securing its boundaries.
JBER released a draft environmental assessment recommending construction of a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire along portions of the East Muldoon/JBER boundary— stretching from the Glenn Highway to Stuckagain Heights. The full draft assessment can be accessed here: Draft Environmental Assessment for Installation Perimeter Security Improvements at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska
According to Sen. Giessel, the fence is unnecessarily restrictive of recreational uses. “I’m confident that we can work together to continue their mission without this fence as has been done successfully for decades,” she states. She also points to alternatives the base could pursue to secure the boundary, including “increased base security assignments, sensor or surveillance perimeter security, wildlife permeable fencing, and designated wildlife crossings.”
Read Sen. Giessel’s full opinion published in a Senate Majority newsletter, May 9, 2026: Special Alert re: JBER Fence.
Senator Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage) also voiced concerns regarding the fence project at a recent Joint Armed Services Committee hearing and met with the JBER Commander to further discuss community concerns.
Anchorage Assemblymembers Yarrow Silvers and Keith McCormack submitted a resolution in opposition to the fence, expressing “substantive concern that the proposed fence installation would significantly affect the quality of the human environment and the Draft Finding of No Significant Impact does not adequately account for the foreseeable, cumulative, and long-term impacts of impassible perimeter fencing on the Anchorage moose population, on regional habitat connectivity, and on public recreational access.”
On the other hand, retired U.S. Army veteran and former Anchorage Assemblymember Paul A. Bauer, Jr. supports the boundary fence, arguing that security matters more than recreation. “In the end, this issue is straightforward: JBER is a military installation, not a public park,” writes Bauer in an op-ed published on Must Read Alaska. “East Anchorage residents may have become accustomed to informal use of the land, but long-term convenience does not create a right to access military property. I support the fence because national security, installation security, and public safety must come before recreational preference.”
