Groups pitch in on annual Jim Creek cleanup

May 20, 2007

By Will Elliott

Frontiersman

JIM CREEK - By some accounts, the Jim Creek area on the north bank of the Knik River has surpassed its own reputation in recent years for lawless revelry. Valley four-by-four clubs hoped to do something about that Saturday with a comprehensive clean-up effort.

In the face of increasing regulatory interest in the area, organizers said the cleanup was important in securing a future for motorized recreation there.

&#8220If people keep trashing that area, we'll lose it,” said Matt Irwin of Mat-Su Truck and Auto in Palmer.

The cleanup was organized by the Alaska ATV Club, for the fifth time in five years. The Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance, AK Extreme 4-Wheelers, 2 Broke 2 Play 4x4s, and other motorized groups joined staff from the Mat-Su Borough and the state Department of Natural Resources to pick up trash and haul it away.

Numerous Anchorage and Valley businesses helped support the event, which organizers expected to lure around 350 people. A third of that had already signed up in the event's first hour under sunny skies at the trailhead staging area.

A barbecue followed for volunteers, with prize drawings worth thousands of dollars donated by local businesses. Additionally, Irwin said, volunteers were spending hundreds of their own dollars to fuel the machines involved.

&#8220Just about anybody who has anything to do with ATVs is behind it,” said Steve Veltkamp, Alaska ATV Club vice president. &#8220This is our flagship show.”

Veltkamp said volunteers have removed more than 50 tons of trash from the area during the event's five-year history. That's the weight of nearly 3.2 million beer cans, though larger items like junked cars and bullet-riddled propane tanks added significantly to the total.

&#8220We're out here to make it look nice so we can keep enjoying it,” Veltkamp said.

Veltkamp's intimations of cause-and-effect referred to the recent scrutiny the Jim Creek area has received from regulatory bodies and law enforcement. Citing environmental damage from ATVs and littering and vandalism from partyers, local groups have appealed to state agencies for help protecting non-motorized users of the area. Motorized groups, worried such efforts will preclude their own access, have lobbied for the creation of the Knik River Public Use Area, which would privilege motorized uses there and grandfather existing conditions.

Rider and resident Mark Wuitschick said he doesn't want to see anyone lose access. He just wants to know that his family is safe.

Wuitschick said revelers are increasingly spilling over onto his Maud Road property, burning, shooting, fighting and stealing vehicles out of his yard.

After years in the neighborhood, Wuitschick said he's had enough.

&#8220I'm looking to move,” he said.

With events like the cleanup, however, Wuitschick was hopeful that things were getting better in the area, and that motorized users were shedding the bad image reckless riders and irresponsible partyers had given them.

&#8220It'll take a while, but the mentality's changing,” he said.

Irwin was proud of what the clean-up represented for the off-road community, in view of the mounting bad press the area had received.

&#8220People are really putting a lot of work into coming out and making this a better place,” Irwin said.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.