The Alaska Department of Natural Resources commissioner John Boyle met with Haines Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer and Mayor Douglas Olerud on June 19 to discuss challenges facing state parks.

The Chilkat Valley is home to five state park facilities: Chilkat State Park, Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site, state campgrounds at Portage Cove and Mosquito Lake, and the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

In Southeast, four of 10 state park ranger positions are vacant. Preston Kroes, superintendent of state parks in Southeast, said that state parks continues to struggle with staffing issues, and cited a scarcity of applicants.

Currently, there are no paid staff maintaining Haines' state parks, but the state has brought on three volunteers. "The volunteers do routine maintenance, but don't do major projects," said Kroes.

Last year, the state revamped ranger hiring to prevent competition between regions. Regardless of location, all applicants submit the same form. Despite these efforts, "there just doesn't seem to be that many people to hire," said Kroes.

Park rangers and state troopers require the same training, Olerud said, but troopers are paid more.

"We can't really increase the pay. State positions have a wage assigned to them," said Kroes.

When asked if there were any changes to the state park budget, Kroes chuckled. "We always have budgetary challenges," he said. "But lately the challenge hasn't been the budget, it's just not having staff around to work."

The state parks budget is calculated based on services and commodities required to operate existing facilities, and the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation applies for grants to fund specific projects.

Boyle and borough officials also talked about bear safety around the popular bear-viewing site at Chilkoot River. Last year, DNR completed its road project along the Chilkoot River, which included adding a pedestrian walkway to alleviate crowding. Earlier this spring, DNR also added more signs about safe behavior around bears.

Tourism director Rebecca Hylton this week said one of her main concerns is management of the Chilkoot Corridor, a popular bear-viewing area. "The problem is there's not enough presence out there from the state. It can be quite dense and bear safety is an issue," she said.

Longtime tour operator Dan Egolf echoed Hylton's concerns, saying a bear monitor position at Chilkoot was last staffed in 2018. The position was created to manage human-bear encounters and was partially funded by the Alaska Chilkoot Bear Foundation.

The Haines Borough is drafting a schedule for another visit by Commissioner Boyle in late July, but no date has been confirmed.

"I see a lot of opportunities for us to work with the state," Olerud said.