FAIRBANKS — A greenbelt west of Fairbanks is growing thanks to the acquisition of two private parcels by a national conservation organization.
The Conservation Fund, based in Arlington, Virginia, bought two parcels that will add more than 300 acres to a mix of natural lands already protected against development, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
The property is in the Goldstream Valley near the start of the road leading to Murphy Dome.
The newly preserved land, formerly held by two families, will be managed on behalf of the national organization by a Fairbanks nonprofit group, the Interior Alaska Land Trust.
Another part of the Goldstream Valley has been closed to development since the 1970s. The state-owned Goldstream Public Use Area covers about 2,000 acres. The area of mostly wetlands attracts human traffic in winter when the ground is hard.
The Interior Alaska Land Trust is attempting to piece together properties that could connect the new acquisitions and the public use area into a single, contiguous greenbelt. The trust plans to work with land owners to fill in more of the greenbelt through land purchases and conservation easements.
The trust plans to manage Goldstream Valley land in accordance with the wishes of residents. The trust met with residents last spring and will meet with them again next year.
“It’s not us determining what Goldstream should be and then doing it on our own,” said Interior Alaska Land Trust President Owen Guthrie. “It’s really responding to and partnering with the people who live there.”
The trust and Goldstream residents held a work party in the fall to improve access to peat ponds, another area of preserved land. The area was previously used to harvest peat for fertilizer.
