Castle Hill is the site of the 1867 transfer of the Alaskan territory. The state discontinued management of the historic area last year due to budget cuts. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

The Sitka National Historical Park will oversee Castle Hill and Old Sitka again this summer. The State Department of Natural Resources announced last week (03-22-16) that the two agencies have renewed their cooperative management agreement for another season.

After the state closed its park offices last spring, the maintenance staff of Sitka National Historical Park tended to the grounds of Castle Hill and the historic portions of Old Sitka from June 30th to October 18th, 2015. The park used Castle Hill as a staging ground for an expanded Russian-American walking tour.

Mike Eberhardt , the state superintendent for the southeast area parks, said he was pleased with the federal support  last summer. “They’re very conscientious and it’s been so great that I haven’t had to fly over and meet with them. Because they’re doing such a good job.”

Given proposed reductions to the FY17 budget, it’s unlikely the state will resume management of Sitka parks anytime soon. But, Eberhardt said, the state is retaining ownership of the parks for a reason and has no plans to sell. “If we get the funding at this point, we’re hopeful that we can come back and resume state park management.”

The renewed cooperative management agreement will end in the fall.

The rest of Sitka’s state parks remain in passive management, with no oversight and the outhouses boarded. That includes the boat launch and recreation areas at Starrigavan, as well as the Halibut Point Recreation Area. Sitkans used to reserve the popular picnic area through the state’s park office.

With that system now gone, one Sitkan has devised a local solution. Samantha Cox noticed that Sitkans were attempting to make reservations through Sitka Chatters, a popular Facebook page. “It is wedding season and a lot of people on Chatters were saying ‘I need to reserve this but I don’t know how.’ ‘I’m getting married or I have memorial,'” Cox said.

Cox created a new Facebook page – called Sitka’s HPR Rec Reservation Page – to compile requests and serve as a conversation hub. Sitkans have been pretty good about picking up their trash, but when it comes to the shuttered outhouses, Cox said, “My suggestion to people was to take a honey bucket. If you want to go in the woods, use the bucket instead. Dump it in the ocean afterwards.”

Sunset from Halibut Point State Recreation Area in Sitka.

Sitka will likely take over management of the Halibut Point State Recreation Area. But that doesn’t mean the city is happy about it.

The rec is one of several sites that went into so-called “passive management” on July 1, when state parks laid off its Sitka staff. Since then, local groups have been scrambling to fill the void. The National Park Service, for instance, has taken over maintenance of the historical sites at Castle Hill and Old Sitka through at least October.

But Halibut Point Rec — perhaps Sitka’s most popular park —  is still looking for a suitor. On Tuesday night (7-28-15), the Sitka Assembly decided to explore ways to step in, even as assembly members worried that it sets the wrong precedent.

Downloadable audio

To say the State of Alaska is eager to wash its hands of its Sitka properties might be an understatement.

On Tuesday night, City Administrator Mark Gorman described his conversations with Mike  Eberhart, the regional superintendent for State Parks. “They were willing to give me the keys yesterday and walk away from it,” Gorman said. “They are willing to enter into an agreement almost immediately with the City and Borough of Sitka for what they call a management authority, which pretty much gives us complete authority over the park and responsibility for the park.”

The state has even suggested it would consider transferring the land to Sitka outright, Gorman said.

City officials have been dreading this moment ever since State Parks, faced with a $500,000 budget cut, announced it would lay off its only Sitka employee. That means that since July 1, nobody has looking after the 35 acres of beachfront park that make up the Halibut Point Recreation Area. Until someone steps in, the bathrooms are closed, nobody is picking up trash, and the picnic shelters and trails have been left to the elements.

But as assembly member Steven Eisenbeisz pointed out, the question is how the city would fund the park, when the state couldn’t.

“We’re now taking on something, potentially taking on something that could potentially cost us quite a bit of money,” Eisenbeisz said. “Money which we don’t have at this current point.”

But Gorman said he thinks the cost of inaction would be higher, as the park becomes a public safety issue. He suggested exploring partnerships with local nonprofits, and said there might be creative options for generating revenue.

“What came to our attention the other day is that the cabin in the Starrigavan campground, is the most used cabin on the Tongass,” he said. “That an opportunity to put one or two similar type structures in Halibut Point, so people would have access to overnight recreational cabins on our road system, would be [one] possibility.”

Local organizations could adopt picnic shelters or trails to maintain, Gorman said. He even suggested creating a few lots at the park for the tiny houses that the Sitka Conservation Society wants to build.

