Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge: a gem in peril

Spring has arrived in Southcentral. Any day now, thousands of snow geese and swans following their ancient path along the Pacific Flyway will gather on the Refuge waters to rest and replenish before continuing north to the Arctic Slope and Russia. Thousands more waterfowl, songbirds and raptors will arrive to settle in for the summer, nesting and raising their young across the 40,000 acres of protected habitat.

Surrounded by Alaska’s largest population center, this most accessible refuge is a gem, indeed. Reflections Lake at Knik River on the Glenn Highway offers travelers a short mile-long woodland walk with spectacular viewpoints at every turn. Off Hayfield Road, Scout Ridge Trail goes through dense upland habitat of birch woods full of songbirds and raptors, passes by a fresh water lake and sparkling cold salmon stream. Scout Ridge Overlook, built by local Eagle Scouts is poised on the high bluff with a stunning view of refuge lands, rivers, ponds and the Chugach Range, and passes through Upper Cook Inlet’s oldest and largest ancient Native settlement site. Below, the Cottonwood Creek Wetland Trail meanders for miles out across the Flats through estuarial ponds, lush wild grasses, fields of wild flowers and silty sloughs. Sandhill cranes, Canada geese, ducks, songbirds and gulls by the nest raise their young all summer long. A quiet walk in this vast expanse is an incredible experience. And, to think it’s only minutes away.

Unfortunately, the beauty of this place belies the difficulty of keeping it as it should be. It is an ongoing struggle to deal with constant threats to the health of its habitat enjoyment of its visitors. Thousands of hours of volunteer labor have been expended over the past four years to remedy decades of abuse and neglect, such as lead shot in wetland ponds, trash dumping and shot-up embankments around access points, restoring and replanting vehicle damaged habitat, and much more. Boy Scouts, Teeland Middle School students, teachers and parents, Wasilla Soil and Water Conservation District, Fish and Game, Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats and many more have worked tirelessly in this effort. Still, the abuse continues. The latest hateful act was at Scout Ridge Overlook pavilion that was vandalized with an ax.

Perhaps the greatest difficulty these public lands face, however, is the unbelievable lack of political will on the part of the administration and Legislature over many years to provide for sufficient funding to care for this refuge. Of all 32 refuges, sanctuaries and critical habitat areas in Alaska, 25 are in Southcentral. Four are accessible on the road system, including Palmer Hay Flats. The Fish and Game Wildlife Conservation budget for all 25 of these areas is a paltry $15,000 per year. Unbelievably, one refuge manager is responsible for all 25 of these areas. Of course, there currently is no manager, as the last one retired in 2007 and there is no budget to hire another.

This is an insult to all Alaskans and particularly to the local citizens who have spent thousands of hours working on infrastructure and habitat restoration grant projects which, by statute, is the responsibility of the state. After the investment made by the community, it is small wonder Fish and Game decided to install a security gate at Scout Ridge/Cottonwood Creek access. Day use open and close is the preferred use, but with no money to provide for snow plowing of the road, nor daily open/close and monitoring for trash dumping, illegal shooting or other vandalizing, the only option is to close for the winter months.

Over all four seasons of the year, thousands of Alaskans and visitors come to recreate in this refuge. Yet there is no budget money allocated to provide restrooms, decent parking areas or to replace a dangerous, crumbling trail bridge — last fall, vandals shot out the abutments. These are not new expenditures, but rather long needed items that have been purposely removed from the budget priority list. One has to look long and hard to find any budget allocations for Wildlife Conservation other than predator control. For administrations and legislatures to look past these expressed needs year after year is truly a great shame.

Kris Abshire is president of the board of directors of Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats.