Jonesville shooting park, campground inch closer to reality as borough preps plan

What you need to know:

• A long-awaited shooting range, restrooms and developed campground at the Jonesville Public Use Area in Sutton are moving closer to reality, with an official planning process expected to begin this summer. 
• A public input process is scheduled for later in the year. Construction could start as early as next summer, pending final state approvals.
• The area, once home to a coal mine, has become known for illegal activities such as trash dumping as well as unregulated shooting and reckless behavior, affecting the surrounding community.

PALMER — A long-awaited shooting park and developed campground at the Jonesville Public Use Area in Sutton is moving closer to reality after the Mat-Su Assembly last week accepted a new grant that will cover some of the official planning costs.

The upgrades, which also include restrooms and signage, are meant to discourage the lawlessness, trash dumping and indiscriminate shooting for which the area has long been known, officials said.

Work on the design is expected to begin this summer, with plans to gather public input later this year, Matanuska-Susitna Borough Community Development Director Jillian Morrissey said in a statement. The borough plans to issue a request for proposals this month for a contractor to lead the process, she said.

Construction of the range could begin as early as next year, according to a timeline published by the borough, although borough officials said the bulk of that work will likely wait until 2027. Because the Jonesville Public Use Area is largely state land, Department of Natural Resources officials must issue final regulations for the proposed range before the borough can move forward with the work, Morrissey said.

About $62,000 has been set aside for the planning process, including $50,000 provided through a grant from the Mat-Su Trails and Parks Foundation and approved unanimously by the Assembly last week.

A borough budget proposal under consideration includes $500,000 for the construction phase of the project, though the total cost will likely be in the millions. The borough has also requested $4 million in project funding from the state.

Once home to an active coal mine, the 16,000-acre Jonesville Public Use Area is now a magnet for "lawless behavior," according to a 2021 management plan approved by the borough assembly.

“Most summer weekends, over 1,000 people descend on the JPUA to camp, ride ATVs, burn cars, dump trash and party,” the document states. “The result of over 20 years of these lawless, unmanaged activities has destroyed public lands in this area and is negatively affecting the local community.”

The proposed upgrades are included in the 112-page plan, which also proposes regulations that would block camping for more than seven consecutive days and restrict most shooting to within the designated range.

At least one person has died as a result of unregulated shooting in the area. In 2016, Anchorage resident Adam Malaby, 30, was killed while filming people shooting there.

Borough Assembly member Tim Hale, whose district includes the area, said he hopes to model the new Jonesville shooting range and cleanup after work done about a decade ago at the Jim Creek Recreation Area and Knik River Public Use Area in Butte. Those improvements included a new range off Maud Road and a developed campground for Jim Creek, both of which helped reduce dumping and other problems, he said.

“The Knik River Public Use Area is really a success story in turning this trashed-out wasteland into an actual playground for Alaskans to use,” Hale said.

A borough webpage detailing project progress is coming soon, Morrissey said. 

Officials with the Sutton Community Council said they hope the introduction of regulations in the area will help preserve the freedoms residents enjoy while using it.

“We don’t want more government control over this thing, but we just want it to be a little more organized,” said Garret Nelson, who chairs the community council.

Nelson said an annual Jonesville cleanup day, coordinated by the council, regularly removes several dumpsters of trash from the area.

Adding some rules to the area could help reduce the need for that work, he said.

“There’s the small percentage of people that come out and take advantage of that freedom and make it a trash heap,” he said. “We want to keep it as open and as freely accessible to everybody as possible, while still just giving some guidance.”

The next community cleanup of the Jonesville Public Use Area is scheduled for May 17 at 10 a.m.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com

This story was updated April 22 to include additional details about final costs and the project's construction timeline.