Kodiak State Parks, which is a division of the state Department of Natural Resources, was able to hire more employees for the summer season. That’s despite staffing gaps and high turnover in the last year.
Ben Shryock is the superintendent for all the state parks in Kodiak, as well as the southwest region which includes the Wood-Tikchik State Park near Dillingham. He said the team now has a full time park specialist and a maintenance generalist. New permanent employees were brought on towards the beginning of this year and seasonal staff joined in May.
“We had been down to a permanent staff of three for a while and now we’re back to a permanent staff of four here. All of the three other positions, besides myself, all three of those folks are new in their positions,” he explained.
Shryock notes this certainly isn’t the highest staffing the park office has had in Kodiak. The Kodiak Region State Parks is still accepting applications for two Trail Crew employees, to do various jobs like trail clearing, and cabin repairs. But even when full time staff is lacking, Shryock said the region’s state parks rely on Alaska Conservation Corps employees or volunteers to help with summer projects. These seasonal workers help manage and maintain local trails, campgrounds, and other facilities.
For example, some of those crew members are helping Kodiak State Parks staff build a second public use cabin at the Pasersaq or Pasagshak State Recreation site.
“State parks does rely on the Alaska Conservation Corps program for hiring summer staff every year. And we hire a lot of long term volunteers as well every year," Shryock explained. "So we’ve had those folks working on the project, prepping the site, and doing the foundation work.”
Shryock said summer time is the parks’ busiest time of the year as staff are working on a variety of projects. So residents and park goers may have a hard time reaching park staff at the local office located in Fort Abercrombie State Park.
If you can’t reach someone at the local Kodiak State parks office by calling 907 486 6339, then you can leave a message or send them an email.
