Stories
Wilderness Trail Stewardship in Alaska
Stewardship projects often look a little different in designated wilderness areas. In the Petersburg Creek—Duncan Salt Chuck Wilderness Area on Kupreanof Island in Alaska, a Forest Service trail crew is working on a 2023-2025 maintence project for the Petersburg Lake Trail.
Because the trail is in a wilderness area, the crew must adhere to unique management practices and legal restrictions. For example, use of motorized and mechanized equipment, like chainsaws and powered wheelbarrows, is prohibited. Instead, work must be accomplished using hand tools such as cross-cut saws and axes. These regulations are in place to protect the integrity of the wilderness:
"...managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable[.]" - Wilderness Act, P.L. 88-577, 16 U.S.C. §§1131 et seq
To learn more about The Petersburg Lake Trail Project, check out the story map.