Dear Reader,

In June 1998, I was appointed Chair of the Trails Committee by University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Chancellor Joan Wadlow, perhaps partly because I am a professor of resource planning. At this point, I am the only official member of the committee and as such, I wrote the plan. But, thanks to the web and email, there has been a de facto "committee" of several dozen people whose ideas made the building blocks of this plan.

For me, a good plan evokes the spirit of the place. However elusive, that is the key ingredient. Though intangible, that is where 95 percent of the work lies. It is the difference between a plan that will live and change and grow, and a bureaucratic dust collector. "Apprentice yourself to the Place," they say in my favorite planning books. Learn from it. Spend time there until you can articulate its unique character. And listen to its people, especially those who have tread there the longest.

By my definition, planning is the process of bringing dreams to life. In this case, they are not my dreams, but yours--the users of the trails and north campus lands. My role is simply to hear what you have to say, strike a balance between the differing opinions, then put it on paper and return it to you for your reactions.

Although I tried to take the long view, this plan is not intended to be the final word for the next 80 years; it is simply aiming in that direction. I would imagine that the life of a plan like this would be at most 10 years before it is time to revisit the issues and see if we are still on track.

You must judge any bias I might have, for I am not new to these trails. My first experience on them was in 1975 when I was living in the lovely little cabin Ivar Skarland built in the middle of the web of trails he helped create. One couldn't have hoped for a more magical first winter in Alaska.

Working for the Institute of Northern Forestry that year, I helped Austin Helmers pull two weather stations out of the tree plantation at the top of the T-field. I remember touching the soft tops of the little trees that were waist high in 1975--now they top thirty feet. The stations were very heavy, but Austin was a trail lover and a purist: we would have to pull them out on sleds rather than use snowmachines. I admired his willingness to go the extra mile to protect a trail. I skied a great deal the first few years I was here, but I am not entrenched in the "skiing camp." I know people in all the "camps": runners, walkers, mushers, skijorers, bikers, and horseback riders. (Motorized use, by the way, was disallowed by the General Counsel of the University and was not an option in this plan.)

This plan has had the greatest amount of public involvement I have seen in 24 years of working on plans and it breaks new ground in the use of email and web sites in a planning process. Three public meetings, a web survey with 242 respondents, a review of the Rough Draft of the plan by the UAF Master Planning Committee, regular notices to and feedback from an email list of 268 people, and finally the intense discussions of the stakeholders on the UAF Trails Listserv were used in compiling this plan.

Ideally, all the users would be delighted with the outcome, but that is not realistic. My goal in this effort was to try to meet everyone's primary needs without requiring a major compromise by anyone. I may not have hit the target, but that was the objective.

Many thanks to the people who took part in this planning process. Your creative ideas and collective wisdom were invaluable. Many of you I've never met, but through the long and bumpy course of putting this plan together we got to know each other.

Special thanks also go to Stan Justice, Don Pendergrast, John Estle, Les and Teri Viereck, Ginny Woods, Celia Hunter, Jane Parrish, Bert Boyer, Dave Murray, Dave Klein, Fred Dean, Tony Gasbarro, Robert Knight, Bob Burgess, Bill Schneider, Paul Atkinson, LJ Evans, Nat Goodhue, Allen Doyle, Dave Musgrave, Bob White, Pat Holloway, Darleen Masiak, Dana Moudry, Ed Foster, Philip Martin, Sue Keller, Sue Hills, Todd Burnside, Sven Grage, Tim Stallard, Mary Shields, Christi Rowinski, Fred Pratt, and Alice Mural, and my apologies to anyone I neglected to mention!

Respectfully yours,
Susan Todd, UAF
May 25, 2000

A web survey on trail use at UAF was conducted during two seperate periods in 1999. The survey was open for 3 weeks in May and June during which 54 surveys were submitted. The survey was closed at that point to wait until students and faculty returned in the fall. In October, 1999 the survey was reopened and advertised extensively through flyers and an announcement in the Outdoor section of the Daily News Miner. Three $10 gift certificates to Beaver Sports were offered as prizes for submitting a survey. During the period of one week, 183 surveys were added to the original despite the fact that unexpected remodeling activities resulted in the server being down for most of four of the seven days.

To advertise the survey, flyers with tear-off tabs bearing the web address were placed in every building on campus, at each of the three main trail heads, at Safeway and Fred Meyers, the animal feed stores (where horse and dog owners might see them), the snowmachine outlets, the Fairbanks Visitor Center, Birch Hill Recreation Area, the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, and at Creamer's Field. The gift certificate winners were Michael Whalen, Carl Hemming, and a person who hasn't picked their certificate up yet (I drew again and let the new winner know by email I'll announce their name as soon as I hear from them). Many thanks to Beaver Sports for providing them!

This data will be used in putting together a draft Trails Plan that will be presented to the UAF Master Planning Committee on March 16. I have summarized the results as quickly as I could, so if you see a mistake etc, please let me know and I will fix it. I'm doing my best and this is a one-woman show, so don't be too fussy!! ;-)

Susan Todd
Chair, UAF Trails Committee