Tire dump blemishes clean spring at Hay Flats

PALMER HAY FLATS — A tire dump found at the Palmer Hay Flats recently ended what officials from the nonprofit Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats call a period of cleanliness in the game refuge.

Kris Abshire, president of Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats, said about 50 tires were dumped at the Rabbit Slough/Wasilla Creek access recently. Whoever dumped the tires also tried to burn them, but the Alaska Department of Fish and Game was able to extinguish the smoldering tires before the pile could grew into an inferno, Abshire said.

“It’s just very frustrating,” she said about the dumping at the refuge.

Members of Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats had been excited because this had been the first year in the history of the refuge a spring cleanup wasn’t necessary. The tires have become a blemish on that record.

“We’ve been working so hard and we’ve really been very successful with replacing abusers with good folks,” Abshire said.

The tires piled in the refuge are of various brands and types. There are large tires, small tires, some with rims and some without. No suspects have been named by Alaska State Troopers or any other law enforcement agency.

Tony Kavalok, a Fish and Game wildlife biologist, said the tires were cleaned up by a wildlife technician. Kavalok said he is particularly concerned with tiny shards of metal from the dumped rims posing a safety hazard. Steel cores from tires and other metal debris could puncture the tires of people visiting Palmer Hay Flats and pose a safety risk if they are hidden in tall brush. He also said if remnants from burning tires were to end up in the refuge’s water it could pose a threat to fisheries.

Another risk that comes from people dumping trash on public lands like the Palmer Hay Flats comes in the form of copycat dumpers and general blight of the area, he said.

“With my experience, garbage breeds garbage,” said Fish and Game’s Land and Refuge Program Coordinator Joe Meehan.

Meehan said risks from dumped trash vary depending on what is left behind, but, to him, that wildlands like the refuge are befuddled by polluters is troubling, but not shocking.

“I’m not shocked at all by [the Hay Flats tire dump] after what I’ve seen Alaskans dump on private lands,” Meehan said.

For Abshire, the discovery of dumped tires is worrisome because the refuge has started taking shape as a safe, clean place to visit after years of cleanups and care, she said. Families, hunters and other recreational users have been coexisting safely for some time now, and the amount of garbage and other litter in the refuge has slowly tapered off.

In the eyes of Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats, years of work are paying off as the numbers of people using the area responsibly increases.

“It’s because folks aren’t afraid to come anymore,” Abshire said.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiers-man.com or 352-2252.