Last week, Alaska’s Division of State Parks announced that the large and popular Byers Lake Campground will remain closed, possibly for the entire summer season, due to hazardous conditions from beetle-killed spruce trees. KTNA spoke with the Mat-Su park superintendent about the decision and the plan going forward.
Byers Lake is a very popular day use and camping spot in Denali State Park. Mat-Su State Parks Superintendent Stuart Leidner says the decision to keep the campground closed was not made lightly.
“We understand [Byers Lake is] a very popular area, and it’s one of our largest campgrounds, so it has ramifications for Alaska visitors, Alaska residents, and people who operate commercial permits utilizing the park.”
In addition to the impacts on businesses, Leidner says the park itself will take a hit from reduced visitor numbers, since parks get to keep fees they collect for day use and camping. He says conditions are currently too dangerous to allow overnight camping, however.
“From our perspective, it’s a safety issue for everybody, and we want to make sure people are going to have a safe and enjoyable time in our state parks.”
The problem of dead spruce trees has been a growing one for the last two years. Leidner says crews have taken down many trees in that time, but that the number is continuing to multiply.
“In the past two years at Byers Lake, they’ve taken down probably a hundred-and-fifty trees. If you were to take a look today, you’d scarcely notice that they took down a hundred-and-fifty trees because of the number of trees that have died in that same amount of time.”
When considering how to address the problem of hazard trees, Stuart Leidner says the Division of State Parks is prioritizing certain areas. He says the goal is to find places where smaller amounts of cutting will have a significant impact on the usability of Denali State Park. One of those areas is around the Alaska War Veterans Memorial, where work is being done with the assistance of the Alaska Division of Forestry.
“They were fantastic. They came up and brought a sawyer crew into the Alaska Veterans Memorial, so when the Alaska Combat Veterans are doing their Memorial Day service, we have that cleared of hazard trees.”
That area is also where the lake’s public use cabins are accessed from, currently. Leidner says the plan is to have the cabins available, access permitting, and to clear day use areas around Byers Lake itself. He says Kesugi Ken Campground, which is much newer and considerably smaller, will be operational.
Much of the actual cutting of trees will be done by the private sector. Stuart Leidner says the state is looking for emergency funding from the U.S. Forest Service to get work going and will be looking for other funding down the road as other parks are impacted.
“This issue doesn’t affect just Byers [Lake]. Obviously we closed South Rolly in the Nancy Lakes State Recreation Area. It impacts, really, every one of our units throughout the Mat-Su/Copper River Basin region.”
Leidner asks that the public continues to be patient with the Division of State Parks as they work to make the Byers Lake area safe again.
