The Yukon government wants to reclaim an illegal, 17-kilometre road built near Carmacks in 2016 by a placer miner without authorization.

In its project proposal submitted to the Yukon Environmental an Socio-economic Assessment Board, the government is planning to begin the work this summer.

Communications analyst Sue Thomas of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) said Wednesday a cost estimate is not available. “They have to wait for the snow to melt before they can assess the work that is required,” she said.

It was also not clear today whether the government will attempt to recover any of the costs from Nicholai Goeppel and H. Coyne and Sons, the two parties who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to building the road without authorization.

Brigitte Parker, EMR’s acting director of communications, said this morning the government has not decided whether it will attempt to recover any or all of the costs of reclamation from the two parties.

It’s reviewing the options, she said.

The reclamation proposal indicates the work will be done using only light equipment and crews with hand tools.

The deadline for making submissions to the assessment board regarding the reclamation proposal is April 9.

Goeppel and Coyne & Sons pleaded guilty last November to: using a bulldozer to build the road without authorization; using equipment heavier than five tonnes to do the work; and levelling and clearing a trail wider than the 1.5 metres allowed under low-level exploration activity.

Evidence before the court indicated Goeppel had registered a placer mining lease along McGregor Creek, located off the North Klondike Highway between Carmacks and Pelly Crossing. Coyne & Sons was involved in building the road.

The placer lease did not provide authorization for the road.

The road, in any case, went well beyond the eight-kilometre width of the lease, evidence showed.

Goeppel and Coyne & Sons were each fined $1,200 for the three offences they each pleaded guilty to.

The government is proposing to use the vegetative mat and other surface material pushed into windrows along the side of the 17-kilometre route for the reclamation project.

There is also a need for stabilization work at four stream crossings where natural willow shoots will be planted to stabilize creek banks and re-establish the riparian area along the creek, says the proposal. It also notes there are matters of exposed permafrost to address.

“EMR will hire a professional environmental consultant with expertise in reclamation and permafrost,” reads the government’s submission to the assessment board.

“The consultant will undertake a site assessment when weather and access is favourable, to assess local site conditions including: soil type, soil temperature, exposure, precipitation, surrounding vegetation, stability of permafrost and then develop a mitigation plan to restore the crossings and access trail.”

The project proposal suggests the reclamation work will “encourage natural revegetation.”

“Land Management Branch has received various complaints about the unauthorized road and requests for its reclamation from Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation and Selkirk First Nation,” says the proposal.

The government has put up a sign at the head of the road indicating access is prohibited.

During submissions on sentencing last December, the territorial prosecutor told the court that since the road was built, 250 mineral claims have been staked beyond the end of the road, including claims staked by Goeppel and Coyne & Sons.