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Annual meeting The 2013 annual meeting of the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance will be held November 20 and 21, at the Millennium Hotel, 4800 Spenard Road, Anchorage Alaska. The 20th will be a workshop day for the Board and the 21 st will be the annual membership meeting. The annual meeting is the time for reports from Federal and State agencies and from organizations that have projects that affect the trail. It is also the time for the Board to set priorities and plan for the future. Election Four Board of Director seats are up for election this year; the nominating committee has proposed the following candidates: Seat E Cook inlet/Susitna: Judy Bittner Seat F Kuskokwim: Mike Tierney Seat G at large # 2: Dan Seavey Seat H at large #3: Debby Retherford Election ballots will be sent out on October 30. Membership renewal Membership renewal forms will be sent out shortly.
Chugach Forest Plan revision The second Chugach Forest Plan revision meeting this year was held in Seward on September 26. The first part of the meeting was a review of staff findings and public comments from preliminary assessment meetings earlier this year. Comments on the Iditarod Trail were: Findings generated by Forest Service staff: The Chugach National Forest has been developing a commemorative route of the Iditarod National Historic Trail (INHT) between Seward and Girdwood since 2004 to continue implementation of the INHT Comprehensive Plan. Input from the general public: Many…expressed interest in partnering to maintain or expand trails; highlighted value of Iditarod National Historic Trail and establishing a “corridor” for management.
The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance promotes public awareness of the Iditarod Trail and its gold rush and Alaska Native heritage by encouraging education programs and historical research, assisting in the protection, improvement, maintenance and marking of the trail, developing partnerships that foster stewardship commitments and support from land owners, local communities, organizations and others. The trail for all seasons Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance PO Box 2323, Seward AK 99664 IditarodHTA@gmail.com http://www.Iditarod100.org “The Iditarod National Historic Trail is nationally recognized and needs to be regarded as more valuable than other trails.” The second part of the meeting provided for public comments. Those involving the Iditarod Trail were: complete the Iditarod Trail from Seward to Girdwood and continue support of the Iditarod Trail in Every Classroom (iTREC!) program.
The fall workshop for the iTREC! teachers will be held in Seward on November 1-3. Youth and trails The Pacific Northwest Trail Association has started working with local school districts to take advantage of a Washington state regulation requiring high school seniors to do 40 hours of community service work as part of their graduation requirements Last year 35 high school seniors worked on projects on the Pacific Northwest Trail as part of that initiative. The Florida Trail Association has an “Adjudicated Youth” program that engages troubled young adults on the Florida National Scenic Trail. The program’s youth maintained 4.5 miles of wilderness trail in 104 hours of volunteer time. An additional “After School Youth Activities” group contributed 29 hours of volunteer service in trail maintenance.
The Florida Trail Association also developed a new partnership with Gator Wilderness Boys Camp for hiking and trial maintenance. New Seward District Ranger The new District Ranger for the Seward Ranger District of the Chugach National Forest is Tom Malecek. He started his career in the Tongass National Forest in 1979 in timber management. He then moved into district management. For the past nine years he was the District Ranger in the Rio Grande National Forest. While the Seward District is the smallest of the three in the Chugach, he says it offers a wide variety of challenges. The Kenai Peninsula is Alaska’s playground and a lot of game, fire, interagency and user management issues go along with that.
From the past… “Iditarod Pioneer” October 18, 1913 GYMNASIUM EQUIPMENT Now that the season of navigation has become a thing of the past and busy people are getting nicely settled for the winter months, the question of amusements for the chilly days is already beginning to manifest itself with the people of the Iditarod district. As is usually the case in such instances, the camps of the Arctic Brotherhood are foremost in such matters. Camp Iditarod No. 27 is already planning to give within a short time a sort of social harvesthome-come-all-ye function, which will have a tendency to put everybody on good terms with themselves and everybody else, and start the winter series of gaieties off right. Never in the history of the camp have the prospects looked better for a pleasant winter than does the Pioneer’s horoscope of coming events read at this time.
The public will be pleased to learn that Camp Iditarod No. 27, Arctic Brotherhood, will have a well-equipped gymnasium for the use of its members during the coming winter. The movement to have such an institution in addition to other Arctic Brotherhood acquisitions, with which all are familiar, was started last spring by the members of the sports committee. The equipment for the gymnasium is complete in every detail, consisting of one set parallel bars, one set traveling rings, one set Roman rings, one large vaulting horse, one horizontal bar, chest weights, dumbbells, Indian clubs, plenty of mats, boxing gloves, etc.
The Pioneer commends the enterprise of the local camp in making it possible to have an additional form of amusement to while away the long winter evenings, and no doubt the membership will be increased considerably by having something really worthwhile to put in an appearance for. Walking Hippocrates said, “Walking is man’s best medicine.” Camelo Flores Laura, who according to Bolivia’s public records, turned 123 in July, would agree. When asked to what does he own his longevity? Flores, who herds cattle and sheep, said, “I walk a lot, that’s all. I go out with the animals.”