Commercial tour operators who take customers to the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site this summer need to get a state permit and pay a fee.
In addition to buying an annual permit in advance, commercial operators are required to pay the state $6 per person for guided tours or $2 per person if they simply drop off customers at the site for an unguided tour.
Operators can total up their paying customers and send in their payment after the visitor season is over, as long as they make the Dec. 31 deadline, said Preston Kroes, Southeast Region superintendent for Alaska State Parks.
Though the permit requirement has been in state law since the 1980s and has applied to the Wrangell attraction since it was designated a state historic site in 2000, Wrangell operators were never notified of the fee and it was not enforced. Late last summer, state officials realized that no one was getting a permit or paying the fee; they decided to wait until 2024 to enforce the requirement.
Permits are available on the state Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation website at dnr.alaska.gov/parks/permit/, which includes a tutorial video to assist applicants in the process.
There is a one-time application fee of $100 and an annual permit cost of $350.
“Anyone conducting commercial activities within a unit of the state park system must obtain, in advance, a permit issued by the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation,” according to the division’s website. “Examples of commercial activities include guided activities.”
The state owns the six-acre waterfront parcel on the northwest end of Wrangell Island, about a mile north of the ferry terminal. A 1998 land-use agreement with the borough says the state is responsible for major repairs while the borough will take care of trash pickup and light maintenance.
The Division of Parks collected close to $5 million last year statewide for personal use of cabins, campsites and parking, and payments from commercial operators. The money is not dedicated to expenses at each park site, but goes into the division’s budget for spending across the state.
“Parks money stays in parks,” Kroes explained last year.
Officials realized last summer that no one was getting permits for petroglyph tours after someone complained about increasing visitor traffic at the site amid concerns that it could lead to beach erosion and damage the ancient carvings.
Borough officials also were unaware of the permit requirement until the complaint prompted state and borough officials to confer.
Petroglyph Beach probably is the only state historic site where no one noticed the lack of enforcement of the permit requirement, Kroes said.
The fee applies only to commercial operations.
The petroglyphs, City Museum and Chief Shakes House are Wrangell’s major land-based visitor attractions. Petroglyph Beach has the highest concentration of petroglyphs in Southeast, estimated at thousands of years old.
The beach is easily accessible from Evergreen Avenue, though a growing number of visitors are arriving aboard small boats run by tour operators, coming ashore and walking up the beach. The site includes a viewing platform and interpretive signs overlooking the beach, and steps leading down to the beach.
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