Two hikers make their way along the seven-mile trail to the summit of the Mt. Edgecumbe crater. While the trail is spectacular, it is typical of resource-intensive terrain encountered by trail builders. “It’s rainy, it’s muddy,” says Trail Works director Ben Hughey, “You have to constantly cut back brush and clear blow down, and almost every linear foot of trail has to be covered in rock or wood, armoring the tread from erosion.” (Lee House photo)
In his letter, US Forest Service Chief Thomas Schultz wrote that “the impact the Sitka Trail Works Team has made in promoting accessibility and stewardship within the outdoor spaces of Sitka is truly inspiring.”
Sitka Trail Works was founded in 1997 to retrain displaced workers following the closure of Sitka’s pulp mill. It now puts up to 130 volunteers to work annually maintaining Sitka’s extensive trail system, as well as planning for future projects.
Sitka Trail Works’s executive director Ben Hughey recently spoke with KCAW’s Robert Woolsey about the challenges of trail building in Southeast Alaska.
KCAW: What about the work you do at trail works? Do you think came to the attention of the Chief of the Forest Service?
Hughey: “I think for this particular award, the local Ranger District nominated us because of the unique partnership and program we’ve been developing over the past few years to engage Alaskans in volunteer stewardship of trails. In particular, there are some unique challenges for small communities in Southeast Alaska when it comes to trail maintenance and development. First, there’s the environment. It’s rainy, it’s muddy. You have to constantly cut back brush and clear blow down, and almost every linear foot of trail has to be covered in rock or wood, armoring the tread from erosion. So it’s very resource intensive to maintain trails in Southeast Alaska’s rainforest, and we have less capacity in small towns, whether that’s funding from local governments, retired volunteers who happen to have a lot of experience and tons of time, or large nonprofit organizations that can shoulder tons of work. So given the resource demands and the capacity constraints, we needed creativity to address the desire of our communities to be able to still get outside and enjoy the trails.
KCAW: Did you participate as a volunteer with Trail Works when you were growing up in Sitka?
Hughey: I was actually on the crew as a high schooler. So in 2006 when I was a junior, I was hired by the Sitka Trail Works crew, and that’s how I got my start on trails.
KCAW: What are some of the projects of note recently where volunteer participation has been instrumental in making it happen?
Hughey: Yeah, I think the Mosquito Cove trail has had hundreds of volunteer hours poured into it in recent years. We just hosted the National Trails Day volunteer event there. Over 30 people came out, and we broke up into six different project teams. One of those was addressing the blasting site, where we had to use explosives to clear hazardous blow down from the trail, and volunteers helped move gravel and build turnpikes and make water crossings around the trail. A lot of folks were returning volunteers who really knew what they were doing and were able to attack more technical projects.
KCAW: What’s a turnpike?
Hughey: A Turnpike is a form of trail construction used in saturated soils, which we have many of here that has side wooden side rails, or sometimes rock side rails to hold in a gravel tread with some depth.
KCAW: I remember when Trail Works was founded, and I think the purpose of the organization at the time, or one of its justifications, was to retrain and re-skill pulp mill workers, or timber workers. Has Trail Works evolved past that original mission, or is that still sort of incorporated into the your purpose?
Hughey: Yeah, I think that the mission there is about addressing critical community needs with creative solutions. And Sitka Trail Works was founded to re-employ displaced mill workers, and now we’re employing locals to fill a need in trail maintenance capacity after the Forest Service terminated their trail crew this spring,
KCAW: You did a big fundraising effort to re-employ the fired Forest Service trail crew. How did that go?
Hughey: It was very surprising and heartening to see how much Sitkans were willing to chip in to ensure that we still had well-maintained trails. And because the Forest Service has such reduced capacity, Sitka Trail Works is now the only crew in town keeping trails open. We were able to fund a full trail crew, and we have four people working on the Mosquito Cove trail right now.
