Knik River management plan draws comments

WASILLA — About 50 people turned out Thursday at Teeland Middle School to have their say about the state Department of Natural Resources’ plan to manage the often lawless Knik River.

The Knik River Public Use Area Management Plan has been in the works for 18 months, said Brandon McCutcheon, who is heading up the effort to draft the plan.

McCutcheon’s presentation contained a lot of images familiar to the area — burned cars, dumped trash, collapsed squatter shacks and shot-up appliances. The plan is an effort to address these issues, he said. Unlike previous meetings, this round of meetings is the “first time the public has been able to see a full draft” of a plan, McCutcheon said.

Turnout has been on the high side, he said. The first meeting, earlier in the week in Butte, drew 75 people. McCutcheon said most folks are upset with plans for a non-motorized area along a portion of the Rippy Trail east of Jim Lake. Rippy Trail runs off the end of Maud Road. They also are concerned about plans for a 5-horsepower limitation for boats on Jim Lake and a 5 mph speed limit on a portion of McRoberts Creek.

Thursday’s meeting echoed those concerns. An informal raise-of-hands survey showed nearly all those in attendance favor not closing Rippy Trail to motorized access. Many also spoke out against the horsepower and speed limits.

Cliff Judkins said that, far from addressing conflicts, dividing up resources would likely to create them. He also noted that in the 1960s, it was recreational vehicle riders who built the Rippy Trail in the first place.

“Now you all want to close them all and give them to someone who won’t hardly use them anyway,” Judkins said.

Another factor drawing concern is a parcel of land in the middle of the public use area the state appears prepared to hand over to Eklutna Inc. McCutcheon said the state will seek easements across the land to make sure folks can still get across. However, it’s still an open question whether those easements will follow existing trails or take a new route.

Another raising of hands showed a majority favored pushing hard for those easements.

Tom Bergey, who lives across the street from the Jim Creek parking lot, questioned a proposed outdoor shooting range close to his home. The area is one of two proposed in the plan — the other would be in the Maud Road area. The Knik River area already has gunfire popping off at all hours, Bergey said. Designating a shooting range close to a populated area doesn’t make sense.

Not only that, but to give folks a right to shoot so close to his home would make it more difficult for him to have law enforcement do something about those who are shooting in the area in an unsafe or illegal manner, Bergey said.

“There is no longer a bag limit for Zenith TVs and refrigerators in the area, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “But at 3 in the morning, DNR is not out there to enforce the zero bag limit.”

Another raise-of-hands survey showed a majority of participants favor a shooting area on the Knik River sand dunes as opposed to near the Jim Creek Pavilion.

The final Knik River Public Use Area Management Plan public comment meeting was held Friday evening at Wendler Middle School in Anchorage.

McCutcheon said written comments to the state Department of Natural Resources may still be submitted and are due May 2. The department’s next step will be to review comments and present the plan with proposed changes to the department’s commissioner, who will then finalize a management plan.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.