NOT in my backyard:

Jim Creek residents say its time to bring order to the chaos

By Rindi White-Frontiersman reporter

JIM CREEK -- "You'd like to say it's long-haired hoodlums that are just losing it, but it's not. It's people who are just not thinking."

A growing number of people live in the Jim Creek area, north and east of the community of Butte, and they're becoming increasingly less tolerant of what appears to be unbridled chaos taking place in their back yards.

Tom Bergey, quoted above, moved three years ago to the area known as the pavilion at the end of Sullivan Road in the Butte. He and his family are building their dream on 10 acres of land in some of Alaska's finest scenic wilderness. Until the shooting starts.

Bergey said he was recently working on the roof of his home when someone parked in the pavilion area, took out a few clay pigeons and began trap shooting -- in his direction. In what has become a regular occurrence, Bergey caught the man's attention, asked a few questions and the shooter left.

On a weekend in late November, Bergey said he counted nearly 100 vehicles parked in the pavilion area adjacent to his home. The land once housed a public pavilion, but after the building was razed with bullets and became a hazard, the Mat-Su Borough removed it. But whether by habit or following what are becoming legendary stories glorifying the desert-like wasteland that have cropped up in several venues, people haven't stopped coming.

Later that weekend, Bergey saw a group of vehicles in the lot, towing a car in circles and apparently readying it for burning. Bergey took down license numbers and vehicle descriptions, then notified Alaska State Troopers, who responded to the scene. As troopers were on their way, Bergey said he saw explosives being thrown under the vehicle's hood and heard someone ask for a lighter. Bergey called troopers a second time to let them know the situation was escalating.

According to an e-mail sent from Sgt. Mark Ridling to Butte Community Council member Brit Lively, a trooper arrived on scene shortly after Bergey's second call, but the group had disbanded.

"We retrieved our four-wheel drive from DOT and called three troopers out of a training session that they were attending in Palmer," Ridling wrote.

Troopers later located a suspect driving near mile 10 of the Old Glenn Highway and pulled the vehicle over. Meanwhile, the junked car was found at a residence in the Butte trailer court. According to Ridling's e-mail, the resident of the home where the car was found claimed to have just taken the car out to "bang it up," but towed it back afterward, so as not to "clutter up the area." Ridling said further investigation of the vehicle stopped near mile 10 revealed illegally modified weapons and marijuana.

Two Anchorage residents were charged with misconduct involving a weapon and misconduct involving a controlled substance as a result. No one was charged in relation to the vehicle, because although the engine was scorched, Bergey said it was never set ablaze.

Bergey was quick to point out that the people involved were primarily from Anchorage. He said when he asks around at the pavilion where people are from, most of the people he has spoken to have been from outside the Valley. Only two people, he said, have said they were from the Valley, and just one from the Butte.

Rob Howard, a longtime area resident, cautioned people gathered at a joint meeting of the Butte and South Knik River community councils against jumping to conclusions or counting anyone out of the equation.

"Let's not say it's this group or that group that are doing it," Howard said. "People from all walks of life and all user groups are up there committing any travesty you can imagine."

Never mind who did it, local residents are just happy someone finally got caught. Although Bergey has called troopers many times to report mayhem, it's often the case that, by the time they arrive -- as happened in this case -- the troublemakers have smelled something in the air and vanished. Unfortunately, troopers don't often have the time to flush them out as they did Thanksgiving weekend.

"Every now and then the planets line up and things seem to work out," Ridling wrote in the e-mail discussing the troopers' response.

And that's what the community is hoping will happen as they proceed toward setting up a cooperative management agreement between the landowners in the area.

Who owns the playground?

The land in question, about 12 miles that stretches from Maud Road down to the Knik River and proceeds along its shore for several miles is primarily owned by the state of Alaska. Some land owned by Eklutna Inc. would be involved in the proposed agreement, as would several hundred acres owned by the Mat-Su Borough.

The management agreement would allow the Butte and South Knik River Community Councils, with borough assistance, to start on a plan to bring order to the chaos. With an agreement in place, the councils plan to inventory the land involved, determine the uses and locations of the various trails in the area, identify user groups, assess trail conditions and work with agencies and user groups to determine trail alignment appropriate for area vegetation, habitat and user compatibility.

The plan would allow support for education, land management and enforcement, both from the landowners involved and the community councils involved. Community members are hoping it will also serve as a vehicle for the enforcement of existing laws and community education of acceptable uses in the area.

