Event benefits Alaska's recreation areas

Wining, dining, live music and white-water rafting are on the agenda for Saturday night.

For the second year in a row, the Mat-Su State Parks Citizens Advisory Board and Friends of Mat-Su Parks are organizing an evening of entertainment and auctions to benefit local parks.

Tickets are $10 per person at the door and include a light dinner, a wine and microbrew tasting, a chance at the door prize and the opportunity to bid on everything from white-water rafting trips to sightseeing flights of Mount McKinley. The event will be at the Hoskins Building on the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer.

"It's a lot of fun. We had a great time last year," said Toby Riddell of the Mat-Su State Parks Citizens Advisory Board.

Valley recreational and tourism groups have donated more than 100 items for both the silent and outcry auctions. The grand door prize is a stay at either the McKinley Princess or Denali Princess lodges and the train trip there.

Also slated for Saturday night -- entertainment by the bluegrass band the Thunderpluckers and emceeing by Iditarod champion Martin Buser.

"Come out and support state parks," Buser said. "Funding is tight and we need your donations. It's a good cause."

In addition to showing up Saturday night, Buser said he also hopes people tell public officials how important state parks are to them.

"I think a lot of people don't realize that when they go to Nancy Lake or Hatcher Pass that they are recreating in state parks," Buser said. He said it is easy to take clean bathrooms and groomed trails for granted.

"But they don't happen without effort, and we need to support that effort," Buser said.

Alaska State Parks used the $10,000 generated by last year's event to match grants to build switchbacks in the Ermine Hill Trail in Denali State Park and provide trail grooming of the snowmachine corridor in Hatcher Pass.

Park officials say these types of matching grants are paying for projects that would otherwise fall by the wayside. Even when the parks budget is stable, it hasn't kept up with the increased number of visitors and increased costs for basic maintenance.

But supporters initiated the annual event with hopes of not only raising money for improvement projects but also increasing public awareness.

"We want to get people who use the parks to give something back," Toby Riddell of the Mat-Su Citizens Advisory Board said last year.

And once again the fund-raiser coincides with the Legislature's debate over state funding for parks. Last year, the House proposed cutting nearly $300,000 that would have resulted in five Valley parks closing. In conference committee, however, the Legislature agreed to grant parks nearly full funding and the parks remained open.

Events have followed a similar track this session. The House's budget proposal would have closed 11 Valley parks, including those near Big Lake, Finger Lake and Hatcher Pass. However, the Senate's plan restores those cuts.

"I think it's turning around … it's not a done deal, but it's looking better for parks," Riddell said this week. The newest plan includes directing park user fees back into parks rather than diverting the money through general funds.

"I think it's going to be much better for our parks," Riddell said.