Hay Flats Game Refuge Grows by 195 Acres

The Palmer Hay Flats Game Refuge is now 195 acres larger thanks to a new land donation to the state.

The donated land, which sits near the middle of the refuge in an area between the Glenn Highway and Settlers Bay, was purchased from a private landowner by the non-profit Great Land Trust and donated to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Now at over 28,000 acres, the wetlands refuge still contains a handful of privately held land parcels, said Ellen Kazary, who directs the Great Land Trust. Eventually she hopes the Trust and state can work to absorb those areas to create a continuous refuge.

“It’s been a Fish and Game priority for years to try to sort out management to make as many of those as public as possible,” she said. “We continue to talk with land holders … and if they’re ready and willing we’d be interested in helping incorporate it into the hay flats.”

The recent land transfer isn’t the first such hay flats donation Great Land Trust has made to the state. In 2005 and 2014 they purchased and then donated 160 acres and 1,000 acres respectively. Those donations have since become the Rabbit Slough access point and the Wasilla Creek wetlands boardwalk area which opened in 2016 near Machetanz Elementary School.

Kazary said the wetlands give the Valley a recreation site with multiple entrance points, including immediately off the Glenn Highway at Rabbit Slough. For example, early this year her team spent a day canoeing to the newly purchased land. And in the winter the area is great for fat biking and nordic skating, she said.

But without creating uninterrupted public land by purchasing the private parcels, there is no easy way for users to know whether they have crossed onto private land in the marsh.

The hay flats are the ancestral home of the Knikatnu Native peoples of Upper Cook Inlet and settlement evidence can be seen on the nearby bluffs.

Kazary said they hope to hold a hay flats exploration day at Rabbit Slough early next year. A similar event was held in early 2020 and included a chance to take out fat bikes from Palmer’s Backcountry Bike and Ski as well as other wetland activities and information.