Trashing Alaska

[Snowbear]

This 8 min video is about the area where I grew up. I'm not sure when (or if?) it will be aired, but the producers are hoping it will eventually be on Discovery Channel or one of the national news channels.

We used to be able to hop on the horses, go out the back gate and spend hours or even days playing around there without concern for our or our animals' safety.

Over the last 15 years or so, the area has literally become more and more like a war zone. No-one dares to ride horses there any more for fear of being shot or having their horses terrorized by jerks on 4-wheelers.... and definitely don't let the dogs tag along :11:

My mom is one of the voices featured in the video. She's been more and more frustrated and disheartened by the ongoing destruction and lack of law enforcement assistance. Every spring she organizes a clean-up. The area residents clean up the trash from the roads, trails, river- and streambanks. The Army Nat'l Guard folks use it as a training opportunity and are of tremendous assistance by finding and removing the trashed vehicles and appliances. Each year, within a week of the clean-up, there are more vehicles and more trash and more dead wildlife to take the place of that which was removed.

What a bummer :frown:

 

[Uncle Pug]

Bummer. Watched the video. Sad.

 

[AggieDad]

Truly sad. My son is in the Army at Ft. Richardson and I fly into Anchorage several times a month. I love it up there. I have never been to Butte but I have experienced a little of the "lawless" leave me alone attitude with some. That is fine until it affects someone else. Good luck with this job. Let us know if we can contact our Senator's and Congressmen to put a little outside pressure on. As this is public land...it belongs to me also.

 

[Mr.X]

Simply unreal! Are these folks native Alaskans? Very disturbing to believe anyone can be so capricious with the place they live, or visit. I feel like spouting expletives.

Grrrrh. X

 

[wardric]

This is complete madness. I'm speachless.

Good luck

 

[Floridawannabe]

So Sorry, keep up the good work about getting out the word. Who ever the criminals are that are destoying everything should be charged to the max limit.

 

[mrjimboalaska]

I've caught any a silver salmon in the knit river area(lived in Eagel River) and YES, it is Very dangerous due to the dumping of trash and the shooting. They've been trying to clean it up for years, The Troopers SHOULD clean up the ref-raf, but WONT! I dont't buy into the overworked understaffed excuse.
BUT, I have ridden my Four wheeler all the way to the Glacier, I believe that there SHOULD NOT be a ban on off road vehicles. It is like saying the Ocean is being wrecked(which it is) so BAN DIVING.....
would you buy into that????????

 

[scubapolly]

Snowbear,
That's horrible, but thanks for sharing. Keep us informed of the progress.

 

[beezwax]

That video is horrible. I lived in Fairbanks from 1993-2000, but I never heard of that craziness. Unfortunately AK politicians are cut from the same ratty cloth as their outside counterparts. I've got some land near Fairbanks that I'll be back to build a cabin on once I grow weary of seeing the world...I'm glad it's a long way from the Knik.

 

[Snowbear]

BUT, I have ridden my Four wheeler all the way to the Glacier, I believe that there SHOULD NOT be a ban on off road vehicles. It is like saying the Ocean is being wrecked(which it is) so BAN DIVING.....
would you buy into that????????

No-one is trying to ban off road vehicles. At all. Even my mom!
All they're asking is that the recreational uses are responsible to the environment and to the people who live in the area.... unfortunately, the ones who want reckless, lawless use of the area have won.