Community members have stressed time and again that the agreement would only cover public land and the land owned by Eklutna Inc.

"When we started going into this, the assumption was that we would only deal with public lands, otherwise we would get nowhere," Lively told audience members at the joint community council meeting. "That's why we are so fortunate in having gotten as far as we have."

And the community has been busy. During the past few months, council members have drafted a version of a cooperative management agreement and plan to ask borough staff to offer suggestions before they send it to the various landowners. Three committees were set up to deal with specific aspects of the plan -- trails, education and law enforcement. So far, the teams have hosted speakers to discuss how a community council can move forward with implementing the plan. Now they're concentrating on solidifying and seeking approval of a management plan before moving forward on the items discussed in the plan.

Can we all work together?

Dave Kelley, the permitting program manager for the Department of Natural Resources' Southcentral region, said he has not yet seen the plan and can't commit to working under it.

Kelley said his office oversees about 40 million acres of state land -- nearly half of all state-owned land in Alaska. While Jim Creek poses its own set of problems, Kelley said it's not unique.

"There're enforcement issues everywhere," Kelley said.

"We have similar situations as far as vehicles are concerned, and we always have user conflicts," he said.

Since meeting with community council members recently, Kelley said he's been getting more calls from residents about trashed cars on state land. Removing the cars, Kelley said, is a slow process, slowed further by enforcement efforts.

"When it comes to getting rid of vehicles, there is a process we have to go through before we remove a vehicle," Kelley said.

If the car is charred and all identifiers have been removed, Kelley's job is somewhat easier, he said. If identifiers are present, policies mandate that the owner is contacted and asked to remove the vehicle. If the state must remove it, it could open the owner up to penalties, Kelley said, although the state hasn't reached that point yet.

"We're hoping, in the long run, to start holding people accountable for their actions," Kelley said. But as of yet, the state hasn't taken a single responsible party to court.

Why not?

Staffing, Kelley said. His unit operates with a staff of four. They're responsible for monitoring compliance across 40 million acres. Often, it means slow response times when the office is alerted to a new junked car. And slow response times means frustrated community members, who want to see immediate enforcement that would deter future problems. Kelley said their frustration is not lost on him.

"What I'm concerned about is being able to respond adequately because, as an individual, I do care," Kelley said. "It's a pretty big problem."

Enforcement is the first concern off the lips of Wendy Mikowski, in Eklutna Inc.'s land office.

Mikowski said she's glad the community is working toward a solution and looks forward to working with them. The Native corporation, she said, recognizes the need to bring order to land use in the Jim Creek area.

"We had a logging company out there and we had no idea," Mikowski said. "We spend $20,000 to $30,000 a year in cleanups."

For the private landowner, the unrestricted and often illegal use of their land is a legal liability no one wants to be saddled with. Another $10,000 to $20,000, Mikowski said, was spent recently in installing signs, gates, barriers and boulder deterrents at various points around the corporation's land.

Not every land user is responsible for the trashing, dumping, burning and illegal shooting going on out there, she said, but the ones who use it improperly are running the risk of losing it altogether.

"One person can ruin it for all," Mikowski said, "and that's what's happening."

Money must be found to police the area, but Mikowski feared restricting who could use the land at Jim Creek, and said the corporation itself doesn't place such restrictions on its land.

"How do you determine who can use it and who can't?" Mikowski asked. "We're willing to work with everybody. We're not here to say 'No, you're not going to come on our land.' Otherwise, things will go nowhere."

The next step

Enforcement is something everyone in the community recognizes as the key to cleaning up the community. They've tasted what consistent enforcement can do.

"For probably 20 years, [Jim Creek]'s been a place where people think there's no enforcement -- and there hasn't been," said community resident Jim Courtney. "It's this cultural thing that has kind of evolved out here, and we haven't been able to get a handle on it."

Two years ago, troopers organized weekend patrols of the area. Three troopers and a state Fish and Game officer covered the area on four-wheelers, hoping to curb some of the partying, illegal dumping and raucous shooting happening in the area. On the first weekend out, 27 citations for minors consuming alcohol were issued and a warrant arrest was made.

"People said it was peaceful out there," Courtney said.

But the troopers haven't returned. Some say an accident early into the patrol, in which a trooper received a sprained ankle and several cuts when a Palmer man he pulled over allegedly knocked him to the ground and ran over his leg, may have deterrred future patrols. Police officers who were involved in the 2000 patrol were away on training this week and did not respond to voicemail messages.

