One mile of trail, years in the making

Plans to move the Raven's Roost trailhead to Sandy Beach Park are finally moving forward after more than a decade of bureaucratic haggling between the United States Forest Service and other government agencies.

The U.S. Forest service decided the trail needed to be moved because of its proximity to the expanding rock quarry. When blasting occurs at the pit, falling rocks have broken holes in trail planks or punched through nearby muskeg.

"In the late 90s we realized we needed to move this thing and we've been trying since then," said Brad Hunter, U.S. Forest Service Recreation & Wilderness Staff Officer. "It goes through multiple land ownerships and so it was a lengthy process."

The first 800 feet of the planned trail, which begins at the Sandy Beach Parking area, is on land owned by the Petersburg Borough.

It then crosses into Mental Health Trust land-land owned by a state corporation that generates revenue for mental health through the sale, lease and commercial and resource development of its land.

The proposed trail then hits a piece of Alaska Department of Transportation Land, crosses again into Mental Health property followed by a path through the Department of Natural Resources before it finally hits national forest land.

To begin official bidding for the project, the U.S. Forest Service had to acquire easements-getting a landowner to give away some of their land rights to someone else wanting to use a portion of that land.

Hunter said his agency had already acquired easements with the DNR, and getting them through the borough and ADOT wasn't too difficult. The game of easement ping pong was most dramatic between the U.S. Forest Service and Mental Health.

"It took a lot of going back and forth between our lawyers and their lawyers," Hunter said. "It was lengthy. It was cumbersome."

The Mental Health Trust received the easement application in 2009 and Senior Lands Manager Cindi Bettin said staff turnover was a big reason why the process took so long.

"Quite frankly the trust doesn't do that many trails overall because it doesn't meet our fiduciary responsibility," Bettin said. "We are the folks that are supposed to be making lots of money. Whenever you work government to government you have many terms and conditions that one party won't sign when the other part demands it. It is a cumbersome process."

The easement with the Mental Health Trust went through last August.

The U.S. Forest Service awarded the first half-mile of trail construction contract to local company Reid Brothers Construction for $152,850 through local resource advisory committee funding. The proposed trail meets Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

"It will be pretty easy going for wheelchairs or baby strollers or folks who are a little less able or even real small kids," Hunter said. "It's really going to be good for the community."

Hunter said that portion of the trail should be completed by June and will be closed to the public until then.

The second half of the trail will likely begin next year. The current Raven trail is still open to the public and after the first mile is complete, staff will direct resources towards repairing the bulk of the hiking trail leading up to Raven's Roost Cabin.

"It's in terrible shape and a big part of that is because we have not been able to invest any money in it because we've been trying to get these easements," Hunter said. "It's restricted us from doing much heavy maintenance on the trail for quite a few years."

The U.S. Forest Service couldn't spend money on the trail until all the easements were obtained.

"That's the forest service way," Hunter said.

Construction on the first half mile should begin next week.