Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- Amid test plots of lettuce and barley, researchers at Matanuska Experiment Farm on Trunk Road are testing turf aimed at cutting down on airplane dents and dings.

University of Alaska Fairbanks Agriculture and Horticulture Agent Stephen Brown said the turf grass, a red fescue variety, is inexpensive to grow. It doesn't need a lot of water and is hardy enough to grow on gravel runway strips.

"I planted my lawn in it. The cold weather doesn't kill it, and it can stand up to drought. It has very low nutrition requirements as far as fertilizer," Brown said.

The grass grows readily around Barrow, he said. That's an indication of how Alaska-hardy it is. And if fertilized correctly, it will stay about 10-12 inches tall without constant mowing, he said.

"As we've gone out and done surveys on runways, most that have grass on them now, the grass just popped up. Or the grass is being maintained, and they're following the same process as homeowners (maintaining a lawn)," he said.

Brown is hoping to persuade small airstrip owners to switch to turf instead of gravel. It would help them slash maintenance costs, he said.

"It's a huge problem," he said. "When airplanes land, take off and taxi, the gravel kicks up in the propellers, gets in the engine and can actually punch right through the fabric of planes."

Brown is holding a workshop for small private runway owners to learn more about the grass runways from 2-4 p.m. Aug. 18 at the UAF Cooperative Extension Service office in Palmer. The office is in Suite 2 at 809 S. Chugach Street.

The workshop will cover runway preparation, grass selection, fertilizer strategies and techniques for getting the grass to grow, and soil sampling and interpretation. Brown said the extension service will help participants and others interested in growing grass runways. They won't supply grass seed but will offer tips on growing it, he said.

Melvin Wick, who operates Wick Air, an aircraft maintenance shop near Trunk Road, said gravel nicks and dings are a minor maintenance issue that can become particularly bad in coastal areas, where gravel nicks will open a plane up to corrosion from saltwater. In the Valley, he said, the problems from gravel aren't major.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her at 352-6709.

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