Anchorage Daily News

Washington -- A group of Anchorage-based outdoors enthusiasts has been toiling for years to realize its vision: a string of public-use huts linked by hiking trails.

By May of this year, the Alaska Mountain and Wilderness Huts Association had raised $6,000 in donations, won a seed-money grant and burned up a lot of volunteer shoe leather.

That's when an aide in the Washington office of Sen. Ted Stevens read a story about the effort in the Daily News' Outdoors section. It struck her as a good idea. Without contacting the group, she suggested Stevens add the project to a federal spending bill.

And so, tucked into a $19 billion bill the Senate Appropriations Committee passed Thursday, is $500,000 for a backcountry hut network at Snow River, north of Seward, the area the group has identified as its best prospect.

"That's crazy!" said Gar Carothers, a vice president of the hut group, when told about the bill Friday.

Members have put in countless hours building their base of supporters, scouting locations and drafting their proposal, he said. Some of their efforts met dead ends. They had no clue that anyone in Washington was on their side.

"There's, like, tears in my eyes," said Carothers, an environmental engineer. "If something like this actually comes through, it would give us a real opportunity to make this happen."

The project is just one of dozens of Alaska spending items Stevens added to the Interior Appropriations bill. His additions total $115 million, an aide said.

"We don't have as many big-ticket items" compared with in past years, Stevens said. "We have a lot of little items."

The bill must still go before the full Senate and then get reconciled with its House counterpart. But Stevens, the top Republican on the appropriations panel, usually gets what he wants.

The bigger items added to the bill at his request include $11 million to build an Indian Health Service clinic and housing on St. Paul, $6 million to prevent wildfires in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and $4 million for Alaska's telemedicine program.

As with last year's bill, this one also includes $15 million for alcohol control.

On one item, $575,000 for seabird bycatch reduction, Stevens was more involved than usual, his staff said. Some time ago, a Fish and Wildlife Service official told Stevens a great number of seabirds are killed when they dive for the baited hooks that longline fishermen put out. He suggested reducing the deaths with something similar to what's known as a TED: turtle excluder devices used in other fisheries. He even drew a quick diagram, his staffers said.

The money will pay for the deployment of these devices, which employ streamers to frighten the birds, and for a campaign to teach fishermen about their use. Stevens' aides said they don't know whether the final product resembles the senator's sketch.

Other items Stevens added:

$2 million to develop steel technologies for an Alaska natural gas pipeline and to reduce environmental impacts.

$1 million to study coal-bed methane and other coal technologies in Alaska.

$1 million for North Slope eider duck recovery, with most of money going to the Alaska SeaLife Center for research.

$2 million to the Kake Tribal Council for a land transfer.

$5.5 million for subsistence management.

$3 million to build a Kodiak Refuge visitor center and office.

$5 million for volcano monitoring.

$1 million for foam-containing devices that can be dragged behind four-wheelers or snowmachines to fight fires in rural Alaska.

$194,000 for cabin construction in the Kenai and Tetlin national wildlife refuges.

The hut promoters say their vision differs from regular public-use cabins. With a dozen or so bunks, they would accommodate several parties at a time and foster camaraderie. A hut keeper, perhaps a volunteer, would staff the building during peak season and help with educational programs.

Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at 202-383-0007 or lruskin@adn.com.