Another Palmer Hayflats recreation site hit by vandals

PALMER, Alaska (KTUU) - You’ll never see Doug Hill without his dog Chai in tow.

As Alaska Department of Fish and Game Refuge Manager, Hill has had a busy year cleaning up areas in the Palmer Hayflats State Game Refuge. Hill began his spring by washing off vandalism at the Cottonwood Creek Bathrooms, and also helped pick up litter along the Glenn Highway in April.

Anywhere within the refuge in need of beautification, Hill is there, just as he was today at Reflections Lake.

“There’s a mile-long trail around the lake, and probably for maybe half of that mile somebody has graffitied numerous trees,” Hill said. “Maybe 40 trees.”

Dozens of trees, a bench, and a trail post sign have been recently vandalized. The popular walking trail sits just off the Glenn Highway between the Knik and Matanuska Rivers. It’s easy to see how the lake got its name, but the million-dollar views along the gravel and boardwalk path have been cheapened by spray paint, which Hill now has to clean up.

“For starters we’ll get rid of the contents — just get rid of the verbiage and the crude stuff with wire brushes,” Hill stated. “That seems to work and that won’t, you know, it’s not going to buff the bark of the trees up too bad.”

The graffiti shows up just past the boardwalk of the south entrance of the trailhead. What starts out as initials and gibberish quickly escalates into slurs against ethnic and religious groups around the halfway point of the 1.1-mile path.

It’s frustrating for Hill, considering Reflections Lake used to be used as a shooting gallery before the community pushed to turn it into what it is today.

“They were a big impetus for getting this place cleaned up and it’s quite a transformation from what it used to be. You know, it used to basically look like a dump here,” Hill said. “You can hardly ever come by this site without somebody be in the parking lot, somebody walking this trail or fishing in the lake or birdwatching.”

As disappointing as it was for Hill to have to spend the day wire-brushing spray paint off of the tagged spruce, he did find comfort as he passed a young family who had just walked around the lake picking up trash. Hill said he’s seen them do this a number of times over the years.

“She had trash grabbers and trash bags,” Hill said. “She was picking up trash on her own, so that’s nice to see.”

Hill spent the rest of his work day undoing the work of careless vandals, with the hope that this would be the last time before he and Chai retire later this year.

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