The Long Trail is a rare bipartisan initiative beloved by both environmentalists searching for sustainable recreation and conservatives hoping for tourist money. Yet it still faces the major foes of all modern ideas: red tape and funding.
A bipartisan collection of politicians and outdoor enthusiasts here is working to make the idea a reality through incremental trail development statewide. But whether the project comes to fruition could be decided by a battle against an obstacle greater than funding or politics: red tape.
The project is also supported by the nonpartisan, progressive Anchorage Assembly and outdoor-focused trail organizations around the state. Multiple community fundraising projects have raised money for planning and development. Yet an easement application for the trail project that the local government filed to the state in 2018 has barely moved. Officials with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining, Land and Water, which manages the area, said that before they can approve it, they must process a separate application for a hydroelectric project that would pass through roughly the same area. The application for that project was originally filed in 2006.
“To me, this is not a complicated issue. It’s an issue that doesn’t require a lot of money, or broad public support,” said Knowles, who now advocates for state trails. “You have to have the support of the chief executive of the state to make the departments move.” One such method could include cutting through Eklutna Village, said President Aaron Leggett, who is also the senior curator of Alaska history and Indigenous culture at the Anchorage Museum. But his community doesn’t want hikers disturbing their way of life, he said.
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