By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
As the Cross Trail extension that will link Sitka’s downtown trail system to Starrigavan nears completion, Sitka Trail Works is seeking ideas on future trail projects.
With ample possibilities for new trails in the coming years, Trails Works executive director Ben Hughey is encouraging public involvement in the planning process.
Sitka Trail Works crew members carried buckets of gravel to make a new trail near
Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School in 2020.
(Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“We want to make sure we give everybody the opportunity to take the survey… I just really want to make sure that our plans are grounded in Sitkans’ ideas and priorities,” Hughey said. “And so we’re just really hoping that we can get a lot of input from folks who live here and care about this trail system.”
The survey is designed to find out what the public would like to see built and maintained.
“A key question is, what are the types of trails you’re interested in seeing?” Hughey said. “Is it loop trails? Is it short things you can do with the family? Or is it more challenging multi-day backpacking trips?”
He said the preferences stated will shape this planning process.
“We hope to take that input and go out and find places where we can provide those desired facilities and then develop a more robust plan with specific trail locations and come back to the community in the fall with those options,” he said.
Sitka Trail Works is conducting an online survey into peoples’ trail usage and their aspirations for new and existing trails.
While the survey asks people’s thoughts on upkeep and improvements on existing trails, Hughey is open to more ambitious ideas as well.
“We’re attempting to stay open to big ideas,” he said. “We will be assessing feasibility, and what the constraints are in this next stage as we filter and analyze the different ideas that come in, but right now, I want your big ideas.”
One possible project, he said, could be a formalization of the trail by the Indian River flume, an idea originally envisioned in the 2003 trail plan.
“Downstream of the Indian River trailhead, there is a water intake pipe for the Sheldon Jackson campus… There is basically a walking path along the prettiest stretch of Kaasda Heen that exists,” he said.
Trail Works and the Sitka Conservation Society have also looked at a possible trail network centered around Goddard Hot Springs and Redoubt Bay, Hughey said.
Other trail-building areas might be in the Katlian River valley once Sitka’s road network extends that far, he said.
The survey form also has a place for people to make their own suggestions for new trails.
As a non-profit, Sitka Trail Works has joined forces with a variety of partners over the years – from the City and Borough of Sitka and Sitka Tribe of Alaska to the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. This cooperation has allowed trails to be built across boundaries.
“We get to think holistically across land management boundaries,” Hughey said. “The Forest Service is statutorily required to think about only federal lands, and we are a community based entity that is not bound by those certain jurisdictional edges,” Hughey said. “And this is why it’s so important to have a plan that reaches across land ownership boundaries, because the Cross Trail couldn’t have happened, Herring Cove to Beaver Lake couldn’t happen without a multi-landowner plan.”
In financial terms, he noted that federal funding could become available through the bipartisan infrastructure package passed recently by Congress.
While it’s not clear what those funding streams will look like, he said he expects a competitive process with projects ranked on the merits of the proposals,
“Showing community support and a well-thought-out, shovel-ready project is essential to solicit those funds successfully,” he said.
The online survey can be accessed at the Sitka Trail Works website, sitkatrailworks.org, and paper surveys are available at the Sitka Public Library. Hughey said the survey will close in May, though a formal end date is not yet determined.
Sitka Trail Works will host an open house 4 p.m. May 11 at Harrigan Centennial Hall, where people can comment on projects in person.
