Lodge owner, developer at odds

DENALI STATE PARK — A land-use squabble shows has two men squaring off about who owns a stream in the Mat-Su Borough’s northern reaches.

Byers Creek parallels the Parks Highway flowing south through Denali State Park. It then turns west, crosses underneath the highway and empties into the Chulitna River. But before the river and after the highway, the creek runs through Byers Creek Landing, a 34-lot subdivision surrounded by parkland on all sides.

It is on one of these lots that Michael Stevens owns Byers Creek Lodge. Stevens bought the small complex of cabins and a restaurant five years ago, billing it as offering hiking, kayaking, berry picking and fishing. However, that last activity — as is true in so many places — is the sticking point.

Recently, whenever Stevens sends guests down to the creek, they have been run off by a fishing guide, Stevens said. The guide badgers his guests, saying this is a private creek and no one is allowed to fish from the bank, he said.

“My business has gone from good to zero,” Stevens said. “I bought this place because of the creek. You take the creek out of it, and I got nothing. It becomes just another lodge in the woods.”

Shortly after the first few incidents of his guests getting run off, Stevens received a letter from Paul Nangle, the developer of the subdivision. Addressed to members of the homeowners association, Nangle said only property owners are allowed to fish on his land, and “that creek is owned by me.”

While he does not own the water, Nangle said he owns the property it flows over. This means he cannot stop people — like the guiding outfit — from floating down the river, but no one is allowed to fish from the bank without an easement issued by him, Nangle said.

“Only the owner of the property is allowed on the easement,” he said.

In addition, Nangle said, the association decided to lock the gate across the road accessing the subdivision from the highway.

“The gate is to keep people from coming on our property, throwing their beer cans and trashing the place,” Nangle said in an interview. “It’s private property.”

That angered the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The road accessing the subdivision crosses over a few hundred feet of parkland after leaving the highway. Because of this, Nangle had to dedicate the road to the borough for use as an access to the park at the back side of the subdivision.

On Aug. 12, the borough’s code compliance office issued Nangle an order to remove the gate from the road.

“The property was given to the borough with that dedication,” said code compliance officer Roy Robertson. “Any sort of blockage is an encroachment. Any sort of encroachment must have a permit.”

The issue of fishing rights on Byers Creek is a bit more cloudy, said Kathy Sheehan-Dugan of the state’s Department of Natural Resources. While a person may own all the land surrounding an area of a creek, the state owns from the ordinary high-water mark down, she said.

However, finding this mark is almost splitting hairs, Sheehan-Dugan said. Typically, the mark is where the vegetation starts growing, she said, but only a professional survey can tell for sure. But, if a person is below the ordinary high-water mark, they are in public land, she said.

Once the mark is determined, Sheehan-Dugan said, the issue becomes access.

“If the person were to access the creek from outside the person’s property, that would be OK,” Sheehan-Dugan said. “If they access through the property, that wouldn’t be OK.”

In this particular case, Robertson said, the dedication runs through the subdivision to the park.

“I don’t know what the easements are in the park, but that would be one potential way to access the creek,” Robertson said.

Undeterred, Nangle said the homeowners association is meeting in the next 20 days to draft a letter asking the borough to let them keep the gate up. Despite what the state says, he is not letting up about the creek.

“The state can tell you anything they want. If they want to put their money up where their mouth is, they can try to fight me,” Nangle said. “But I own the creek bottom.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com 352-2252.