Bureau of Land Management – Campbell Tract

The Bureau of Land Management Alaska is grateful for the hard work of all the volunteers, for the generosity of Friends of the Campbell Creek Science Center in providing the pizza lunch, and for the generosity of REI, Eagle River Nature Center, Great Harvest Bread Company, Moose’s Tooth/Bear Tooth, and Phillips Cruises and Tours who all provided door prizes for our hardworking volunteers!
Chugach State Park – Middle Fork Trail

“We are excited about the work these volunteers are doing,” said Chugach State Park’s Joe Hall, the lead staff on the project. “We hope to finish the big reroute next month and move on to other projects on the trail.”
The volunteers completed 200 feet of trail, which is a ton of work – almost literally. Volunteers removed tundra sod (saving it for use later to fill in the old trail), carried buckets of dirt, leveled the trail for good drainage and filled two bridge abutments. They also did some brushing and staged re-vegetation materials for next month’s volunteer work day, which will take place on Saturday, July 16.
The volunteers contributed over 160 hours to the trail maintenance project. That equals a value of more than $4,000 using the federal volunteer rate, which is an important factor as the state grapples with more and more budget uncertainty.
While the on-the-ground work is important, getting volunteers out on the trails has a less quantifiable but maybe more important aspect: Helping connect a committed group of stewards to the trails they use and love. “Everybody ended up having a job they could call their own. Folks seemed to really engage in the project and felt value in their work,” Hall said. “These volunteers are really kick-starting this project and we hope to have them back again this summer.”
The volunteers also seemed excited to give back and Alaska Trails is working hard to thank them and get them and others ready for more great work this summer.
Special thanks to ConocoPhillips and the Alaska Conservation Foundation for their generous support of the Alaska Trail Volunteers program.
(Story adapted from the Alaska Trails June Newsletter)

