Assembly votes to ban trapping in borough-owned trail areas

PALMER — Of the 59 people who put their names on the list to speak during audience participation at Tuesday night’s Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting, 57 of them sided with the bill sponsored by District 5 assembly member Dan Mayfield to limit trapping in the areas around borough-owned trails.

More than three hours later, the assembly went with the popular wave and voted to approve Ordinance 17-021, with only assembly member Steve Colligan, who was absent and participating by phone, voting against.

The speakers, most of them citing their love of pets, wanted more than just what the ordinance originally called for, which was a 100-foot setback of traps from trails within the Crevasse Moraine Trail System. Some suggested other areas they’d like to see covered by such a trap ban, as well, and prior to the vote on the ordinance, many of them saw their wishes realized as assembly member Barbara Doty added an amendment that added six more areas to be included as part of the ordinance.

Those areas included Matanuska River Park, the Alcantra Recreation, West Bodenburg Butte, Lazy Mountain and Reflections Lake.

Mayfield then added his own amendment to include Jordan Lake Park in his district of Big Lake.

Both the primary and secondary amendments passed 6 to 1, but the amendments weren’t done.

Assembly member Jim Sykes, from District 1, offered an amendment to not only require traps to be set at least 100 feet back from trails, but instead to ban them from those areas entirely.

This amendment, too, passed 6 to 1 with only Colligan voting against.

When it came time for the vote on the ordinance, 6 to 1 was again the total, bringing the scores of the ordinance’s supporters to cheers.

“It really comes down to this: We’re experiencing a population growth, we’re the second-largest borough in the entire state and more people are looking for healthy ways to recreate,” Mayfield said. “As a public servant we need to take some reasonable actions to make sure conflicts don’t exist.”

Doty said she believed Sykes’ amendment banning trapping outright in the selected areas would actually be beneficial to trappers.

“To have specific areas without having to define them (makes it simpler),” Doty said. “And it gives clarity for the long-term rather than people thinking we’re going to go back and change it again and again. I think it helps the trapper community.”

On Wednesday, however, assembly member Randall Kowalke asked for a reconsideration of the ordinance, meaning the matter is not yet resolved.

Mat-Su Borough public information officer Patty Sullivan said because of Kowalke’s move, the assembly will revisit the issue on March 21, at which time, it could ‘amend it, delete it, or leave the ordinance how it is.’

Kowalke wrote in his request, "It is my hope that we can actually have a map to see what areas are being effected with this ordinance, clear wording as to what the ordinance actually says and the possibly to add some other locations."

The two who spoke out against the ordinance during audience participation were both board members of the Alaska Trappers Association.

Mike Soik, a board member for the south central chapter, expressed frustration that local trapping groups had tried to work with the borough to alleviate the problem, only to be left out of the solution.

“On March 14, 2016, the Alaska Trappers Association approached the borough staff about Government Peak… for it to be trap-free, not just setbacks. We talked about funding for signage,” Soik said. “But sometime during the summer, the process stopped and there was not further communication until (this) year. We feel a little disenfranchised when we came to the assembly with a good faith effort to look at trails and nothing came about.”

Richard Person, also on the board of directors of the south central trappers, expressed feeling badly outnumbered before arguing that dog safety is trapping situations is partly of the dog owner’s responsibility, too.

“We take this seriously. We have our annual school; we do shared trails workshops, extensive signage campaigns, and we are currently working with Fish and Game to send out (information),” Person said. “If I’m out with my dog, the safety of my dog is my responsibility. There are lots of ways my dog can be hurt out in the woods. My dog could be hit by a car.”

Person also raised the issue of enforcement.

“Have (the assembly) thought about how you’re going to fund this?” Person asked. “How are you going to set it up? It’s important that laws are clear and enforceable.”

After the vote, borough animal control officer Matt Hartwig was asked by the assembly about the logistics of enforcing the ban. He said there would be troubles with funding, and that in his 13 years on the job, he only knew of two instances when domesticated animals were caught in the traps, one of them well off a trail, and the other involving a loose dog with no owner present.

Despite this ruling, the Mat-Su Borough continues to require dogs to be on leashes at all times.

Trappers and dog walkers alike agreed that the construction of dog parks in the borough would be good.