The Irish Burma Personal Use Area will open Monday, September 8, 2025, for harvest of birch, aspen, and beetle killed spruce trees. Harvest is allowed within approximately 200 feet of the designated OHV trail. The harvest area lies between Burma Road and Purinton Parkway southwest of Big Lake. The harvest area is marked with flagging and signs.

 No live standing spruce may be cut during this harvest. Only dead spruce, birch, and aspen trees may be cut during this harvest.

A $25 permit is required and may be obtained from the Mat-Su Borough E-Commerce Webpage at https://ecommerce.matsugov.us/ (please note that an e-mail and credit card are required to create an ecommerce account), at the at the Big Lake Library, or at the Land & Resource Management Division located at 350 E. Dahlia Avenue, Palmer, between the hours of 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

The permit must be in your possession during the removal of wood from the site, and each cord removed from the site will incur an additional $25 fee. There is a limit of five cords per household to be removed from the site.

The permit will expire after all available wood has been removed but no later than December 31, 2026. Please call the Land & Resource Management Division at 861-7867 if you have any questions.

Upgrades to Point Mackenzie road will begin on Tuesday April 15, 2025. Watch for flaggers and expect delays when traveling between mile marker 0 and mile 3. Construction activities can be exected 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. throughout the summer. 

Dated: 4/30/2025

Re: Rights of Way Opening – Core Area with Big Lake RSA to remain Closed

From: Michelle Olsen, ROW Coordinator

The Rights of Way in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (MSB) will open to normal construction as of 7:00 am on May 5, 2025 for the core area, with Big Lake RSA and northern areas to remain closed. The core area is described as extending to the Little Susitna Bridge on the Parks Highway and the Granite Creek Bridge on the Glenn Highway. The Big Lake RSA and the northern portions of the Borough will remain closed until a later date.

Any questions about where it is open may be addressed to Michelle Olsen at 861-7803.

If you are restarting an existing project from last year, remember to contact the Permit Center 24 hours before work commences. You can reach the Permit Center at 907-861-7822 or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Be smart about the ground frost levels. If the area is shaded or insulated with overburden, it may contain frozen dirt and gravel. Do not place frozen material back in the hole; replace it with a similar type of unfrozen material and compact it to 95% or greater.

Roadways in the core area may still be pumping water. Weight restrictions were still in place on the roads in the core area listed below at the time of this letter. Please check the Websites listed below for additional up-to-date information on weight restrictions.

Effective April 30, 2025, at 8:00 a.m. the following Borough maintained roads are restricted to the following:

All Borough maintained paved and gravel roads are restricted to 100% of legal axle load, no overloads.

The following roads remain restricted to 50% of legal axle load, no overloads:

• RSA 14: Candywine, McNeese, Rian Ave, Donovan Way & Lynn Dr.
• RSA 17: Lewis Lp., Captain Cir., & Burma Rd.
• RSA 21: Echo Lake Dr., Papoose Twins, Dawson Dr., Burma Rd., Wolf Rd., Pond Lilly & Victor Rd
• RSA 26: River Dr. & Peacefull Ln.
• RSA 20 and north to remain at 50% of legal axle load

Hyperlink to MSB weight restrictions:

https://matsugov.us/publicnotice/seasonal-weight-restrictions-2025

Hyperlink to State of Alaska weight restrictions:

https://dot.alaska.gov/mscve/pages/weightrestrictions.shtml

The roads north of this core area and the Big Lake RSA area remain closed.

If service calls are needed in these areas, please use light-duty trucks only, not heavy work trucks or trucks with heavy equipment. We rely on you to help manage the MSB’s maintenance costs by being aware of the conditions of our roads and keeping the cost of our maintenance low. If individual roads are soft or pumping water, please turn around and delay the work until the roadways firm up. It is recommended that lighter-weight vehicles be used to scope out roadways first.

Have fun and be safe!

Sincerely,

Michelle Olsen, RWA

Right of Way Coordinator

907-861-7822

To make secure and direct payments to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, please use methods linked from the official MSB Payments Page at https://matsugov.us/payments, where you can pay conveniently via ACH*, credit card**, by mail, dropbox, or in person.

Recently, third-party websites have been advertising Borough payment services in ways that are misleading. These services are not affiliated with the Borough and may employ deceptive practices by suggesting they are a valid way to pay your Borough bills. In reality, they add extra fees, omit essential payment details, cause delays, and increase the risk of errors.

To avoid unnecessary fees and processing delays, we recommend using only our official payment page. If you have questions about a payment provider, please call Collections at (907) 861-8610.

* ACH payments incur a $1 convenience fee.
**Most credit card payments include a 3% transaction fee.