The Airport Dike Trail is one of Juneau’s most accessible trails. Flat and well maintained, it’s great trail for runners, strollers and dog walkers.
With dogs come dog waste, and some community members decided to address the bags of poop littering the trail.
Courtney Wendel and her playful black-and-white mixed-breed dog, Kiska live nearby and walk almost every day on the trail.
But for a long time, there was something bothering Wendel.
“For a lot of people, when we walk the whole trail … there was often coffee cups, or juice boxes, or Kleenex, and of course, people tend to be lazy, and so they don’t pick up after their dogs, so there tended to be a lot more dog poo further out the trail.”
Yup. Dog poo. All along the path.
The problem wasn’t only the bags littering the trail, airport operations superintendent Scott Rinkenberger said.
“Nine times of 10, or for the most part they would forget about their little plastic bag and they would just walk by it, and so we would have all these little dog bags of dog excrement along the trail,” he said. “Some people would even tie them to the airport perimeter fence as a reminder and forget about it.”
Rinkenberger said it was up to airport staff to clean it up.
There was already one dumpster at the start of the trail, but after talking to dog walkers — including Wendel — he decided to add a second dumpster halfway out the trail in May.
For a while, the new trash bin had a poster on it with a picture of Wendel’s dog that said “Kiska’s Dumpster.”
Wendel said some dog walkers thought it was specifically for Kiska, so the poster’s gone now.
The dike trail is officially the airport’s Emergency Vehicle Access Road.
But Rinkenberger recognized it also is part of the community.
“It makes for a really nice trail so we understand that it’s got two purposes. We like to make it really user-friendly for our hikers and our dog walkers and families and school trips and so forth and people wanting to come out here to the wetlands to view the wildlife and the waterfowl, and also have the ability to keep it clean.”
Rinkenberger said the airport pays $162.72 monthly rent for the dumpster.
The time it saves having airport staff clean the trail makes the price worth it, he said.
Wendel has already seen the difference since May.
“I personally have noticed that since the second dumpster, the trail further out is a lot cleaner,” she said. “I haven’t noticed nearly as much trash, if any trash really, further out the trail, which is really nice. I also notice that people tend to be picking up after their dogs more, because they know that they only have to carry it half way.”
She added that in a place where the weather can make it difficult to get outside, it’s important to take care of the trails that are accessible to everyone.
“Literally everyone can use this trail. … When it’s rainy and gross, who wants to go walk on a trail that’s covered in dog poo and has trash everywhere? That’s not inviting. That’s not taking care of something that really is for the enjoyment of everyone.
Kiska runs out ahead of us to chase after a ball. She has the whole trail ahead of her, and no — or at least fewer — poop bags to dodge.
