Cooper Landing has a long history of trapping, but in recent years it’s also become a major recreation destination. Trails verge off into the mountains all around the town, and hikers, runners, skiers and bikers use them year-round, often with their dogs.
Trappers and dog owners have been butting heads in Cooper Landing for years. Now a group of dog owners have put together a proposal for the Federal Subsistence Board to create a 1,000-foot mandatory setback for traps on a handful of the most popular campgrounds and trails in the area.
“The campsites are federally managed, and they are used a lot for primarily cross country skiing in the winter, and people like to go and ski and let their dog run along,” said Lorraine Temple, a Cooper Landing resident who’s been coordinating the effort on the proposal. She said the group, called the Cooper Landing Safe Trails Committee, has been working hard on the proposal and has high hopes of it passing.
“The Russian River Campground is a very popular ski area,” she said. “Traps are allowed all throughout that area. Now, people who want to recreate and let their dogs run along, they catch a scent of a trap close to the trail — you can see the interaction and potential of devastating harm that can happen.”
The Safe Trails Committee’s proposal would ban placing traps within 1,000 feet of Crescent Creek Trail, Lower Russian Lakes trail up to Barber Cabin, the first 1.5 miles of the Juneau Bench Trail, the Devil’s Creek ski loop and the campgrounds at Quartz Creek, Crescent Creek, Russian River and Cooper Creek.
Temple said the group included those areas because they are some of the most popular ones on federal lands. They intend to request a similar restriction from the state Board of Game for non-federal lands, such as Snug Harbor Road, which has been the site of many conflicts between trappers and dog owners.
The group also surveyed Cooper Landing residents and received overwhelming support for a setback of some kind. The risk of having dogs or children caught in traps placed near trails is stressful for residents during trapping season, Temple said.
“As Cooper Landing evolves and diversifies, and becomes more of a year-round destination, the worst thing in the world would be for people to be reluctant to come down here because they hear horror stories of not being able to be safe with their children running around or their dogs because of traps close to trails,” Temple said.
Trappers and advocates have responded to the conflict over the years by saying dog owners should keep their pets on leashes and trapping helps control populations of animals such as beavers. Temple said her group tried to work with the trappers on a compromise but ultimately didn’t get far and put forward the proposal to the Federal Subsistence Board on their own.
This issue has come up multiple times over the decades, most recently in 2014, when a local resident started an online petition that garnered hundreds of signatures and sparked a conversation at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. Game issues are largely handled by the Alaska Board of Game, but the Federal Subsistence Board manages subsistence hunting, trapping and fishing on federal lands in Alaska.
The board has a worksession scheduled on August 5-6 to discuss issues for its upcoming meeting next spring. The spring meeting is scheduled for April, when the board can take public testimony as well.
Written comments are due on the proposals by July 19, and can be submitted by email, mail, or fax. For more information about how to comment, go to doi.gov/subsistence/board.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabethearl@gmail.com.
