After more than a decade after a decade, after nearly a decade, the U.S. Forest Service has approved its plan for a complete overhaul of the Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area.
The project has prompted hundreds, perhaps thousands of responses from the Juneau community over time.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I would like to have a plan that is well-managed and listens to the concerns of residents,” said Alexandra Pierce who is the tourism manager for the city. “People wanted to avoid motorized boaters in the lake or the addition of visitor center facilities. it’s good to see that the Forest Service listens to the people on this and that’s a good thing. aspect. .”
The finalized plan will include the creation of a new welcome center as well as enhancements to the existing one. The plan also expands the amount of parking available, increases trail systems and includes an amphitheater, as well as new cabins for public use.
The glacier is among the most visited tourist destinations in Alaska. Forest Service officials say the improvements will help ease the strain of Juneau’s explosive increase in cruise ship travel in recent years.
In the time that the center for visitors was first constructed during the 60s the area was home to approximately 23,000 visitors per year. In the present, 700,000 people are visiting the glacier each year. According to the Forest Service estimates that by 2050, the amount could reach nearly one million.
As increasing numbers of visitors have been flocking to the glacier, it appears that the glacier is moving further away, a trend which is accelerating because of the climate change. Scientists of University of Alaska Southeast University of Alaska Southeast estimate that between 2007 and 2021 the glacier receding has been the equivalent to 8 football pitches.
In a few years in the future, it won’t have any view from the present visitor center. When as the Forest Service plan took shape there were suggestions on how to deal with which included constructing the new visitor center closer to the glacier’s crest or permitting motorized boats to use Mendenhall Lake to get people closer. None of them made it into the final version of the plan.
Pierce explained that taking into consideration the concerns of residents about the overcrowding, while also knowing that the tourism industry will continue to grow making managing the area an ever-changing balance.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I believe that’s an extremely difficult problem that the Forest Service to try to solve,” she said. “I believe we’re all concerned about the retreating glacier and the impact it has on the quality of life for visitors to our communities.”
As per Tongass National Forest Supervisor Frank Sherman who was in charge, instead of making radical changes to bring more people near the glacier and the glacier, the USFS decided to focus on the more pressing issues like bathrooms, overcrowding, and the old visitor center.
