Anchorage Daily News

BUTTE -- There are about 200,000 acres in the Knik River Public Use Area, but just 836 of them got the most attention Tuesday night.

A crowd of about 50 at Butte Elementary seemed dead set against a plan by the Department of Natural Resources to place Rippy Trail and the area around it off limits to motorized vehicles. As half of the crowd stood individually to testify, the rest nodded their heads, clapped or shouted amen in defense of ATV use on the trail.

Dick Coutts, longtime Butte resident and community council member, was the first to condemn the Rippy plan.

"It's an insult to the good citizens who want to keep all the trails open," he said.

Coutts said that he helped build the trail and that it's now one of the main ways to access the public use area. Closing it, Coutts said, would deny many, some elderly and disabled, the ability to enjoy the area.

Dan Owens, who lives near the Butte, also wants the trail open to all.

"The problems are caused by people who aren't here tonight," he said.

That comment was echoed several times by people who say a minority is causing the problems while the majority may suffer if the plan goes through. Some called on the Alaska State Troopers to better patrol the area that abuts notorious Jim Creek. Others called on the responsible users to police the area, including using cell phone cameras to report illegal activity.

The Rippy Trail begins at the end of a trail extension from Maud Road, one of the main residential streets in the Butte area. It loops to within a few hundred yards of the shore of Jim Lake. After that it meanders about two miles to Upper Jim Creek.

The total area of nonmotor use, though, can be as much as a half-mile from the actual trail and at one point appears to be more than three-quarters of a mile from the trail.

The proposed ATV ban is meant to keep traffic out of nearby wetlands, which are identified on the state map of the recreation area as the "hydric soil boundary." Wetlands preservation is a key in the Department of Natural Resources' plan for the area.

Find T.C. Mitchell at adn.com/contact/tcmitchell or 907-352-6716

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