Hatcher plan in home stretch

WASILLA – Jim Turner has skied Hatcher Pass since 1960 and enjoyed riding snowmachines there since 1970.

Although he fully understands the passion of both motorized and non-motorized users of the Valley’s most popular outdoor recreation area, as the owner of Turner’s Corner store on the northeast end of his family’s 80-acre homestead on Palmer-Fishhook Road, he also appreciates his most valuable customer.

“I sit on a dead-end road, not a thoroughfare,” said Turner, leader of the Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance. “The Motherlode Lodge is boarded up and I don’t see a lot of tourists flocking up here. I’ve had to do a lot of penny-pinching over the last few years. Snowmachiners represent more than half of the recreational business I receive in the wintertime.”

Turner is one of many interested Alaskans who are now studying the recently released draft of the state’s Hatcher Pass Management Plan Revision after two years of rather contentious public debate on how to fairly accommodate all users of the 294,919 acres of wilderness between Palmer and Willow.

The management plan covers both the east and west sides of the pass, from Mile 8 to Mile 37 of Hatcher Pass Road, including Independence Mine State Historical Park, Summit Lake State Recreation Site, Bald Mountain Ridge, Government Peak, Mile 16 Ski Run, Archangel Creek, Reed Lakes, Little Susitna River, Craigie Creek, Lucky Shot and Willow Mountain areas.

Outgoing commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Tom Irwin, adopted the 2010 Hatcher Pass Management Plan Nov. 17. The next day, Gov. Sean Parnell appointed then-Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan to that post.

Although the new plan actually gives motorized users 345 more acres to play with than they had before, Turner and Valley resident Rod Arno – executive director of the powerful Alaska Outdoor Council – are hoping Sullivan will agree to tweak the plan their way even more after the final comment period ends at the end of the day Dec. 28.

“I think it needs more work,” Arno said of the plan Monday. “A large consensus of outdoor users asked for a corridor that could be accessed from the east side to the west side without having to drive up in the management area and park or have to drive around to the Willow side.”

The plan emphasizes different management approaches to the side west of Summit Lake and the side to the east of the lake.

The west side remains open to year-round motorized use, while the east side is open to winter motorized use at designated locations near the road system and is generally open to snowmachines in the more remote areas. With the exception of Archangel Road and Hatcher Pass Road, summer motorized uses are not allowed, according to the management plan guidelines posted on the DNR website.

The Reed Creek Valley of the area east of Archangel Road and west of Reed Creek is now open to snowmachine use, but terminates at the mouth of Good Hope Creek.

“The effect of this action is to open up the Good Hope Valley, which has been functionally closed to snowmachine use, and to provide a novice/intermediate snowmachine use area near the Goldming Parking Lot,” the plan states, adding the area remains closed to motorized vehicles in the summer.

The area north of Good Hope Creek remains closed to winter motorized use. This option converts the Archangel Road corridor 2.5 miles to Fern Mine Road to winter non-motorized use and closes areas near the road and parking lots at Marmot Mountain and Delia Creek to motorized use.

“These changes were made to separate motorized and non-motorized uses and thereby promote public safety,” the plan explains. “In addition, the boundaries of the 2002 Hatcher Pass Special Use Area, which follows the Reed Creek and Little Susitna drainages, have been modified to correspond to topographic features, in an effort to make the restricted area more recognizable from the ground and thereby improve enforcement.”

But Kathy Wells, who leads the watchdog group Friends of Mat-Su, but only wished to speak for herself about the revised plan, said Monday that although it appears the plan is one both sides can live with, she worries about the ability of the state to enforce the restrictions.

“This past weekend, there were snowmachines up there already and it’s not even open to them yet,” Wells said. “The truck hauling them didn’t have visible license plates so no one could report them. So the motorized folks seem to always find a way around restrictions.”

Joe Irvine, of the Fishhook Community Council, said he agrees that implementation of the plan remains to be seen.

“That’s the thousand-pound gorilla,” he said.

DNR Land Use Planner Philana Miles said Wednesday she and her fellow state planners have done their best to please everyone. She said some people don’t seem to understand the difference between the 1986 plan and the new one.

“We haven’t changed access,” she said. “We’ve actually opened some areas to snowmachines on the east side. We’ve tried really hard to work with everyone on this.”

To submit a request for reconsideration about the plan adoption, contact Commissioner Dan Sullivan at DNR, 550 W. 7th Ave., Suite 1400, Anchorage, 99501, or e-mail dnr.appeals@alaska.gov or fax (907) 269-8918. For further questions or comments, contact DNR Land Use Planner Philana Miles by e-mail at dnr.mlw.hpmp@alaska.gov, call (907) 269-8529 or fax (907) 269-8915. Deadline for appeals and comments is 5 p.m., Dec. 28.