As of last week, just one Wrangell business had obtained the required state permit to provide commercial tours at Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site.
The largest cruise ship of the summer is scheduled to tie up in town on Thursday, May 16, bringing as many as 2,000 visitors to Wrangell. The ancient stone carvings at the beach are among the community’s most popular visitor attractions.
“We’re hoping we can work with everyone to get them into compliance,” Preston Kroes, the Southeast Alaska superintendent for state parks, said May 10.
The parks division believes there are as many as half-a-dozen Wrangell businesses that provide guided tours of the beach site, about a mile north of the City Dock where cruise ships tie up.
State law sets out fines for operating commercial tours in a state park without a permit. In addition to obtaining a permit, operators are required to pay a fee of $6 per guided visitor.
The law has required the permit and fee since Petroglyph Beach was designated a state historic site in 2000, but the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation had not realized it was missing collections at the Wrangell site until last year. The division waived the requirement until this summer to give businesses time to get their permits and build the $6 fee into their rates, passing on the cost to customers.
Kroes explained that having a visitor count at Petroglyph Beach would help the division in any request for legislative funding for maintenance or improvements at the site.
“We will stand a better chance at getting future funding to help make improvements. Right now, we have a park that gets no documented use or visitation, making it hard to justify funding approval,” he said. “It’s only going to help if the local businesses come on board.”
The division collects about $5 million a year in fees statewide from commercial operations, cabin rentals, campsites and parking fees. The money goes toward projects across the state, subject to annual legislative spending decisions.
The parks division sent notices last winter to all Wrangell tour operators it could find online, reminding them of the requirement to get a license and collect the fee.
The one-time application fee is $100 and the annual license fee is $350, in addition to the $6 fee per customer.
“It’s unfair if some abide and others don’t,” Kroes said.
In addition to the one Wrangell business that had registered as of a week ago, Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic, which operates the 62-passenger Sea Lion and Sea Bird cruise vessels, has gotten its state permit for Petroglyph Beach tours. The ships are scheduled to make a combined 17 visits to Wrangell this summer.
The borough and state have a management agreement dating back to 1988, which says the borough will handle trash pickup and light maintenance at the six-acre site, with the state taking on major improvements.
The borough is talking with the state about a new agreement, Kate Thomas, Wrangell’s economic development director, said May 9. “We need a plan,” she said, for “immediate and targeted improvements” at the site, such as repairs or rebuilding of the viewing platform and parking.
“These folks deserve improvements to this site,” Thomas said of commercial tour operators required to pay a fee, adding that a new work plan with the state would “go a long way” to increasing compliance with the permit requirement.
Permits are available on the state Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation website at dnr.alaska.gov/parks/permit/. For more information, email parkpermitting@alaska.gov.
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