Bill would add 2,900 acres to state game refuge

HAY FLATS — House Bill 153 introduced by Rep. Jim Colver to expand the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge by approximately 2,900 acres unanimously passed on the House floor this week.

The Alaska Board of Game passed a recent resolution recommending the Legislature add three sections of state-owned land to the game refuge and Colver sponsored a bill to help it happen.

As created in 1975, the game refuge includes 28,800 acres of coastal and freshwater wetlands, tidal sloughs, mudflats, lakes and streams at the deltas of the Matanuska and Knik Rivers. Before the March 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the area was forested. But after the earthquake the delta dropped two feet and became a saltwater marsh.

Passage of HB 153 would formally protect these lands and ensure they are available for future generations to use for hunting, trapping, fishing, mushing, hiking, skiing, snowmachining, and outdoor education opportunities, Colver wrote in his newsletter.