Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Birch Lake State Recreation Site

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Merge somewhere. Where to may need further discussion, but I suspect it's OK if somebody just goes ahead with any one of the various variants proposed.  Sandstein  18:47, 14 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Birch Lake State Recreation Site (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)

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I'm not sure we should have an article on every SRS/SRA in Alaska, and in fact I mean to propose de-linking a great many of the redlinks at the List of Alaska state parks page. There are dozens of these, and many of them are not notable. I've been to this place, it's basically a lakefront parking lot for RVs. The lake, which is not the property of the park system, is obviously the reason this exists but this is just a tiny campground and a boat launch. If it was privately owned there would be no question it was not notable. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:55, 29 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Alaska-related deletion discussions. Beeblebrox (talk) 21:00, 29 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. Musa Talk  23:40, 29 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Environment-related deletion discussions. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 23:40, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Northamerica1000: Not that I mind that much, but could you explain why you think this belongs on that delsort list? I am not aware of any notable environmental issues involving this tiny park. Beeblebrox (talk) 01:07, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Per WP:SILENCE, I have removed it from that list as there is no apparent reason for listing there and the user who added it has not replied despite being otherwise active. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:31, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Merge/redirect, but to where? – There are several likely targets:
  • The lake itself – This recreation area abuts another recreation area operated by the U.S. Air Force for military affiliates. Also, along the spot where the Richardson Highway bends around the lake, is a townsite platted by the BLM or predecessor entity. This is enough to suggest that an article on the lake would help us to achieve our gazetteer function, though not by much. As far as military recreation facilities in Alaska go, Birch Lake is nowhere near as prominent as the Eielson or Wainwright ski hills, or for that matter, Seward Resort, none of which we really cover. The townsite has never had more than a small handful of houses. Which leads us to the next alternative...
  • The Harding-Birch Lakes, Alaska CDP – Between the namesake lakes, Lost Lake and the area along the Salcha River upstream of easy road access, there is absolutely something notable to be said about this area as a recreational destination. However, the substantial history of Harding Lake among the well-to-do citizens of Fairbanks (or prior Native history when it was known as Salchaket Lake) notwithstanding, the uninitiated and those who contend that CDPs are strictly arbitrary inventions of the Census Bureau are more likely to view this area as a part of Salcha than as a separate community. This should be evident by the fact that "It is part of the 'Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area'" garners greater mention in the article than the titular lakes.
  • The state parks article – I'll address any suggestions for improvements to that article in that discussion. This should be an obvious potential target and not require further elaboration. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 21:24, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If we had an article on the lake, I'd be perfectly happy with a redirect and a small section on this there, as it s obviously the reason this SRS exists. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:27, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

My best guess on why the SRS exists is that the feds held title to lands around the lake, and a certain portion of that was ceded to the state to satisfy statehood act obligations, or more specifically that the SRS was originally part of the much larger military facility next door and the land was turned over to the state after they deemed it surplus to their needs. I just acquired a copy of Alaska's Parklands — The Complete Guide by Nancy Lange Simmerman, published by The Mountaineers in 1983. I haven't found any mention of this particular facility in the book, and don't specifically remember it from any number of long-ago visits to the military facility, so it's also probably too new to have any history worth mentioning. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 22:42, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It is immediately adjacent to it on the same access road, so that makes sense. We found that out because we were looking for a place to camp, and couldn't believe we'd really seen the whole place so we tried going further up the road but right away ran into gates and so on for the military rec facility. We moved on to Harding Lake, which has a much larger, nicer campground and boat launch.. Beeblebrox (talk) 19:30, 5 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Merge into a new article Lakes of Fairbanks North Star Borough. There are a bunch of Birch Lakes in Alaska. This one and Harding Lake are in the Tanana River basin, however neither is particularly interesting. There's a map and fisheries record, but there's a lot of stocked waters in the Fairbanks area alone, so it's not clear that an individual article is really warranted. There is enough information, however, to make one overarching article with linkages as appropriate to Tanana Valley, Tanana Valley, Eielson Air Force Base, Tanana Valley State Forest etc.^~~Hydronium^~Hydroxide^~(Talk)~~ 15:43, 12 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.