Alan Ward, the Strawberry Reservoir project leader with the state’s Division of Wildlife Resources, cut the ribbon for a Strawberry Reservoir’s new Chicken Creek East Boat Ramp last Wednesday with Justin Robinson, the former U.S. National Forest Service’s Kamas-Heber district ranger.
“I’ve been up here at Strawberry for about 23 years now,” Ward said during the ceremony immediately preceding the cutting. “This place is near and dear to my heart.”
The reservoir is one of the most popular places to fish in the state, Ward said. After a harsh winter in 2008 to 2009 limited access to the reservoir, he said others involved in the project realized the need for the new ramp.
“We were getting a lot of use, and it was hard to keep up,” he said. “As we looked at the areas we had available to us, this one really stood out.”
Old features in the area, he explained, were already being utilized by recreationists who accessed the water at the location.
An old highway once ran through the site, he said, and anglers were using the road to launch into the reservoir.
A few hundred yards away, the Chicken Creek East parking area provided a place people could leave their vehicles, though they still had quite a walk before they could access the reservoir.
“We used to plow that,” he said. “But they still had about a two, three, four-hundred-yard walk depending on the water levels,” he said.
Robinson was the ranger for the district the project was in; Ward said he became a helpful supporter of the ramp.
“The lightbulb went off and he says, ‘We’ve got to get this done,'” Ward recalled. “I can only do so much when I’m not the land manager.”
Though the complete process of establishing the project began over a decade ago, actual construction on the parking lot and ramp started last year.
“We buttoned it up right on October 31 on our deadline,” Ward said. “Hats off to (Wasatch County) — they stepped in and their road crew came in and in very short order had this thing completely surfaced, prepped and ready to go for winter.”
Robinson has since taken other positions and is currently the ranger over the forest service’s Evanston-Mountain View Ranger District in Wyoming, but he still attended the ribbon-cutting in person.
“We’d be remiss if we did not really put the ultimate credit where it belongs, and that is Alan Ward,” Robinson said. “His vision for this access point hasn’t wavered.”
He also thanked several entities who he said helped make the project possible.
These include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation, Wasatch County, Friends of Strawberry Valley, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Utah County Alpin Anglers, the Park City chapter of High Country Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited.
Within about a year, Ward said there are plans to add a divider dock on the boat ramp and a restroom at the site. In the future, he also wants to pave the entirety of the parking lot.