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Kachemak Bay State Park draft management plan comment period closes Friday

For those interested in influencing future management plan of both the Kachemak Bay State and Wilderness parks as well as state recreation areas on the southern Kenai Peninsula, the deadline to comment on the draft plan is Friday. The plan will shape recreation and commercial uses in the parks over the next 20 years.

The draft plan covers everything from proposals for more trails and public-use cabins to answering contentious questions surrounding the use of jet skis and heli-skiing operations in the park.

Alaska Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Monica Alvarez said on KBBI’s Coffee Table Wednesday that the plan has been in the works for about seven years.

“It was probably in 2011 when state parks got a permit application for helicopter use, winter helicopter use,” she explained. “I think they started to look at the 1995 plan and realized it didn’t provide them the guidance or the tools they needed to make the decisions for activities today.”

The overall plan will guide management for both Kachemak Bay State Park on the south side of Kachemak Bay and the Kachemak Bay State Wilderness Park, which stretches to the outer coast of the Kenai Peninsula.  The plan would also guide management for several state recreation areas on the peninsula.

The plan recommends the development of several trails and new cabins to facilitate the growing number of park users. According to the draft plan, roughly 270,000 people utilized the park in 2017, most of them state residents.  

Robert Archibald sits on the Kachemak Bay State Park Citizen Advisory Board and works with other groups such as Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park. He said there is concern about more facilities attracting too many people to the park.

“Through the friends, we’re looking at the resource over there. We want to maintain a wilderness park, a park that people to come to Alaska to enjoy,” he said on Coffee Table. “Subsequently, we realize that there do need to be blinders as far development.”

However, Alvarez said new development could help protect park resources as a growing number of people utilize the park.  

“We’re just trying to make sure that we can provide sustainable facilities and trails to accommodate use so that it’s appropriate and we protect the park resources and the experiences,” she argued. “One way is to improve other trails and provide facilities in other areas that might kind of draw people and spread that use out.”

The plan does open a couple doors to some contentious issues such as heli-skiing operations. Alvarez said the plan would possibly open part of Kachemak Bay State Park to the popular backcountry sport and it maintains the existing landing zone for helicopter tours on Grewingk Glacier.    

“There’s a recommendation in there about perhaps allowing a commercial kind of competitive bid for one operator in the Sadie-Tutka unit for winter use,” Alvarez said.  

Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park opposes the idea of expanding the use of helicopters, fearing impacts on wildlife. Archibald also argues it would diminish the wilderness experience in both parks.

The draft plan also allows for the potential use jet skis in Kachemak Bay State Park. The draft does note that DNR has received support for both idea heli-skiing and jet skis during the development of the management plan.

Other contentious issues such as the use of fixed wing aircraft and Cook Inlet Aquaculture’s hatchery operations in the park would largely stay the same under the plan.

Comments on the plan can be emailed to Alvarez at monica.alvarez@alaska.gov or faxed to 907-269-8915 by 11:59 p.m. Friday.

Aaron Bolton has moved on to a new position in Montana; he is no longer KBBI News Director. KBBI is currently seeking a News Director, and Kathleen Gustafson is filling in for the time being.
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