The Zaandam, in Honolulu. The clear barrier is visible near the upper deck of the ship. Sitka police Lt. Lance Ewers said this made it challenging to bring the young woman back to safety. (Flickr photo/Daniel Ramirez)

Sitka police, fire, and EMS responded to the Old Sitka Dock Friday afternoon (6-15-18) after the crew of Holland America’s Zaandam reported that a passenger had climbed to the outer rail of an upper deck and was contemplating suicide.

Sitka police Lieutenant Lance Ewers says that the department responded with a ‘crisis intervention team’ and convinced the passenger — a young adult woman — to return inside of the rail (a clear plastic barrier), and she finally did so, after a few tense moments.

Personnel from the Sitka Fire Department were on the water below, in the Emergency Response Vessel (ERV).

Ewers says the young woman was brought ashore for counseling and treatment.

The Zaandam’s scheduled 4 p.m. departure was delayed 40 minutes by the incident, according to shore agent Fred Reeder.

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.”

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.

Downloadable audio.

Sunset from Halibut Point State Recreation Area in Sitka. This park — like others in Sitka — will transfer into private management on July 1.

Mike Eberhardt, the Southeast Area Parks Superintendent, talks about the plan by the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation to seek new managers for Sitka’s state parks. The state will end management of all seven of Sitka’s state parks on July 1, 2015.

The division has released a request for proposal (RFP) for private entities to assume management and maintenance of several of parks, including Castle Hill, Halibut Point Recreation area, and the Old Sitka site, including the trail section and boat launch. If no one applies, those areas will enter passive management. Bathrooms will be boarded up and trash collection will cease.

Proposals are due by Wednesday, June 24. The new manager would be able to collect any fees for daily parking, shelter reservations, and boat launches. To see the RFP, click here: http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/misc/sitkadistrfp15.pdf

The decision to close Sitka’s state parks stems from the legislature’s cut of $500,000 from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The state parks in Valdez will also close and one ranger position eliminated from the Wood-Tikchik park.

See KCAW’s previous coverage of the proposal to close Sitka’s parks and state plan.

The Alaska State Park System consists of 123 units spread throughout the state. Faced with $500,000 in budget cuts, the department has proposed to end field operations in Sitka and Valdez. (Map courtesy of the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation)

In the face of serious budget cuts, the Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation has proposed closing field operation of the state parks in Sitka and Valdez.

The legislature still has to weigh in, but according to Director Ben Ellis, a tough decision had to be made.

Downloadable audio.

The State Parks Department has proposed ending on-site management of all state parks in Sitka, including Castle Hill in downtown, the Halibut Point Recreation Area, and the Starrigavan boat launch and estuary trail system.

The proposal would also affect all state parks in Valdez. Both the staff positions in Sitka and Valdez would be removed, along with the maintenance and clean-up services they provide.

The backdrop of this decision is clouded by the state’s budget woes. The House Finance Subcommittee is looking to cut $500,000 for state parks and requested options from the state parks department.

Director Ben Ellis says the department had two alternatives: either spread the half-million dollar cut around the state or close one or two areas entirely. To achieve this reduction, Ellis decided to go with the latter — with Sitka and Valdez taking almost all the cuts.

Ellis said the decision was “very difficult,” adding, “It’s like – which one of your children do you want to chop off or kill? The struggle for all of us that dealt with it, including [Commissioner Mark Myers of the Department of Natural Resources] is: Do we limit it in the area or do we look at discrete units? And it was my decision to go with discrete units.”

Ellis said the major criteria for deciding which areas to cut included self-contained areas not in population centers and parks not generating large revenues from fees. On that point, Sitka’s parks score fairly low.

KCAW: What would you say to people in Sitka and Valdez who feel perhaps picked on? Like, you picked us . Why didn’t you share these cuts across the state?
Ellis: You know, I totally understand. I understand the frustration. It was just a decision that I made for the greater good of all the state parks operations. We’re that strapped with financial issues.

Ellis says closing the state parks in Sitka would save $133,000. In addition to closing state parks in Sitka and Valdez, the proposal would eliminate one ranger position in Wood Tik-Chik State Park near Dillingham.

Ellis said, “This is not something I would like to do. It is not any reflection on any of the employees that are being affected. And if this does come to pass I will work very hard to get these areas reinstated as soon as I can.”

Under the proposal, the closed parks would go in to passive management. There would be no staff present and supervisors would visit the areas of Sitka and Valdez from Juneau and Soldotna respectively.

For Sitka, that responsibility would fall to Chief Ranger for Southeast, Kevin Murphy.

Murphy said the decision would affect how he manages Southeast. He said, “A lot of those legislatively designated parks they’re required by the legislature to have some active management on. That will mean I’ll have to come over to Sitka a little more often than I have in the past and check up.”

The affected parks in Sitka, all 7 of them encompassing over 4,000 acres, would include four legislatively designated marine parks. They are the Fort Rousseau Causeway Site, Sealion Cove, Magoun Islands, and the Big Bear/Baby Bear State Marine Parks.

The parks system also includes three road system areas, which are the Old Sitka Complex, which includes the boat launch and Starrigavan Trail System; the Halibut Point Recreation Area and the public use day shelter there; and Castle Hill, the site of the 1867 transfer of Alaska to the United States.

The proposal is now before the House Finance Committee.