WASILLA -- As part of a state program to reclaim abandoned mine sites, state abandoned mine lands program manager Joe Wehrman, a handful of other state employees and a group of inmates from Palmer Correctional Center spent a wet weekend planting willows on a hillside near Sutton.
Wehrman said he's been working on mine reclamation projects at the former Jonesville mine near Sutton for several years.
He's also worked on reclamation projects at other mines nearby. In 2006 Wehrman oversaw a project to put out underground coal fires that had been burning on 30 acres in the Wishbone Hill mine lease north of Sutton since the 1960s.
This year he had about 360,000 willow cuttings, donated by a Florida landscaper, to work with. That was a lot more than he expected, he said.
"(It's) a good problem to have, just more work than we had anticipated," Wehrman said by e-mail Sunday. "It will also result in a very dense willow patch being created."
Willows are a welcome addition to the site, which is part of the Matanuska Valley Moose Range.
The extra cuttings and rainy weather that turned clay soil into a slippery mess made the weekend project a little more grueling than planned. Workers continued the project Monday, but accomplished a lot, Wehrman and Steve Ackerman said. Ackerman is the Florida landscaper who donated the cuttings.
The mud might have made things sloppy, but it was apparently just what the willows needed.
"Conditions for tree planting are near perfect with constant rain, fog and optimum tree planting temperatures," Ackerman wrote by e-mail Monday.
Based in Pensacola, Fla., Ackerman said he is the executive director of an Alaska nonprofit corporation, Keep Alaska Eco Clean and Green, or KAE-CAG, and uses grant funds to pay for tree planting, mostly in Alaska and Florida.
His company aims to provide erosion control, wildlife habitat and reduce carbon in the atmosphere by planting trees.
The company also does cleanup on shorelines of heavily used rivers, ocean fronts and estuaries, and recycles plastics, glass and other materials where it works.
"From the income provided by recycling, it is our intent to fund an educational museum of natural history in Alaska, in a location to be determined," he said.
The willow-planting project is part of the state Abandoned Mine Lands Program. The work is mostly done on mines that were active prior to 1977, Wehrman said. The federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act passed in 1977, requiring mining companies to include reclamation plans and funding.
That 1977 law requires operating mining companies to pay for reclamation on older sites too.
Wehrman said coal mining companies across the nation pay fees based on the number of mines operating, with different rates for surface or underground mines.
Part of that money goes toward the cleanup of abandoned mine lands.
Wehrman said his goal is to eliminate dangers and stabilize soil. Cliffs at old mining sites are sloped and planted to prevent soil erosion.
Through the reclamation program, he's also made improvements at nearby Slipper Lake, adding fire rings and improving access to the road and to a piped water access point.
More work is planned near Slipper Lake this summer, Wehrman said, including adding crushed gravel around the lake and near the fire pit area so campers and motor homes can park there more easily.
Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com