Rec area should be open to motorized use

June 7, 2005

Spectrum/Dick Coutts

The recent cleanup of the Knik River drainage area on the 14th, 20th and 21st of May was a great success. The reason for this article is to thank all the participants for their help in the cleanup and mention some other relevant facts about the Knik River recreation area.

The May 14 Butte-area cleanup was organized by Cathy Shultz, as it has been for the past several years. Great job, Cathy. Also, thanks to the Mat-Su Borough and BP for the donated trash bags, and to the borough for providing the trash containers at Butte Fire Hall.

Hot dogs were cooked for the cleanup crews by Patty Barber. Cleanup was done along Maud Road on the evening of May 13 by myself, Bruce Edwards and James (last name not known). We cleaned up the "shooting gallery" and the Jim Lake parking area.

On May 14, Cecily Fritz, (Knik River Watershed Group) and her friends cleaned up more at the Mud Lake parking area.

Areas along the Old Glenn Highway and the parking and boat-launching areas at the Knik River Bridge were cleaned up on May 14.

On May 21, a cleanup was organized by the president of the Eagle River ATV club, Mike Erickson. Great job, Mike. It looked like at least 100 people participated at the pavilion area (all day in the rain) on Sullivan Road, the sand dunes and Jim Creek trash pickup areas.

Mike and his club members also organized a barbecue for the crews and held a drawing with lots of gifts, I won a Foreman FourTrax baseball cap. Thanks, Mike.

The National Guard did a great job hauling abandoned and burned cars out from the sand dunes areas. Many thanks to our National Guard for their help.

Kenny Barber, Mic Martnek and others volunteered their own vehicles and drove to Wolf Point (near the Knik Glacier) to drag abandoned cars down closer to where the National Guard could get to them with their heavy equipment for further hauling out.

Kenny and his dad, Bill Barber, and friends also hauled an old abandoned pickup truck from the Friday Creek airstrip out to the open gravel bars for the National Guard to take to the landfill. Good job, Kenny.

Air boaters transported 12 people to the upper Jim Creek area for a cleanup requested by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The DNR regulations require permanent structures and old camps to be removed. The air boaters and others complied with the DNR request and cleaned up the old hunting camp on Friday, May 20.

I supplied a fire permit from the Division of Forestry and we burned what we could and hauled out the rest in the air boats. Thanks to everyone for helping. It is good to see so many groups and people working together for a common cause to improve the situation.

The following organizations participated in cleanup operations. Please excuse me if I left anyone out: The Alaska Boating Association, Butte Community Council, Butte Community Council Trails Committee, Knik River Watershed Group, Eagle River ATV Club, Alaska Outdoor Council and a newly organized group called the Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance.

There is good news for the users of the Knik River drainage area. New legislation has been initiated to form a Knik River public-use area.

Due to initial work and planning by the above mentioned groups and a specific request by Todd Clark of the Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance, House Bill 307, Rep. Bill Stoltze, May 7, and Senate Bill 197, Sen. Charlie Huggins, May 8, have been introduced in Juneau in order to ensure that due to extremely high use of the Knik River drainage area, the land will remain open to the public for traditional multiple uses.

There are four public-use areas in existence in Alaska now. The largest one, the Nelchina public-use area, (DNR AS 41.23.1010) is approximately 1 million acres in area, and the biggest legislatively designated area on state land along with regulations for protecting swans, caribou and other wildlife.

The Knik River public-use area will hopefully be patterned after the Nelchina public-use area. We have support for keeping open the Knik River valley for off-road recreational use (motorized as well as multiple use).

There is a Butte Community Council resolution stating the wishes of Butte-area residents and others of wanting the area and local trails kept open. A petition with the signatures of approximately 1,400 Alaska residents confirms the same thing.

There is another resolution by the Butte Community Council (1995) approving of the certification of the Knik Glacier RS 2477 trail from the Old Glenn Highway to the Knik Glacier. There is a certification by the Alaska DNR and signed by Ron Swanson when he was director of DNR, approving of the RS 2477 Knik Glacier (RS 17) trail. Trails are shown on the Mat-Su Borough maps showing public trails in the Knik River valley.

A resolution was recently introduced by Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Lynne Woods (Tuesday, May 17). She said she will support our Juneau bill for a Knik River public-use area. Thank you, Lynne.

So, greenies and groups trying to restrict land use and make another park, please give us a break.

You say you want just one area where you can have peace and quiet. Good grief, there are millions of acres in Alaska for peace and quiet - more national parks in Alaska than the whole rest of the United States parks areas combined. There are wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, state parks, controlled-use areas - most are nonmotorized or are impractical for motorized use.

Nearby to the Knik River is the Chugach State Park (99.9-percent nonmotorized and half a million acres in size). Then there are the Palmer Hay Flats, Potter Marsh for bird watching, Hatcher Pass State Park, Susitna Flats, Prince William Sound with its huge area and Chugach National Forest, which is controlled and mostly nonmotorized.

We just want one good area nearby for motorized use. This is the best area, obviously nearest to the most populated area in the state of Alaska

and best used for motorized recreation.

The river sand and gravel bars are ideal for motorized recreation, as well as the trails in the highlands along the mountains.

According to the "Susitna Area Plan" legislation act proposed in Juneau on May 7, any wetlands in the Knik River drainage will be identified and studied by the United States Corps of Engineers and will be protected accordingly.

We will not be intimidated by the car burners and others who want to restrict access to the popular recreational area. In the works is another petition to support House Bill No. 307 and Senate Bill No. 197 for "An Act Creating the Knik River Public Use Area," with a goal of 10,000 signatures. Thank you.

Dick Coutts is a resident of the Butte area.