State trail funding vetoes give time for ‘discussions’

A series of vetoes on Valley trail funding from Alaska Governor Michael Dunleavy are designed to give officials time to educate residents on related long term trail projects before starting work, officials with the governor’s office said in a statement.

The state’s budget for fiscal year 2023, which began July 1, includes money for seven trail projects associated with the Alaska Long Trail, a proposed 500-mile corridor stretching from Seward to Fairbanks that would braid both motorized and non-motorized sections.

But eight other related projects, including three in the Valley, were rejected by Dunleav. Those were $100,000 for a Susitna winter-only motorized multi-use trail, $100,000 for a Palmer Hay Flats trail and $1.9 million for a pair of trails that would connect the Government Peak Recreation Area with the Skeetawk ski area in Hatcher Pass.

The vetoes, a spokesperson for the governor said in a July 14 email to the Frontiersman, will allow time to build awareness for the project. Officials with Alaska Trails, an Anchorage-based nonprofit championing the Long Trail Project, said state legislators they spoke with noted Valley residents had contacted Dunleavy’s office concerned that the new trails would block motorized use or hunting access.

“The Governor decided to veto some of the funding so discussions can take place this year about the trail’s potential impacts and benefits for Alaska’s tourism industry,” Jeff Turner, a spokesperson for Dunleavy, said in an email. “This will give stakeholders the opportunity to answer questions about access, multi-use transportation, maintenance and any type of prohibitions on adjacent economic development.”

Alaska Trails officials said the rumor that Long Trail projects are going to block or change current trail use or access is misinformation.

“For example, there is a persistent misunderstanding that the trail will take away existing snowmachine access or change hunting regulations which is simply not true. None of the existing segments would have a change in use or access. On the contrary, the Long Trail Coalition aims to incorporate multiple uses into the Alaska Long Trail braided trail system,” Mariyam Medovaya, who works for Alaska Trails, said in an email. “We do know from conversations with our allies in the legislature that these concerns did come up in their meetings with the Governor.”

Medovaya said it’s the responsibility of organizations like Alaska Trails, not the state, to conduct those education efforts.

“The proposed discussions are really up to us, not the Governor,” she said. “We need to do a more thorough job at bringing diverse user groups into the conversation and dispel any misinformation floating out there.”

Among the trail projects that did receive funding is a study examining where best to build a challenging portion of the Long Trail between Eklutna and the MatSu. With the Chugach range on one side and the Hay Flats marsh on the other, the proposed trail would need to guide users into the Valley while avoiding traveling on the busy Glenn Highway. Funding of $300,000 was allocated as reimbursable grant to the Anchorage Park Foundation, which will organize the study.

All told, the governor approved $14.4 billion in 2023 funding, and rejected over $400 million in funding for various projects and programs approved by the legislature.