Trash, Toilets, and Trail Maintenance

Access and sanitation services for the Chitina personal use fishery has long been an issue for the fishery.

The Department of Fish and Game managed trash and toilet services largely from their own budget from 1991-2003. In 2004 the Department of Transportation started managing toilet and trash services with funds from their operating budget. Anyone using the facilities at the Copper River Campground (across the bridge from Chitina), Fox Creek (about 3/4 of the way down O’Brien Creek Road on the way to O’Brien Creek), and O’Brien Creek before 2015 remembers the wildly overwhelmed and overflowing trash cans and port-a-potties.

Prior to 2001, DOT would make one springtime trip down the O’Brien Creek road to Haley Creek, clearing the winter’s accumulation boulders and slides. This work was done from DOT’s operating budget. In July 2001, a landslide on the Copper River highway right-of-way blocked the road to Haley Creek about a mile downstream from O’Brien Creek, trapping a number of people. DOT cleared enough of the blockage for the people and vehicles to leave the area, but closed the road. Additional slides blocked the road in subsequent years. The slides were not cleared due to liability concerns and the cost of stabilizing the surrounding lands. Dipnetters hand cleared the road enough to allow ATV access, but, since 2006 there were reports of ATVs rolling off the road and personal injuries of people attempting to use the poorly maintained road. DOT’s budget had seen substantial hits during this period of time, so maintenance of the road was not even on a low priority list of things to fix.

After a decade+ of difficult access to Haley Creek, finding a solution to the problem of wheeled access to the downstream end of the fishing grounds was the number one request our members had for fishery improvement. In a time of diminishing State resources available for small groups of users, our solution was to self-fund both the ongoing problem of inadequate sanitation services where dipnetters congregated and to fund repair and ongoing maintenance of the road to Haley Creek.

To those ends, the Chitina Dipnetters Association approached the State legislature in 2015 to implement a $15 fee for a Chitina personal use dipnet permit. Funds from the fee were to be used for a) improved trash and toilet facilities and service and b) to make the road to Haley Creek usable again. The Legislature and Governor agreed that a fee paid by dipnetters, that would largely benefit dipnetters, was a good idea and in 2016 a Chitina dipnet permit cost $15. Initially, the annual permit money was spent on trash and toilet services. The leftover amount was saved for a big push to fund all the work needed for DOT to clear the road. In fall of 2018, DOT began clearing the road, but did could not make it all the way to Haley Creek. Fall of 2019, they completed another mile of trail rehabilitation. They finally punched all the way through to Haley Creek in 2020, allowing dipnetters to hike, bike and ATV to the downstream end of the dipnet fishery.