State Parks improved the Battery Point Trail recently. (Jillian Rogers)
Haines residents with ideas for new recreational trails or improvements to existing routes have an opportunity to share their thoughts this week.
The parks and recreation advisory committee is holding a trails workshop to gather public input.
Chair Rich Chapell says the conversation started at a recent meeting and the group decided to ‘cast a wide net’ and hear from community members.
The majority of Haines’ most popular trails are on state land. Alaska State Parks improved Battery Point Trail over the last couple years. This summer, there are plans to fix up the Moose Meadows portion of the Seduction Point Trail in Chilkat State Park.
Chapell says the committee could make recommendations to State Parks for new trails or improvements. Or, they could try to rally volunteers to improve trails – a strategy that has seen success in Juneau.
When the Haines Borough developed a comprehensive plan in 2012, the community identified possibilities for new walking, biking and hiking trails. Chapell says he hopes to use those ideas as a jumping-off point.
The trails workshop is Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Haines Public Library.
This story has been updated to remove a link to Juneau’s Trail Mix, which is not made up solely of volunteers.
Juneau’s trails are made and maintained by a full time, seasonal, paid trail crew from the nonprofit Trail Mix. The Juneau borough contracts the trail work to Trail Mix. But the point is- volunteers are not doing the work, it’s all paid, with the exception of a couple volunteer days each year.