Juneau’s Forest Service trails may be without maintenance this year

John Muir Cabin. Sept. 16, 2022. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)

Juneau’s trail maintenance nonprofit won’t be maintaining Forest Service trails this season, unless it can crowd-source funding for a new trail crew. 

That includes maintenance on access trails to heavily-used cabins at Peterson Lake, Dan Moller and Windfall Lake. 

Leaders of Trail Mix, Inc. made the decision to reallocate their Forest Service crews to other work, because they say they may lose the federal funding that pays them.

Half of the organization’s summer trail crews are funded by Forest Service grants. With instability at the federal level, Executive Director Meghan Tabacek said she doesn’t want to risk not being able to pay those workers. 

“I don’t ever want to be in a situation where we can’t pay our employees,” she said. “That’s just not how we do business here.”

Trail Mix usually gets about $420,000 annually in federal funding. Usually, the Forest Service pays Trail Mix during or after the season.

Tabacek says the funding comes from two sources: the Great American Outdoors Act, a 2020 act that funds improvements to recreation areas on federal land, and Alaska Forest Service fees from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center and cabin use that get deposited back into trail work.

The city has long partnered with Trail Mix for trail upkeep. George Schaaf leads the City and Borough of Juneau’s Parks and Recreation department and said they are one of Juneau’s greatest assets. 

“The trails make Juneau, Juneau,” he said. “It’s a huge reason I think a lot of us chose to come here, chose to stay and a lot of why people who grew up here also stay or come back.”

And, he said, the federal funding cuts could mean Juneau has to spend a lot more money in the future to maintain certain trails.

“If you keep up on the periodic maintenance, your cost over the lifetime is going to be a lot lower,” he said. “But if you don’t maintain what you have, you’re going to end up spending a lot of money all at once to try to get it back.”

Trail Mix, Inc. staff member Laib Allensworth and volunteers Dave Haas and Dan Parks working on Lemon Creek Trail. June 4 2022. Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO

Trail Mix’s Tabacek said the federal funding agreements haven’t been canceled yet. But she fears they could be because federal funding across the U.S. has been slashed, leaving many nonprofits without previously-guaranteed money to operate.  

“We’re just incredibly nervous to have the federal government as a business partner right now,” Tabacek said. “Agreements and grants that people thought were set in stone are being lost, left and right.”

Trail Mix has already hired its crews. Tabacek said Trail Mix now has to find other ways to pay for about half of its staff, and hopes to secure funding from the city. But she said those funding sources would pay only for work on city trails, not Forest Service trails.

That’s why the nonprofit is raising funds to hire a new crew made up of fired Forest Service staff. That crew could be tasked with maintaining Forest Service trails – roughly 40% of Juneau’s trails, she said. 

“It’s the people who use trails that are going to feel this, you know,” Tabacek said. “And obviously our staff are feeling it, and the staff of the Juneau Ranger District are feeling it as well. But this really has eliminated a lot of ways we work on Forest Service trails and to maintain these trails that we love.”

The fundraiser’s goal is $170,000, and Tabacek said the organization has about a month to raise that amount before trail work begins. And she said this year is a good year to volunteer.