The indefinite closure of Haines’ popular Chilkoot campground may be coming to an end.
The Alaska Division of State Parks, which administers the Chilkoot Lake campground, has kept the facility and its 32 camp sites closed this season due to what they say is understaffing.
Now, state parks has advertised a new park technician position, which, when filled, will allow the campground to reopen, regional superintendent Brad Garasky said this week. The position closes on June 30.
Even advertising the vacant position had been a major hurdle due to a state government hiring freeze put in place by Gov. Mike Dunleavy last spring. To bypass the hiring freeze, state agencies must get a waiver from the Governor’s office specific to each position they hope to hire for.
During an assembly meeting last month, mayor Tom Morphet said the community and borough officials would “have to raise our voices a little bit, stomp our feet,” to push the state for a new hire and campground reopening.
The foot stomping has come from multiple sources:
This winter, the regional State Parks Citizen Advisory Board sent a letter to Dunleavy and Department of Natural Resources commissioner John Crowther advocating for new hiring and campground reopening.
“Restoring these roles, especially the Parks Technician and associated seasonal support positions, would directly improve day-to-day operations, protect public safety, and strengthen the tourism infrastructure that so many Southeast communities rely on,” wrote board chair and Haines resident Nate Arrants.
State Parks officially submitted its request to hire for the park technician position on Feb. 27, but for months it went unapproved.
Earlier this month, borough manager Alekka Fullerton, along with the borough’s state government lobbyist met with Crowther and sent him an official letter earlier advocating the governor approve hiring for the vacant position.
Yet a third letter came from former Haines Borough manager Annette Kreitzer, who recently announced her candidacy for the state representative seat for the Chilkat Valley.
In her letter, Kreitzer referred to “a drastic need for a waiver for a park technician to re-open the Chilkoot State Park Campground.”
Kreitzer, a longtime legislative staffer and former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration, has pitched her experience and state government relationships as pluses of her candidacy.
“That’s not the way you engage with the state,” she said of Morphet’s feet-stomping analogy. “I don’t doubt others have attempted to call, but connections are important. I have lots of relationships (in state government) that I don’t try to pull on more than I need to or want to, but to me there was no movement on the issue.”
Meanwhile, her opponent, incumbent Andi Story, said she has been advocating to fill the vacant Chilkoot position for months.
“I have elevated this request to the last two Commissioners’ attention multiple times,” Story wrote in an email this week.
Story also said requests for hiring freeze waivers “have been a group effort for quite some time,” citing the advisory board’s letter and advocacy from Haines residents.
Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Lorraine Henry said this week the waiver had been approved by the governor as a “public safety exemption” to the hiring freeze.
Reopening the campground should increase both access to the popular state recreation site, as well as discussions of how to best manage the area.
Chilkoot Lake is particularly popular due to the proximity of bears to the campground and road. Bear viewing, however, has presented challenges, with reports last year of tourists dangerously close to bears, and citations for tour operators stopping in the road for bear viewing.
Diane Moore, who has worked seasonally in Haines out of her RV for the last four summers, said she’d ordinarily spend some time at the Chilkoot campground. Instead, she’s currently at the Haines Hitch-Up RV Park, which she also works for.
“It’s a special place. It’s just beautiful,” Moore said of the Chilkoot area. But, she added, she makes a habit of checking the cruise ship schedule anytime she goes out to the lake in the hopes of avoiding the crowds.
It was a similar message from Sue Rakes, who has worked as State Parks’ campground host for the last two summers. Rakes spoke to the value of bringing people to the Chilkoot area, but also the importance of safe interactions with bears.
“I think it’s natural that people want to be tied into nature, they just need the tools to do it,” she added. “When people have that knowledge they want to take on the responsibility of looking out for the welfare of the bears, and they can just be in wonder and enjoy nature.”