KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Trees have yet to start coming down at Fort Abercrombie State Park, but as John Kimmel, the office administrator at Alaska State Parks in Kodiak says, a small portion could be removed later in the week.
— (Abercrombie Trees 1 : 13 "The contractor is not on site as of yet and the project will probably be kicking off later this week, into next week. I’m not sure. It depends on when all their folks and equipment can get here.")
The project Kimmel is referring to will involve removing a portion of trees from the park to make way for a tour bus turnaround site near Miller Point. He said the project has been in the works for multiple years and has changed drastically from its original plan.
— (Abercrombie Trees 2 : 32 "The public processes for this project started in December 2005. That process completed in March 2010. As part of that process things were scaled back tremendously. I think originally it was set up to be almost an acre, .8 of an acre involved, and now it’s down to .2 of an acre out of a couple hundred acres here at Fort Abercrombie. And the parking spaces up at Miller Point were cut back from 19 spaces on the original plan to a grand total of five spaces.")
Kimmel said the lumber that is collected from the trees won’t be leaving the park, and could be making appearances in future projects
— (Abercrombie Trees 3 : 17 "The trees that will be removed will be retained by Alaska State Parks for later use on a project within the park. Exactly what project that is yet to be determined. There’ve been a number of ideas discussed, but for now the logs will be stored and retained for use later.")
The park is a hot spot for local recreators and visiting tourists, but is also home to the Kodiak High School and Middle School cross country courses. Kimmel said the plans to update the part shouldn’t affect those courses, or the season, which is already afoot for the high school bears.
— (Abercrombie Trees 4 : 20 "I’ve been working with both the high school and middle school coaches and they’re aware of what’s going on and there should be minimal impact and long term no change. Just a very small portion of what they normally use is involved at all. Again as I said previously we’re down to less than two tenths of an acre being involved out of the long course that they run.")
He said there is no intent to pave the roads during this project, and as far as he’s aware there are no future plans for paving the park. However the State Department of Transportation did recently paved the entrance road to the park.
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