UAF Skarland Trail System Management Plan

When we walk,
we naturally go to the fields and woods:
what would become of us,
if we walked only in a garden
or a mall?

--Henry David Thoreau

Just for a moment, imagine the year is 2080. You are in a hot air balloon floating over campus. You look down at the UAF trail system and are absolutely delighted with what you see.

What is it about the trail system that you like so much?

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

University of Alaska Fairbanks
Tanana Valley Campus
PO Box 8040-UAF

Phone: +1 907 474 7920
Fax:    +1 907 474 6725
fndlm5@uaf.edu