Knik River access in state's hands

MAT-SU -- The Knik River Access area off the Glenn Highway was recently transferred to the state of Alaska, and managers of the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge hope including the property in the refuge management plan will solve old problems and open up new opportunities for the easily accessible site.

The parcel of land being transferred encompasses 255 acres, according to information from the federal Bureau of Land Management. The site includes access to the Knik and Matanuska rivers, a man-made and previously stocked lake with a trail around it and several islands in the Knik River.

The property was selected by the state as part of its statehood allotment of 104.5 million acres. Greg Balen, realty group manager for BLM, said his office has been working with staff from the state in an accelerated effort to transfer the land to the state.

The two agencies have set a goal to complete all of the transfers -- except 5 percent or about 5 million acres the state reserves the right to act on in the future -- before 2009. But there was even more impetus, Balen said, to transfer the Knik River Access site.

"It was also because it was becoming a public-safety hazard," Balen said. "People were just out there indiscriminately shooting."

Alaska Department of Transportation officials have replaced numerous fog lights along the Knik and Matanuska bridges, after the lights were shot out by passing drivers or people shooting from the nearby river-access site.

Trees have been razed by machine gun fire at Gravel Pit Lake, and nearly every sign is pocked with bullet holes. People who use the site regularly for waterfowl hunting or just as a hiking area have countless stories of finding abandoned couches or burnt-out hulks of vehicles -- and even of being shot at by target shooters.

BLM staff, along with help from other agencies, recently went through two extensive cleanups of the area, hauling 6,000 pounds of trash out last year.

Divers scoured the bottom of Gravel Pit Lake, Balen said, and brought up what they called a carpet of shotgun shells and other pollutants. The lake has since been fenced off, and the exit to the site has been cordoned off the for past two years. Halen said because it was primarily agency staff who did the work, and because it was done during the regular work week, it was difficult to say how much was spent on the cleanup effort.

Balen said handing over the management of the site will be somewhat of a relief, but they hope to be involved in the future with what happens at the site.

"It's definitely something now that BLM doesn't have to patrol," Balen said. "Obviously, I think it would be in our best interest to maintain the good relationship that's been built in the effort to clean it up."

John Hechtel manages the Palmer Hay Flats refuge, along with several other refuges in the area for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He said department staff are glad to see the site, which was selected for state ownership after the legislature set aside the Palmer Hay Flats as a refuge site, transferred to state ownership. The Knik Access site has, all along, been considered one of three primary access points to the refuge, but like the two other access points, it's only now passing into state hands.

"One of the things we've been trying to do is ensure access for people who want to fish, hunt and dog train on the flats," Hechtel said. The two other access sites -- one at Cottonwood Creek off Hayfield Road and the Rabbit Slough site near the Glenn Highway's intersection with the Parks Highway -- are still under other ownership.

The Cottonwood Creek access site, Hechtel said, is owned partially by the state and the Mat-Su Borough, and the Rabbit Slough site, previously the Cope homestead, was purchased by a coalition of user groups. Discussions about transferring the site are under way.

Hechtel said state ownership and management of the site won't mean immediate changes for people who currently use the area -- it will still be open to boat access, fishing, waterfowl hunting and the same uses for which it is currently available, although access to Gravel Pit Lake will remain restricted, and the site access will likely be closed off in winter.

In the future, Hechtel said, he and other fish and game staff hope to make the area more appealing for day-users.

"Now that it's cleaned up and in control, we're going to try to keep it moving in the right direction. There's a number of really nice aspects about that spot," Hechtel said. "The bottom line is, down the road, people would like to see it as a nice day-use recreational area."

Although losing BLM management of the property also means losing BLM enforcement officers who checked up on the site, Gino Del Frate, an area management biologist with Fish and Game said his department hopes Alaska State Troopers will continue to monitor the site -- and he hopes keeping the site cleaned up will bring back people interested in taking care of the site, and reduce the number of people dumping trash or otherwise illegally using it.

"We're trying to keep that type of clientele out of the area, and it's going to be a challenge," Del Frate said. "By making this a nice, pleasant place and getting people used to that, the other side of the coin is not going to want to be there."

That could mean, he said, developing the nature trail around Gravel Pit Lake and restocking it, maybe even including a handicapped-access fishing area. The boat launch site may be improved, he said, and could be profitable if the nearby Eklutna Tailrace salmon hatchery takes off.

Hechtel said one promising aspect is that there's a growing group of Hay Flats users who are interested in keeping the site safe, free from trash and a pleasant experience for users.

"There is a large group of people who really care about the place and think it's cool that we have it -- but they are troubled by the dumping," Hechtel said.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com