By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
With more than $1 billion in federal relief funding arriving in Alaska, plans are afoot to use some of that money for trail building and developing an outdoor recreation workforce.
Sitka, Juneau and Anchorage groups used federal funds from the 2020 CARES Act to finance trail maintenance and workforce development, and now groups such as Sitka Trail Works and Juneau’s Trail Mix hope for the Legislature to allocate $12 million from the American Rescue Plan to continue similar projects into the future.
“It hits so many beneficial things; we’re providing jobs in a time of economic need, we are investing in our public lands and our recreation infrastructure… We know independent travelers spend more in our communities than cruise ship passengers, and independent travelers need destinations to go to,” Sitka Trail Works Executive Manager Ben Hughey told the Sentinel over the phone. “And currently Sitka has a lot of rough trails – I’m not sure I would send a lot of my out-of-state visitors up Verstovia right now.”
Sitka Conservation Society’s Community Conservation Corps members haul gravel to fix a city-owned trail near Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School in October. CARES Act funding in 2020 paid for the work. (Sentinel file photo by James Poulson)
In 2020, Hughey led the Sitka Conservation Society’s Community Conservation Corps, which undertook trail projects ranging from the Presbyterian Cemetery to Goddard Hot Springs. The group sunset with the expiration of CARES funding at the end of the year, but only after spending about $300,000 on workforce development and outdoor infrastructure.
He stressed the importance of putting money into training people.
“This is an investment in people, putting folks to work, building their skill sets. To get started you don’t even need a high school degree, you just need to be willing to work and get outside… We need those skills locally and we currently don’t have them,” he said. “The ripple effects… the investment in people, in land, in the economy – it’s a win-win-win. It’s a small portion of the federal funds to make a big impact.”
Over in Juneau, Trail Mix Inc. Executive Director Ryan O’Shaughnessy seconded this.
“The impact that I would like to see from these kinds of outdoor recreation workforce programs are just that – a broader outdoors infrastructure workforce in the state of Alaska,” O’Shaughnessy told the Sentinel. Last year, Trail Mix ran a program similar to the SCCC’s, in which crews restored salmon habitat, repaired trails, and more. Juneau’s COVID-19 Conservation Corps disbursed almost half a million dollars last year, in the process employing more than 30 people.
He said there’s pent-up demand for outdoor recreation work as well.
“We recently advertised our trail crew member positions and we received 109 applications for seven positions,” he said.
In the original iteration of the Sitka CCC, hourly pay ranged from $25 to $35, though Hughey was uncertain if pay would remain the same if a similar program is funded in 2021.
“Without a workforce trained in trail maintenance and construction, our critical recreation infrastructure rots away. Even when funding becomes available, the lack of experienced trail builders in the labor pool is a major obstacle for communities the size of Sitka and smaller,” Hughey said in a separate press release.
To become reality, the $12 million allocation must get the Legislature’s approval. Proponents of the idea marched from the Governor’s Mansion to the capitol in Juneau Wednesday to call attention to the allocation. The march was organized by Trails Build Alaska, a statewide group spearheaded by Trail Mix and focused on creating an outdoor workforce development fund.
The money would fund programs across the state, and Trails Build Alaska has received support from Sitka to Fairbanks.
“Not only are trails loved by residents, they’re a big draw for visitors... In Fairbanks, trail-focused events like the Equinox Marathon, the White Mountains 100 ultra race, the North American Sled Dog Races, and cross-country ski races at Birch Hill make our community a destination,” publisher of the Interior Trails Newsletter, Eric Troyer, said in the press release. “A trails workforce development program would not only put people back to work, but it would help ensure that we keep investing in our outdoor infrastructure.”
Anchorage also used some of its coronavirus relief money to finance an outdoor workforce, Alaska Trails.
If the new program becomes reality, Hughey would like to see work on a host of local projects.
“Dream mode, a lot of maintenance work to be done in general. There are major needs on the Mt. Edgecumbe trail… the Mt. Verstovia trail is in pretty rough shape,” he said. The money also could be used to remove clusters of Japanese knot weed, an invasive species.
The idea has received bipartisan support in government, O’Shaughnessy said Wednesday.
“We have bipartisan support in the Legislature with Rep. Kreiss-Tomkins (Democrat of Sitka) and Rep. (Laddie) Shaw (Republican of Anchorage), but the focus of (Wednesday’s) event is to get the governor’s attention and let the governor know that there is broad support for this program,” he said.
Kreiss-Tomkins affirmed his support for the idea, but noted that the political path forward remains uncertain.
“I would give it a 50 percent chance; I think there’s a real opportunity that we can make it happen… There is a huge amount of moving pieces right now, there is an atmosphere of uncertainty that applies to everything, so I think that’s the reason I hedge. There’s not any partisan source of opposition, it’s just uncertain what the process would look like,” Kreiss-Tomkins said on Wednesday.
He added that his hope would be to allow flexibility for the fund, though he would like to see another public use cabin on Sitka’s road system.
“My goal is more to facilitate the program and process and not prescribe particular conditions or processes. That said, I think there is huge unmet demand for public use cabins, hike-ins that people can access from the road system,” the representative said.
The allocation could come to a vote during the Legislature’s August special session, Kreiss-Tomkins and O’Shaughnessy said.
Unlike original CARES funding which ran out at the end of 2020, ARP money can be used to fund jobs and projects until 2024, O’Shaughnessy said.
“The primary focus on this program is not how many miles of trails can we build… It’s how many jobs can we create and how can we stimulate this industry… As far as jobs impact this program has the potential to run through 2024 and create hundreds of jobs each year,” he said.
