State parks in Mat-Su ready for summer with a little help from their friends

What you need to know:

• With only three seasonal staff members for the vast Mat-Su region, Alaska State Parks officials are relying on small businesses and volunteers to help welcome locals and visitors to area parks.
• Partnerships have led to improvements such as the Curry to K’esugi Ridge Connector Trail, an upcoming beach restoration at Big Lake South and repairs to the Gold Mint Trail boardwalk. Volunteer campground hosts, donors and volunteers also play a key role in park upkeep and visitor support.
• Individuals interested in volunteering can contact Alaska State Parks or a variety of state and local nonprofit organizations.

As the summer outdoor recreation season gets underway, Alaska State Parks officials in the Mat-Su region are turning to small businesses and volunteers for help welcoming locals and visitors.

The state’s Mat-Su and Copper River Basin region is home to 24 parks, stretching from Denali State Park in the northwestern part of the Mat-Su well beyond the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s border south of Glennallen.

Region officials said they have three seasonal staff members handling groundskeeping and landscaping in the Mat-Su area this year.

With a vast region to cover and limited staff due to state funding constraints, park officials said they rely on Mat-Su area contractors and volunteers for tasks such as trail cleanup, tree cutting and latrine cleaning.

“We try to make sure we have everything in place for those small businesses to succeed. They’re super important to our continued success,” said Stuart Leidner, state parks superintendent for the Mat-Su/Copper River region. “It’s exciting when we’re rolling up to summer because it’s our busy time.”

Last year, one such partnership led to the creation of the Curry to K’esugi Ridge Connector Trail in Denali State Park. This year, department officials will monitor the new trail’s popularity with an eye toward eventually building backcountry campsites and latrines along it, Leidner said.

At the Big Lake South Recreation Site, a private donor recently offered to rejuvenate the beach with truckloads of sand, said Jodi Swanson, a Mat-Su Region state parks official who helps organize volunteers.

The delivery should take place in the next few weeks, and park officials will add new buoys to mark a swimming area free of boat traffic, she said.

The state park system also relies on volunteer hosts to oversee the region’s most popular campgrounds. Hosts are paid a small monthly stipend and perform tasks such as cleaning campground latrines, picking up trash and assisting visitors, officials said.

Those hosts are “a huge blessing,” Swanson said. “I’m so grateful. Without them, it would be a lot more difficult.”

Locals interested in helping at a state park can do so through clubs and organizations, Swanson said. State park officials are also still looking to fill several campground host positions in the region.

“There’s a group for everything. Those groups come to me, and then we can work together … they can organize all their volunteers and come up with their project,” she said.

Alaska Trails, a nonprofit organization that operates statewide, sends trail crews out each year to perform trail clearance, brushing and debris cleanup. This summer, the organization plans to clear downed trees left over from windstorms or rotted by spruce beetles, said Alaska Trails Executive Director Haley Johnston.

The group also plans to assist with the reconstruction of a wooden pedestrian walkway on the popular Gold Mint Trail in Hatcher Pass, where the current boards have rotted over the years due to wet and muddy conditions, she said.

That reconstruction will be done by volunteers. Individuals interested in helping with the organization’s projects can sign up on the Alaska Trails website.

-- Contact Mat-Su Sentinel at contact@matsusentinel.com