Hooper Bay's pioneering plastic trail

According to The Associated Press (via The Seattle Times), the ATV trail to various subsistence resources near Hooper Bay had a nasty habit of turning into a mess during the spring thaw, eventually damaging parts of the environment people depend on, such as berry patches, bird nests and grasses for weaving. So residents came up with a modern solution and got tribal and federal help to bring it to bear on the problem: A series of recycled-plastic grids that would keep tires from chewing up the land. The effort started in 2007, with the trail lengthening a bit each year, and residents already notice a big difference. The solution discovered in Hooper Bay is already being employed in other villages with similar permafrost/wetland surroundings. Read much, much more, here.