On the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge at the bottom of a steep 300-foot bluff near the Kincaid Park motocross track, a conglomeration of junk seems to have reached a final resting place.
Tires, appliances and rusted skeletons of old cars sit in an abandoned landfill -- some poking out of the snow, some partly buried, others entirely underground.
Then Joe Meehan showed up.
Meehan is coordinator of the lands and refuges program at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and he's made it his mission to clean up the junk. Last weekend, he joined eight volunteers to pull some 20 vehicles out of the refuge to a temporary storage spot near Clitheroe Center on Point Woronzof Road and, on Tuesday, the junkers were moved on to Alaska Metal Recycling.
That was about three times as many cars as Meehan anticipated hauling out this weekend, but was still the proverbial drop in the bucket. Meehan says there may be more than 2,000 vehicles there, dumped at least as far back as the 1964 earthquake, which left many cars in ruins. He's counted 286 on the surface and estimates 150 of them can be extricated.
Removal isn't easy, but Meehan has help. Two Bombardier Snowcats were donated to the effort and pulled large skids across the landscape. Volunteers from the Alaska Moose Federation helped and such companies as NC Machinery, Beek's Contracting and GCI donated gear.
"This project is an excellent example of how a government agency can work with a nonprofit and private industry to get needed projects done," said Gary Olson, chairman of the Alaska Moose Federation.
Snowcat operators started at the northwest side of Stevens International Airport near Clitheroe, dropping down a hill onto the refuge. The abandoned landfill is some 4 miles from the refuge's access point, and the 8-mile round trip took hours to complete.
Meehan and volunteers worked Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday to get rid of the cars. Previously, he said, they hauled out about 2,000 tires.
Besides improving the aesthetics on the refuge, removing the vehicles reduces such hazardous materials as gasoline, oil, brake fluid and batteries containing lead, which can harm a variety of animals. Meehan has frequently seen moose nearby, and beluga whales swim offshore.
"It's a big mess, but we're getting there," Meehan said. "Sometimes it seems like every scrap item that people wanted to get rid of over the decades found its way there.
"But the good thing is that there's been very little dumping there in recent years."
However, last September, a 2006 Dodge Caliber all-wheel drive was sent plunging down the bluff.
"It actually survived the fall in pretty good condition," Meehan said. "It made it all the way down to the bottom and smashed into another vehicle down there. Bashed up the front end pretty good."
While dumping was common decades ago, it's now a Class-A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Although the cleanup went better than anticipated, Meehan said he knows it would go much faster with more money.
"If we had funding, we'd get a large crane and go directly up the bluff face," he said. "We need to do something that's a little more efficient."
Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.
By MIKE CAMPBELL
mcampbell@adn.com