Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Help navigating permits to build a dock or work in wetlands got a little easier this week with the opening of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers field office in Wasilla.

The office opened in Century Plaza at 1075 S. Check Street, Suite 102 in Wasilla. Karen Nelson, a regulatory project manager for the Corps, is currently the only Corps employee working there. Nelson said that would likely change this summer when the office expects to add a receptionist and another Corps employee.

For now, the office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for fieldwork and offsite meetings, Nelson said. The office will be open five days a week after it's fully staffed.

Nelson said the Wasilla office, along with a field office in Anchorage, were opened to provide the public with easier access to Corps services. The main offices of the Corps are located at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Security restrictions have made it more difficult for civilians to access those offices, she said.

The Corps, under section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act, regulates water in the U.S. including wetlands. It also enforces Section 10 of the federal Rivers and Harbors Act, which regulates docks and other structures in navigable waters, including Big Lake, Lake Louise and several rivers and streams in Mat-Su.

Working out of a local office will also allow Nelson to follow up on permits granted by the Corps and on local projects such as a Corps attempt to catalogue Big Lake docks, which started last year.

Nelson moved up from Portland, Ore. where she worked for the Corps' regulatory program. This is her first time visiting Southcentral Alaska, but she worked a summer in the tourism trade in Skagway several years ago.

Nelson said she was drawn to Alaska because of its wilderness, and isn't daunted by the winter so far. Having worked at a ski area east of Seattle where cars were literally buried overnight by heavy snows, Nelson said she's no stranger to the seasons.

Nelson was raised in Spokane, Wash., and summered on Idaho's Lake Coeur d'Alene, which led her to get an associate of science degree in water resources. She later earned a bachelor's degree in geography at Portland State University and worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest.

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