The Kenai Peninsula/Prince William Sound region is seeking applications for vacancies on the citizen advisory boards for the Kenai River Special Management Area and Kachemak Bay State Park.
Jack Blackwell, Superintendent for the Kenai Area Office spoke to KSRM, “Alaska State Parks is accepting applications for positions on two citizen’s advisory boards. Both the Kenai River Special Management area and the Kachemak Bay State Park citizen’s advisory boards will have three positions that will be open later this year in June. These boards are really important. They’re citizen’s advisory boards that provide the state park system, state park managers with public input about park management and the advisory boards meet once a month between September and May and interact with the state park managers and discuss issues and concerns that people may have and come up with recommendations and solutions and share them with the state park system. Applications are due March 31st and you can find those at the state park website, which, the easiest way to find the applications, if you go to alaskastateparks.org. You can find more information under latest news.”
Citizen advisory boards in each region provide state park managers with recommendations on management issues affecting their parks. The new board members selected for these CABs will serve from July 2021 to June 2024. The boards typically meet once a month from September to May.
Blackwell explains the qualifications for those interested in applying, “We’re looking for folks that are familiar and understand the issues. Ideally, if you have a good understanding of some of the issues that are affecting the state park system, that’s helpful, but certainly not mandatory. We’re looking for folks that are open to thinking creatively and trying to address management problems and come up with viable solutions and ideas. Really, being able to work with other members of the public and listen to concerns and come up with recommendations, those are all good skills that we are looking for.”
For more information on the Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory board, see: http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/krsma/krsmaindex.htm. For more information on Kachemak Bay State Park citizen advisory board, see: http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/misc/kbayadvisoryboard.html
To apply for a position on either citizen’s advisory board, fill out the Alaska State Park Advisory Board Application at http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/misc/advisboardapp.pdf. Applications will be accepted through March 31.
