Joe Hart

The Chitina Native Corp. is planning to put up concrete barriers to block dip-netters' access to the Copper River at O'Brien Creek beginning today, said corporation president Joe Hart.Dip-netters can camp at O'Brien and they can drive past that creek to other locations, but there will be no river access there.

"We're not going to allow access across our private lands," said Hart.
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Hart said the Chitina Native Corp. is within its rights closing off access to the river based on a right-of-way survey done by the state two years ago.
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Hart said the corporation waited until now to put the barricades up because they wanted to make sure they were within their legal rights.

"We were waiting on our attorney to review all the information," he said.

The corporation will have someone patrolling O'Brien Creek and trespassers will be cited, Hart said.
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"We need to get all the parties back at the table to see what would be agreeable to everybody and at this point that hasn't happened," said Hart, adding that the Native corporation considered charging an access fee at O'Brien Creek but decided not to.