Butte community council members aren't pinning all their hopes on troopers, however. A motion was passed to ask the borough about setting up a video surveillance system on borough hot spots and there was talk about possible funding for a community patrol.

The key to securing enforcement funding, Lively told community council members, is developing a workable plan.

"What we've found so far is that, before you ask for funds, you have to have a plan," Lively said.

And to get the plan in place, the council needs community support and involvement. As Mikowski cautioned, an effective plan will need support and involvement from every group using the Jim Creek area. From airboats to shooters, plenty of activities going on in the area are legal and should be supported, community council members said.

"We do need some more participation from the recreation community and trail users. One of the things we'd like to see come out of tonight is a stronger trails committee," said Ted Cox, Butte community council's president. "We want legitimate users to take control out here."

Everyone agreed that more involvement will spur more pride in the area, which will eventually drive the people who use the area inappropriately away.

"The more positive things you have going on, the more the negative things get pushed out," Bergey said. "There's a lot of positive things that can come out of this, not just no more gunfire at two o'clock in the morning."

People interested in getting involved with the council's effort, or who would like to make sure their use of the area is preserved should contact the community council through its Web site at www.buttecc.org.

"I think the message is, this is not going to be acceptable anymore in this community," Cox said.

Littering prohibited

Littering on Mat-Su Borough property is a finable offense. The Mat-Su Borough's Code Compliance staff works to follow through on every report of illegal dumping they receive.

Jane Dale, a Mat-Su Borough code compliance officer, said the borough's first step is to try to identify the source of the dumped garbage. Once identified, borough staff give offenders the option of cleaning up the trash themselves.

If that doesn't work, Dale said, citations are filed in Alaska Superior Court. When court costs are added, the citation fees greatly outweigh the few dollars it takes to haul the trash to a waste transfer site or even to Central Landfill. Offenders can be charged with:

MSB 8.50, violating the borough's Junk and Trash ordinance, $150

MSB 8.05, littering, $100

MSB 1.45, damage to borough property, $100.

When the $10 court fee is added, offenders can pay up to $360 for each offense of littering on borough property, Dale said. Although it's possible to count each day the litter stays as a separate infraction, Dale said the borough has not yet taken that route. One illegal dumping case is currently scheduled for a court hearing, while another was resolved when the offenders gathered the dumped garbage and properly disposed of it.

"We are trying to follow up with enforcement," Dale said. "We follow up on every complaint we get."

Permit, please

If you're accessing state land in the upper Jim Creek area, chances are you're using land that belongs to the private Alaska Native Corporation, Eklutna Inc. And if you don't have a permit to use that land, you may be using it illegally.

Eklutna Inc. owns several hundred acres sandwiched between state and borough land in the Jim Creek area. Although much of the land is not fenced, the corporation requests that users respect their status as a private landowner and obtain a permit to use the land.

The cost of permits varies, said Wendy Mahoney with the native corporation's land and permitting office. People interested in using the land can find out more about the permits by calling their Eagle River office at (907) 696-2828, by stopping by or by writing to the office at 16515 Centerfield Ave., Eagle River, AK 91577.

"One person can ruin it for all, and that's what's happening," said Wendy Mikowski, land permitting manager at Eklutna Inc.

It's yours -- keep it that way

Jim Creek is largely a public use area, used by numerous different groups. If you use the Jim Creek area and would like to make sure your favorite hiking trail, fishing access or four-wheeler jumps are still available in the future, get involved.

The Butte Community Council holds meetings every second Wednesday. The next meeting will be held Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Butte Community Council building, near Butte Elementary School.

For more information, contact council members at the council's Web site, www.buttecc.org.

Time to trash

All Mat-Su Borough disposal sites are manned, so hours are limited to account for staffing. Dumping fees are generally $5 for a passenger vehicle or a vehicle containing up to a cubic yard of trash. For more information, call 745-9838 or log on to www.co.mat-su.ak.us. Hours of operation are as follows:

Central Landfill

Monday - Friday,

7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Weekends,

9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Big Lake Transfer site

Monday - Sunday,

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Butte Transfer site

Thursday - Monday,

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Sunshine Transfer site

Wednesday, Friday, Sunday,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sutton Transfer site

Friday - Sunday,

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Talkeetna Transfer site

Friday - Tuesday,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Trapper Creek Transfer site

Thursday, Saturday, Monday,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Willow Transfer site

Friday - Tuesday,

10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Long Rifle Lodge

Wednesday - Sunday,

11 a.m. to 7 p.m.