This map shows possible routes for future trails in the City and Borough of Wrangell. Parks department officials have been working toward developing a long-term plan with help from the National Park Service. The trails haven’t been designed or submitted to the public for review, and the routes shown in the graphic above are tentative.
A long-term plan for trails in and around Wrangell is taking shape with a little help from the National Park Service.
The Borough Planning and Zoning Commission heard testimony from economic development officer Carol Rushmore earlier in the month that a network of trails joining the Volunteer Park Trail to the Dewey Mountain Trail has been under consideration recently. Parks and Recreation Director Amber Al-Haddad was careful to stress that no plans have been finalized, and hikers may have to wait quite a while before hitting the trails across the muskeg.
“These are really ‘trails of desire,’” she said.
She was referring to a trail near the Volunteer Park trail behind a trailer park on the south end of town – the term is used to refer to paths created more out of pedestrian habit than any elaborate plan — but might as well have been referring to the whole system. In some cases, the proposed paths cross private property, and rights of way would have to be first recommended by Planning and Zoning and then approved by the borough assembly.
This April, representatives from the park service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program met with Wrangell officials to develop a document called a trail management objective.
The document could help officials from the parks department apply for standardized grants in the future, after the public has weighed in on the process, Al-Haddad said.
“I think it’s important to identify where those trails could go,” she said. “It could change. Who’s to say the public might not have a better idea on what our priorities should be as far as trails and how they should be routed?”
Once the trail management objective and public feedback is completed, the next step would be to obtain grants to fund conceptual planning and design of the trails, Al-Haddad said.
In general, the trails are designed to connect high-density population centers with prominent places in town. One series of trails in a graphic provided to the commission connects all of the schools together. Another links the golf course with the nature trail at Volunteer Park.
“It does move people from high concentrations to other areas,” Al-Haddad added.
So while the path over the river and through the woods might not be here next week, the work being done now could affect the future, Rushmore said.
“We got some good base groundwork done,” she said. “We do need to find some funds to design the trails.”
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