DOINews: Arctic Interagency Visitor Center Enlists 'Ice Road Truckers' for National Public Lands Day Cleanup

(Editor's note: By late September, the weather in much of Alaska is chilly or even snowy, so Alaska holds many of its National Public Lands Day events earlier in the summer.)

On August 17, 2012, the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot, Alaska, enlisted 'star power' for its Adopt a Highway cleanup project on the Dalton Highway, Alaska's only road connection to the Arctic Ocean. Visitor center staff and local volunteers were joined by three Carlile Transportation Systems truckers who have been featured on the History Channel's reality television show "Ice Road Truckers." These truckers know the Dalton Highway inside out, and as you'll learn in the video below*, they are strong advocates for keeping the highway and surrounding public lands litter-free.

*Link to video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmqPdYTBY0&feature=youtu.be. Photo is screenshot of video.

Despite drizzly weather the event drew 20 people, who picked up trash along a section of the highway about 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The volunteers also helped dedicate the highway's first recycling containers, which will be installed at the visitor center next spring.

Volunteers at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center's National Public Lands Day cleanup event gather for a group photo. Photo by BLM.

Karen Deatherage manages the staff at the award-winning visitor center, operated each summer by the BLM and its partner agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. "Our National Public Lands Day event was an opportunity to bring together the wonderfully diverse members of this unique Arctic community," Karen says. "We showed that through collective effort, we can keep the Dalton Highway and landscape a great place to live, work and visit."

Submitted by: BLM Alaska
Sept. 26, 2012