AWA tackling Mud Lake problem

My old friends at the Alaska Waterfowl Association are looking at ways to resolve the littering problem at Mud Lake off Maud Road near Butte.

The junk and trash matter has become so critical that a key landowner, Eklutna Inc., has closed off access to a popular boat launch on the lake, one that links to a network of other waterways. Mud Lake itself is on state land but getting to the boat launch requires crossing land owned by Eklutna Inc., an Alaska Native corporation.

Thanks to a bunch of irresponsible visitors, boaters are now blocked from a shooting range and a large area used for camping, hiking, fishing, hunting and more. The area is a key access point for duck and moose hunters. Canoeists, kayakers and others with light watercraft can still carry those past the roadblock, but people who need vehicle access to the launch ramp are locked out.

The closure was a desperation move on Eklutna’s part, taken after years of problems like dumping of household trash, large appliances and a variety of other garbage. One notable example was an abandoned and burnt car, which cost the state’s Knik River Public Use Area $6,000 to remove.

Valley resident John Meyer posted a note on Facebook on July 15 calling on duck and moose hunters to get involved in solving the problem. He noted that “hundreds, if not thousands, of duck and moose hunters use that access every year.”

Meyer told Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann that Eklutna decision-makers had thrown up their hands because the littering problem has become so pernicious. Efforts to prevent it have included using trail cameras to catch litterers but the cameras were shot, set on fire and stolen. Signs were shot up and stolen.

As an old duck hunter and lifelong outdoorsman it breaks my heart to see people take such a self-centered and heedless approach to our wild-country assets.

Meyer is a member of the Alaska Waterfowl Association and is trying to set up a brainstorming session with the AWA and Eklutna Inc. to try to come up with a solution to the littering problem and get the roadblocks removed. The hunters aren’t causing the mess, he says. The junk is being left by kids and partiers.

It will be a challenge for the AWA and anyone else trying to solve the problem but the association has taken on many tough jobs in its 48-year history and has a great track record for successful operations.

AWA was launched in 1970 when I was working at ARCO Alaska and my hunting and fishing buddy Hank Rosenthal was at Humble Oil & Refining, which later became Exxon. We both were recruited into Ducks Unlimited by Jack Hendrickson, a waterfowling activist and leader in the Alaska Ducks Unlimited organization.

But then the national DU organization came out against building the trans-Alaska pipeline, which was a priority for both Hank and I. Jack Hendrickson very much wanted oil people to join the conservation movement in Alaska. When we told him we couldn’t join DU because of the national organization’s misguided opposition to the pipeline, he used some choice words to describe DU’s national leaders of the time and announced that Alaska would have its own organization, to be known as the Alaska Waterfowl Association.

ARCO was a very conservation-minded company. Robert O. Anderson was chairman of its board and a major supporter of environmental causes. ARCO became an AWA supporter and Hank brought in Humble. Since Hank was in charge of government relations for Humble, he was able to bring in lobbyists from most of the oil companies operating in Alaska.

The industry then used its clout to get Alaska legislators to support wetlands protection on 400,000 acres of duck habitat around Cook Inlet and to block projects that would infringe on marshlands —like moving the state capital from Juneau to the west side of Cook Inlet.

I’m not sure how the Alaska Waterfowl Association could resolve the littering problem at Mud Lake, but its members are the best ones I know to take it on. They know how to make things happen.

One idea that John Meyer mentioned to the Frontiersman reporter was for the Waterfowl Association and other community organizations to get behind annual cleanups. “We’re gonna’ keep this area clean,” he said.

AWA President Hugh Clark reports that he is on the Mud Lake problem and has been working on it for the last two weeks. Hugh and his bunch are the right people to have on your side in any battle like this one.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of five books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.