Willow mushers working to preserve historic trails

September 12, 2006

By Michael Rovito

Frontiersman

A trail plan recently adopted by the Willow Area Community Organization is setting the stage for what many Willow residents hope will be the preservation of a way of life in Alaska.

The town of Willow, just outside the ever-expanding outskirts of development in the Mat-Su Valley, often is referred to as the mushing capital of the state. Many kennels and renowned Iditarod dog mushers reside in the area, along with a multi-use trail system many enthusiasts want to see saved - enthusiasts like Steve Charles, a retired music teacher and recreational musher with a full beard to match the Alaska look.

Charles is the chairman of the WACO Trails Committee, a special standing committee. Since 1996, he has worked to document and obtain easements for local trails in Willow in an effort to assure their continued existence.

&#8220We're trying to be proactive instead of reactive,” Charles said.

On a recent cool Friday afternoon, Charles stood on a muddy backroad, where a part of the Iditarod Trail passes through, pointing out the trailhead of what is known as the West Gateway Trail. That trail, west of Willow between the Parks Highway and the Susitna River, is one of three WACO is working on, and has already obtained - with help from the Mat-Su Borough - legal easements, according to WACO documents.

With the easement, the trails receive grooming and maintenance, along with trailhead kiosks with safety and educational information. The trail also is included in the Mat-Su Trails Plan as &#8220regionally significant,” according to organization documents.

This partnership between the borough and the Willow community helps maintain perhaps the most heavily used trail system in Willow, with its location just off the Parks Highway making it ideal for weekend warriors from Anchorage and other areas.

Two more trails, which are still multi-use but mainly for dog sledders, according to Charles, are the Haessler-Norris Trail System and the Emil Stancec Trail System.

Those systems, lacking legal easements, have been documented, but are threatened by development and logging - something Charles hopes can be averted by continued work and lobbying for easements and protection of the trails.

All three trails have ties to historical uses, including freight trails, mail trails and trapping trails.

Some of the trails in the West Gateway system were blazed almost 100 years ago, according to the Willow Area Trail Plan, making them an important part of Alaska history.

Charles cited that history when talking about his motivation for working on the trails.

&#8220We're trying to preserve Alaska heritage,” he said.

The mushing habitat

The Willow community group also has put forth a description of what it calls vital mushing habitat, which outlines items needed to keep the area kennel friendly.

Looped trail systems for Iditarod training, access to trail systems from adjoining sled dog kennels, and trails that won't be compromised by future subdivisions are some of the items the WACO Trail Committee says are necessary for the longevity of Willow's mushing culture.

The committee also is calling on local and state governments to make changes to policies addressing noise ordinances, a seat on the borough's Animal Control Advisory Board and the addition of dog kennels to a law that gives certain categories of land use protection against nuisance claims.

These mandates are new, however, and it is unclear how the respective governments will respond to them.

To get an idea of how important these trails are to locals in Willow, and in much of Alaska, an afternoon visit to Vern Halter's dog kennel gives a window into the life.

Halter, a former Iditarod racer, runs Dream a Dream Dog Farm in Willow. He is one of many mushers who makes a living taking tourists from Alaska and

Outside on dog sled tours year-round. For them, the trails mean more than just fun. Their survival means the difference between these mushers making a living and struggling to make ends meet.

Halter is vigilant about Willow's trails, and said what the community council is doing is a step in the right direction.

&#8220It's the same thing Wasilla and that community forgot to pay attention to,” Halter said.

He went on to bring the big picture to trail preservation, pointing out that, without adequate trails, the mushing population might fall off, threatening the very race that has made dog mushing world famous: Alaska's state sport, the Iditarod.

&#8220The Iditarod race cannot exist without mushers,” Halter said.

The Willow Area Trail Plan is available at www.waco-ak.org, under the &#8220trails” section.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@

frontiersman.com.