Potter Marsh Watershed Park is on the Horizon

By David Nyman

TNews Contributor

Great Land Trust has been working with Municipality of Anchorage  (MOA) Heritage land Bank and GCI to conserve 300 acres of important hillside watershed features that are critical to sustaining the vibrant habitat of the Potter’s Marsh, located between Golden View Drive to the east and Old Seward Highway.

“We are thrilled how this project is proceeding and it is nice to be doing a project in Anchorage at this scale as these opportunities are few and far between,'“ said Dave Mitchell, Conservation Director with  Great Land Trust.

“We select our projects based on prioritizations that look at wetlands and anadromous streams and adjacency to protected areas and we try to collect all the data we can and rank and put it into GIS and rank land based on conservation value,” he added. “This property actually ranked number one.”

Set between the old and New Seward highways, Potter Marsh is a portion of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge and is Anchorage’s gateway to Turnagain Arm.  The new Potter Marsh Watershed Park will be owned, operated and maintained by the MOA Parks and Recreation Department.

Potter’s Marsh is a portion of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. (Photo by Bob Waldrop)

Once the land is in MOA ownership, the Parks and Recreation Department will begin a master planning process with local community council and other public participation efforts to determine additional park amenity and infrastructure needs. 

Great Land Trust will retain the responsibility to monitor the park for adherence to and enforcement of conservation agreements. In the coming months, Great Land Trust will bring the project to the Anchorage Assembly as an ordinance to accept a donation of the new land. Land acquisition is expected to be completed in early 2025 at which point a park master planning process will commence.

This project is the result of creative strategizing and collaboration with private and federal agency supporters including grant funding from the US Forest Service Community Forest program. To conserve the 300-acre parcel the MOA will dedicate 100 acres of adjacent Heritage Land Bank (HLB) held property  for parkland and conservation and Great Land Trust will purchase 200 acres of undeveloped hillside property from GCI that will then be donated to the MOA.  The value of the HLB 100-acre parcel will  serve as matching funds for federal grants received. 

The popularity of Potter marsh as place to view wildlife coalesced in the 1960’s and has steadily grown to the current date with hundreds of daily visitors and over 200,000 visitors annually. 

Potter Marsh, as we know it today, was created when 1916-1917 railroad track construction placed a fill embankment to span across unstable tidal flats from Potter Section House to the north towards uplands and the young city of Anchorage. This fill placement partially isolated the marsh from the waters of Turnagain Arm and also resulted in retention of the freshwater runoff from the upslope perennial spring-fed rivulets and creeks.

Potter Marsh settled approximately three feet during the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake similar to subsidence that inundated old Girdwood and Portage.  This settlement resulted in drowning much of the forest community on the marsh’s eastern border and increasing the open water habitat throughout. Subsequent construction of the New Seward Highway in 1970-71 resulted in additional water impoundment.

The west facing hillsides above Potter Marsh reach up to the front range of Chugach Mountains locally topping out at about 1,900 to 2,300 feet in elevation. This excellent solar exposure along with the site soil and hydrologic conditions support a boreal forest and a wide range of wildlife.

The new park also hosts multiple existing social and developed trails. These trails are accessed from at least five trailheads and the existing  Moen Park. With several miles of basic trails already in place, nearby parking available, and stunning views of Potter Marsh, the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, and Turnagain Arm, the watershed park is likely to become a popular destination for local and visiting recreators, and nature enthusiasts.  (Graphic and photos courtesy of Great Land Trust)