Anchorage Daily News

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Share on Facebook

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Follow on Twitter

Font size : A | A | A

POTTER MARSH GRAND OPENING

• Noon-4 p.m. July 26 at Potter Marsh Boardwalk, Mile 112 Seward Highway. Free event includes nature-related games and prizes, birding stations along the boardwalk, shuttle tours for wildlife viewing around the marsh, birds from Bird TLC (including an eagle release at 3:30 p.m.), animals from The Alaska Zoo and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Mobile Aquatic Classroom. A bird walk will be held the same day, at 7 a.m. Meet at the boardwalk. (267-2168, elizabeth.manning@alaska.gov for the event and 929-8051, Sirena.Brownlee@hdrinc.com for the bird walk)

POTTER MARSH -- Violet- green swallows darted and swooped along Potter Marsh Boardwalk on Wednesday as a handful of visitors walked the new portion of this longtime bird-viewing area.

Joe Meehan, lands and refuge program coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Division of Wildlife Conservation, said he estimates nearly 2,000 people have visited the new 1,000-foot section of boardwalk since it was completed less than two weeks ago. The improvements give a face-lift to the area, providing birding and wildlife-viewing options that once were out of the question for this edge of the marsh.

"We're hoping this will provide recreation for people and education mostly," Meehan said, as he walked along the new boardwalk, which hugs willows and alders along the north end of the marsh and heads east toward the mountains and away from the noise of the Seward Highway. "We hope that school groups will use this and we can create a community that is interested (in Anchorage's urban bird population)," he said.

Meehan has spent nearly a decade working to improve Potter Marsh. As one of the most-visited spots in the municipality, the marsh, which encompasses 564 acres in the larger 32,500-acre Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, sees migrating birds, moose, brown and black bears, foxes and even the occasional wolf.

CHECK OUT THE BIRDS

Raptors, waterfowl and shorebirds congregate, and birders sometimes see such rare species as Pacific loons, horned grebes, canvasbacks, red-necked phalaropes, red-winged blackbirds, swans and arctic terns.

It's a popular eagle-viewing area too, and in mid-summer, visitors can watch spawning salmon.

This summer plans to improve Potter Marsh came to fruition.

Meehan is relieved and excited to see that nearly every goal in the Potter Marsh improvement plan was met.

On Wednesday he was busy on the boardwalk preparing for an end-of-month Potter Marsh Day celebration that could attract as many as 5,000 people.

"We call this the 'Bridge to Nowhere,' " Meehan joked as we walked along a 200-foot spur section of the new boardwalk that dead ends at an old airstrip that is no longer used. "In September we will work with three boy scouts to build a nature trail that will go from here to the parking lot."

That project, along with a viewing deck for the eastern end of the boardwalk that will be lifted in by helicopter in August, will round out the summer projects.

"We still have wish-list items," Meehan said.

Those include an open- sided pavilion along the nature path, which will be used as an education center holding up to 70 people.

On the backside of the marsh, there are hopes for a viewing platform that looks toward an eagle nest, as well as short nature paths connecting it to the road.

There also are dreams of an elevated boardwalk with stairs that climb the area near Rabbit Creek and connect with the future site of the Bird Treatment and Learning Center.

"Those we still don't have money for, and it would have to be in collaboration with Bird TLC," Meehan said.

NEW SECTION INVITING

The difference between the existing and new boardwalks is stark.

Older boardwalk, constructed in the 1980s, is utilitarian at best, with a long straight segment headed toward the Seward Highway, and another that parallels the highway. Interpretive panels and composite decking along the top rails have spruced that section up, but it remains plain.

The new section, by contrast, meanders and dips into the brush along the marsh's edge, encouraging visitors to walk more slowly and enjoy their surroundings.

The viewing platforms are wider too, screened in with 1-by-1s and adorned by cut-out bird silhouettes along the edges.

"We did that to almost act like a bird blind," Meehan said.

"It helps people get better views of the birds and eliminates the shadows of people when they're out there."

One of the best aspects of the east-bound walkway is that it crosses several channels of Rabbit Creek, where it branches out into the marsh.

Some of the water is deep enough and fast-moving enough that viewers will be able to see salmon spawning, Meehan said.

Meehan hopes Potter Marsh Day on July 26 will rekindle locals' appreciation for the area. Over the years, late-night partyers and vandals have harmed Potter Marsh's reputation, but with a summer parking lot host living there and the recent improvements -- funded by $3.1 million from Conoco Phillips and the Federal Highway Administration -- that should be a thing of the past.

"It's definitely an upgrade," he said. "It's a destination."

ADVERTISEMENT