The Commissioner for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources came to Haines on Friday. He came to see and talk about the local State Park infrastructure. In the evening, he held a town hall at the library. 

On Friday, John Boyle, the commissioner for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, came to Haines. He wasn’t there to enjoy the music at the fair. Boyle came to tour the state parks with local officials and meet with residents.

Boyle: “Every park that I have seen here is Haines, I think in and of itself is exactly the kind of place that a lot of people would be willing to go a long way to go and enjoy. Because they are unrivaled. Our state parks system really is the crown jewel of our state.”

Boyle held a town hall at the library. A few people came to voice their concern that those jewels are in need of a good polish. Resident Tom Morphet pointed out a lack of maintenance.

Morphet: “The seduction point trail is a gorgeous trail. My wife and I went out there just to a place called Moose meadow. But we had to walk around five or six deadfalls that had fallen across the trail and hadn’t been cleared. That’s the minimum. That’s a trail in the park.”

Attendees also brought up the closed campground at Portage Cove, and needed improvements at Chilkoot State Park. The dirt road to Chilkat State Park where drivers have to zig zag to avoid the bumps and pot holes. The Mosquito Lake campground that is classified by the state as under ‘passive management’. To some residents, the phrase has become a euphemism for official neglect. 

The state has put out a comprehensive recreation plan to assess needs statewide.

Resident and assembly member Debra Schnabel  said she has read through a lot of the document, but found some crucial aspect missing.

Schnabel: “It was a fabulous plan, and I thought that we should do all of these things, but there is no financial aspect of the plan. And so it really is totally meaningless to have a plan that doesn’t have any financial backup.”

Some attendees proposed ideas for improvements.

Resident Luke Tergis wondered if the trail system could be expanded. He pointed to Chilkoot Lake as a promising area.

Tergis: “There is no hiking, you drive out there is a beautiful spot, but you can’t really walk anywhere. There is a user trail, an unofficial trail along the water for a little ways, it peters out. I would love to go out there, and walk for two hours and come back to the lake.”

 Debra Schnabel said river access could be improved.

Schnabel: “We have this fabulous river that has fish in it and people can hardly get to the river to fish. If we had been able to get a welder out there to weld some stairs together.”

Borough manager Annette Kreitzer said that there is a limited budget for these projects.

Kreitzer: “Part of the problem of increasing trails is if we can’t take care of what we have…”

Kreitzer said there is much infrastructure that needs maintenance before the new projects can be started. But she said the commissioner’s visit had sparked a promising dialogue.

Kreitzer: “We had really good discussion among CIA and the state and us today about how we can all support one another. And so we are going to put together some strategy meetings to see how we can move forward on some of these things.” 

Commissioner Boyle sounded a note of budgetary optimism. He said state revenue has stabilized, and parks revenues can be optimized.

Boyle: “Now is where the pressure to really restrict and restrain budgets is easing somewhat, I think there is more appetite for us to look at our fee structure and other things to ensure that we are bringing in the revenue that we need to invest in improving our overall park experience.”

Tom Morphet said he would like to see more investment from the state.

Morphet: “There are things that are worse than no taxes. And those things are no ferries. And those things are schools that are struggling. And those things are  parks that are an embarrassment to this town.’

Morphet mentioned that a large portion of the Haines sales tax goes towards promoting tourism. He said half a million dollars a year have been spent on this in the last 35 years.

Morphet: “That’s $17 million  we’ve spent to tell people “this is a great place. Come see the beauty of Alaska.”

Borough officials said the commissioner did not commit to a specific action during his visit, but that it marks the beginning of a promising conversation.