News-Miner Opinion Piece Raises Important Questions about Skarland and Other Trails

Note: Stan Justice took issue with some of the things I wrote in this blog post. I have added corrections or commentary where appropriate.

Wendell Shiffler recently wrote a Community Perspective piece regarding work done by Fairbanks Trails, Inc., on the Skarland Ski Trail. He has concerns about how the work is done. He does not say he’s opposed to the work (though his writing strongly suggests he does not like it), but he asks that property owners be worked with closely.

Shiffler’s concerns bring up an important and complicated subject. When a trail has a public easement across private land, who has the authority to maintain the trail and how far can that person or group go? Does the property owner have to be consulted? Not necessarily.

While she was an assistant attorney for the Fairbanks North Star Borough government, Wendy Doxey wrote a two-part memo outlining several points about the legal rights and limits regarding trails in the borough. The memo was in response to several questions from the borough’s Trails Advisory Commission.

According to the memo, the Alaska Supreme Court in 2003 found (Price v. Eastham) that trail users “could maintain and mark the trail to accommodate the reasonable use and enjoyment of the easement.” Of course, “reasonable use” is not a clearly defined term with black-and-white limits. (Find the Price v. Eastham reference in the memo in Part 1, page 6, under “V. Maintenance.”)

According to the memo, the borough has management powers over trails with public easements in the Fairbanks borough (see Part II). However, to my knowledge the borough has rarely exerted that authority, at least in recent years, except on public borough lands. For a while an official “adopt-a-trail” volunteer program was pursued, but that was dropped years ago, and I haven’t heard anything about being revived.

For the most part, trail maintenance done by volunteers on trails with easements across private land in the borough has been without conflict. Typically, it’s limited to people cutting trees out of the trail or doing some brushing. Occasionally, some minimal dirt work is done to stop or avoid erosion. I think almost everyone — trail user and landowner — would consider that reasonable.

However, Fairbanks Trails, Inc. (a recent nonprofit formed mainly by Stan Justice) has pushed the limits on the Skarland Ski Trail by “bench cutting” the trail. The Skarland was put in long ago and was originally a ski trail in winter and rough footpath in summer. People “groomed” it simply by skiing on it. Eventually, someone started grooming it with a snowmachine, setting tracks for classic skiing. That continued for years, until Justice, who is one of the volunteer groomers for the trail, decided to bench cut the trail in 2016. As with many things, it wasn’t as straightforward as that. (Correction: The bench cut work started in 2015.)

The project also included aligning the trail with its easement. (The trail existed before the subdivision above Pearl Creek Elementary School. The subdivision gave an easement to the trail along back lot lines, and the easement roughly followed the trail but not exactly.) Justice was also trying to deal with two other issues. 1) More non-skiing trail users were wanting to use the trail, so the trail was widened slightly where possible to accommodate set tracks and a walking/fatbiking lane. 2) The bench cutting was also helping to fight trail “creep,” where a trail starts to “droop” downslope. (From Stan: “Fat bikes can’t/don’t stay on the walking trail side so I discourage them. Walking/Running is fine.” From Eric: There is no legal reason fatbikes can’t use the trail. But no matter how you are using ANY trail with ANY mode of travel, keep in mind your impact on others. Don’t ruin the trail experience for others.)

I think most people were fine with the outlines of Justice’s project, especially aligning the trail to the easement. He did outreach, trying to let people know what he was doing. However, he didn’t make it clear he was going to hire a trail building company to do work with a trail dozer. That caused an outcry. The dozer work was quickly stopped.

(Stan says he made it clear that the work would be done by a dozer and has provided me with a letter he says was distributed to “all adjacent residents to the 2015 dozer work.” The letter makes it clear a “4 foot wide trail dozer” will be doing the work. Nonetheless, there there was an outcry once the work started, though some people still supported the work. Also, Stan says the work with the dozer was completed in a half day. It was not stopped due to the outcry, which came after the work was done. From Stan: “The outrage came from muddy conditions and the cut material being spread downslope – thus the impact zone was 20+ feet wide.” Stan points out that muddy conditions are a part of trail building and that the trail tread firms up after a time. He also points out that hand benching allowed him to reduce the impact of the work ” to the width of the trail as the cut material is used as fill.”)

Stan eventually started work again but by hand. His work on the trail, until recently, has been limited and occasional. No more outcry, though that didn’t mean all the nearby residents or trail users were on board. Some people like the character of the old trail, roots and all. (From Stan: “Many people come by [while Stan and others are working] and ALL thank me for the work. If there are people that like a root infested trail I don’t meet them.”) 

Now Justice, retired and with more time on his hands, has started Fairbanks Trails, Inc. The work, still done by hand, has ramped up. And he has gotten attention from the local media, which was part of the reason for Shiffler’s Community Perspective. (From Stan: “The effort has not ramped up. I and others have been banging away at it for 4 years.”) 

The current borough Trails Coordinator, Andrea Jacobs, said she is aware of the situation but at this point is only encouraging people with issues about the work of Fairbanks Trails to address the Trails Advisory Commission.

“As with many things that people come to the trails coordinator about, a gray area exists here that I alone cannot push for action on,” Jacobs wrote in an email. “I can only follow the guidance of the Borough that exists in past records and code until someone of a higher authority tells me otherwise.”

I empathize with her situation. She is but one person in the borough Trails Office. And past borough administrations have avoided getting into trail conflicts outside of borough lands.

The recently passed Fairbanks Comprehensive Recreational Trails Plan does not commit the borough to taking over maintenance of trails like the Skarland, a category B trail outside of borough land. The plan states that the borough “intends to have primary management authority and responsibility” over such trails but it also states: “Borough resources, when available, may be allocated toward all phases of development and maintenance of these trails provided the Borough has rights to do so.” (page 43). Note the terms “when available” and “may.” These allow the borough to beg off taking an active role.

The borough Trails Coordinator and Trails Advisory Commission have been involved with Justice’s work on the Skarland Ski Trail in the past. (Stan worked with both Tom Hancock and Bryant Wright, past borough trails coordinators, on the Skarland work.) I think considering the uptick in work, it’s time for both to get involved again and make sure trail user and landowner interests are both being protected. At minimum, the borough needs to make sure both the property owners and Fairbanks Trails Inc. know their legal rights and restrictions and the situation should be monitored.

In her email, Jacobs did say “Coming to the TAC and giving public comment at Assembly meetings would be where my potential ability to take any action would originate.”

Unfortunately, the TAC now meets just four times a year (down from monthly in the past). The next meeting of the TAC is scheduled for Monday, October 28, at 6:00 p.m. at the borough building. I encourage anyone with strong feelings about work being done on the Skarland Ski Trail – whether you oppose it or support it — to attend the meeting or at least let TAC members know your concerns. This page has TAC information, including how to contact the current members.

Note: The author of this piece, Eric Troyer, is a friend of Stan Justice through their shared love of trails. They don’t always see eye-to-eye, but they are both strong advocates for trails.