Ellen Kazary stood on the boardwalk at Anchorage’s Potter Marsh, peering down at the grassy wetlands below.
“You can actually see the fish jumping out of the water right now, which is fabulous,” she said. “They’re teeny tiny. You’re just seeing a little white or silver flash.”
Kazary is the executive director of Great Land Trust. For decades, staff at the local nonprofit have dreamed of protecting 300 acres of land adjacent to the popular Potter Marsh park. Now, they’re finalizing a deal to purchase that land and transfer it to the city for public use.
Kazary said that means more places for picnicking, hiking and cross-country skiing. But maybe most important: It will preserve a crucial part of the ecosystem, including the fish she watched on a recent afternoon.
“Part of what we get to do is protect the water that’s feeding all of this, making it possible to have such a great, full-functioning ecosystem,” Kazary said.
The new property contains a network of creeks and small streams that feed into the south end of Potter Marsh. Joe Meehan, who used to manage Potter Marsh, once told Kazary that if the water source from those streams were cut off, Potter Marsh would essentially become a cesspool, with no fresh water coming into it.
“Him telling me that, it just sat in my head,” Kazary said. “Like, this is something we really have to do, because the wildlife that relies on Potter Marsh that migrates through every year and all the visitors who love watching that, we depend on that marsh staying healthy.”
Great Land Trust has spent years securing over $6 million to buy 200 acres of nearby land from telecommunications company GCI. The trust is currently working on raising the final $500,000 for the purchase. The city is also adding 100 acres from the Heritage Land Bank. Together, those 300 acres will make the new Potter Marsh Watershed Park.
The area is home to more than just fish. Ann Rappoport, president of the Rabbit Creek Community Council, lives right next to the property, and has seen moose, bears, lynx, porcupines and lots of migratory birds.
“This is really the last bit of open space that goes from sea level basically to tundra, so there’s tremendous wildlife movements here,” Rappoport said.
When Rappoport’s children were young, she said, they would regularly use the area, even though it wasn’t technically public land. Every year on her daughter’s birthday, they would go sledding on a hill, over a mile long, on the property.
Rappoport said that over her nearly four decades living in the neighborhood, multiple developers have considered building housing on the land, so she’s grateful that it will be preserved for others to explore in the future.
“As Rabbit Creek Community Council, we meet monthly and we look at any developments in our area,” Rappoport said. “We have always recommended that it would be better for this area to remain open space.”
Kazary said that people like Rappoport who have long used the area have made it easier to turn it into a park. There are already about three and a half miles of “social trails” — trails that have been made from people and animals walking in the area.
“The next step will be working with the community and the Municipality of Anchorage on a master plan for what the park can look like into the future,” Kazary said. “It’s just nice because we have the breathing room that that doesn’t have to happen immediately.”
The new property will be open to the public as soon as the purchase is finalized. Kazary said that’s likely to happen by the end of January.
She said she’s looking forward to seeing Anchorage residents and visitors from around the world use the new park.
“They’ll get to see just a little bit more of what’s in our very own backyards and get to enjoy that,” Kazary said. “It’s just going to be a joy to watch.”
Anisa Vietze is Alaska Public Media's 2024 summer reporting fellow. Reach her at avietze@alaskapublic.org.
