Centennial Park Walking Trail and Campground has, since, reopened after having been closed since May 1 due to beetle kill hazard tree mitigation efforts. A resolution was recently adopted by the Soldotna City Council that would authorize the City Manager to issue an invitation for mitigation efforts on select city properties within close proximity to the city’s campgrounds. It was advised during the time of the closure that the general public avoid using the walking trail and campground.
Assistant Parks and Recreation Director for the City of Soldotna, Joel Todd tells KSRM that they just opened it up in time for the holiday weekend, but adds that there was more work than initially expected:
“Yeah, it’s been kind of up in the air. We signed a contract, and we added some additional trees so then we added some time to that contract window, but then the guy got done sooner than his window, so it’s been one of those where everyday we’re just checking in but yeah, we’re open for business. All the gates are open, the closed signs are taken down today. We’re good to go!”
Todd gives a larger scope of the work involved with the city’s mitigation efforts:
“We actually have five or six sites that we’re working on and we’re trying to remove just sort of the high danger trees so then the two campgrounds that we’re looking at just trees that if they did fall, would have hit a camper, motorhome or a tent. It’s not all of the trees, it was kind of real specific to campsites and I think we did about, give or take, about 1,000 trees in Centennial and 600 in Swiftwater that were removed by contractors.”
He provides an overview on the city’s future mitigation efforts:
“We’ve got the bid that went out a few weeks ago, the work that’s happening right now, there’s some work at Memorial Park. There’s a little bit of work at the dog park and some at Soldotna Creek Park, and they’re over there right now. Again, we’re not able to take every tree, we’re just kind of looking at high danger trees.”
A previous city council resolution proposed to mitigate the risk of wildfire originating or traversing municipal lands that would impact critical infrastructure, cause loss and damage to private homes, businesses, and community assets.