Assembly members were clearly intrigued by the options. But Ben Miyasato spoke for many at the table when he said he’s frustrated that the state is simply walking away, and leaving the city to clean up the mess. It’s a scenario that officials worry will become more common, as tight budgets force the state to shed more and more services.

And assembly member Michelle Putz said it’s a lousy precedent. “I think it’s important that the state realize that we don’t appreciate that we’re being put into this spot,” she said. “They could have done the same things that you’re proposing, but yet they’re essentially just dropping the ball.”

Castle Hill, in downtown Sitka, is the best place to take in the full measure of the community’s “cultural landscape.” (Alaska Division of Parks photo)

The federal government is stepping in to care for two of Alaska’s most important historic sites, after the legislature cut funding to state parks in Sitka.

The National Park Service calls Castle Hill and Old Sitka “cultural treasures,” and has agreed to take care of the parks at least through the fall.

A third state-owned site, the popular Halibut Point Recreation Area, ultimately may be managed the city.

Downloadable audio.

Sitka National Historical Park superintendent Mary Miller says it’s “ironic” that the park has scaled up storytelling around the Russian colonial presence in Sitka this year, since it’s now going to be taking care of a larger piece of the former colony.

But that’s not the only irony in this agreement. The deal is good only through this fall — October 18. That’s the day in 1867 that Russia formally ceded Alaska to the United States in a flag raising ceremony on Castle Hill, one of two sites in Sitka that the state has decided it can’t afford to operate anymore.

“Those are recognized as significant cultural and historic treasures, really, whose stories overlap with Sitka National Historical Park.”

The other site, known as Old Sitka, is less celebrated than Castle Hill, but its role in the larger story of Alaska is far greater: The destruction of a Russian outpost there by the Sitka Tlingit in 1802 prompted a retaliatory strike by Alexander Baranov two years later, and he would subsequently move the headquarters of the Russian-American Company — and the capital of Russian America — to Sitka.

Modern Sitka is built right on the footprint of the Russian colonial capital, which was built over the historic Tlingit community, with Castle Hill right at its center.

Fitting this story together needs a better vantage point than can be found inside a museum.

“What you start to see, by combining say the Russian Bishop’s House, St. Michael’s, the Blockhouse, Castle Hill, Building 29, the Russian Cemetery — you start to realize the cultural landscape that was here.”

Starting back on July 1, Miller and the National Park crew decided to step in as stewards of to provide stewardship over thate cultural landscape. Sitka National Historical Park itself is a major feature of the downtown waterfront. Miller says her staff was positive about folding Castle Hill and Old Sitka into their responsibilities.

“When we talked to the maintenance crew about this — and we’ve got a bigger crew than usual because of extra projects at Sitka National Historical Park — they were actually pretty excited about it. They recognized that taking care of these sites is actually a source of pride, just like it is for taking care of the assets of the regular park.”

The National Park Service is not taking over management of Castle Hill and Old Sitka per se — Miller says it’s more about maintenance. The NPS will remove trash, mow grass, blow leaves, clean trails, and brush out vegetation.

And The National Park Service is not going to be providing these services at the Old Sitka boat launch, or at Halibut Point Recreation Area. Halibut Point, the boat launch, Ft. Rousseau, and the Magoun Islands and Big Bear/Baby Bear state marine parks all went into so-called passive management when the state started its new budget year on July 1.

With the exception of Halibut Point, all of these sites are accessible only by boat, and scarcely require maintenance of any kind. Halibut Point, however, is probably the most popular picnic beach in Sitka. Municipal administrator Mark Gorman told the assembly recently that passive management would likely lead to “public safety issues.”

“It’s very clear to me that with the sudden closure of the state presence in the park that the issue is going to roll up to the city very rapidly — in fact it did on Friday, with people coming and saying, I have a wedding planned there at the end of this week, I can’t get in, who do I talk to?”

Gorman said that city hall was putting together a plan to care for Halibut Point, for the assembly’s review at its next meeting.

Meanwhile the state Division of Parks is continuing to solicit proposals for the permanent care of Sitka’s parks, which were de-funded this spring along with sites in Homer and Valdez.

Despite the excellent overlap with the national park mission in Sitka, superintendent Mary Miller sees her intervention as a stop-gap measure.

“We’re happy to step in, recognizing that the state is in need right now. And I’d like to think that if the tables were turned and that the federal government, for whatever reason, was short of resources, that we could look to the state and that they would step up and help us likewise.”

Miller says the National Park Service will assess how well maintenance is going at Sitka’s state parks this fall, before she seeks additional funding for the program.

KCAW’s Emily Kwong contributed to this story.