Alaska State Parks Kodiak District to Implement Fees

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak District of Alaska State Parks, like other offices that rely on state support, is trying to figure out how to compensate for budget issues and raise revenue. According to ranger Preston Croes, one way they’ll do that is by implementing a day-use parking fee that’s been in place for many years on the mainland. He says one option is for patrons to pay five dollars per day and vehicle.

“The second option, which is a much better option, is for $50 you can get an annual pass that provides unlimited use at any of the three parks, and if you ferry over to the mainland, it’s good for all those parks too.”

He says they’ll install fee stations at Fort Abercrombie, Buskin River, and Pasagashak River, and they’ll also start charging camping fees.

“In the past, we have allowed free camping out there, but again, to try to increase revenue, we’re gonna include camping fees out at Pasagshak. Pasagshak is only gonna be basically from May through the end of September for the fee program, where Buskin and Fort Abercrombie are gonna be year-round, or annual.”
 
These are both subjects that the Alaska State Parks Citizens’ Advisory Board will discuss at its monthly meeting Monday night. It’ll also hear an update on several Recreational Trails Program grants the Kodiak district received in summer 2015, which allowed staff to buy a small John Deere tractor to help do trail work.

“The first grant, which included the purchase of the tractor, was to unearth and recover a old section of military road behind the museum at Miller Point to improve access down to a lower point for a lookout and whale watching and bird watching, eagle watching, that sort of thing.”

The second grant also went towards improving the areas around historic structures, this time on Piedmont Point.

“We rerouted an approximately 100-foot section of trial that accessed one of the old historic WWII bunkers where the cliff was undermining and eroding away at the current trail, so now it’s much safer for public use.”                                                 

If you’d like to hear more about these initiatives and others, you can attend the board meeting at 7 p.m. at the Fort Abercrombie office.