Readers write: Letters to the editor, September 7, 2017

America is stronger because
of its DACA recipients
DACAmented people are our students, teachers, first responders, neighbors and friends. They have grown up with us and now, just like us, they want to remain and contribute to the country and state they call home. Yet, the federal administration has decided to toy with the lives of 138 Alaskans and 800,000 U.S. community members in a great political stunt. "Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA," Trump tweeted as outrage to his decision to rescind DACA unfurled. Does Trump not realize that DACA was originally instated because Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform for three decades? Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan and Rep. Young (https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/09/05/uncertainty-looms-for-alaskas-few-daca-recipients/) have all pledged to work across the aisle to address our dated and broken immigration system. I, for one, plan to hold them accountable. We can't afford to lose any of those 138 Alaskans. Our state and nation are stronger because of these community members, not in spite of them.

— Sara Buckingham
Anchorage

Sinnott's right: New single-track trails are an awful idea

I wholeheartedly agree with Rick Sinnott's recent (Sept. 1) commentary about new single-track bike trails in Far North Bicentennial Park and applaud him for writing the piece and bringing greater — though apparently belated — attention to this issue.

I believe that municipal Planning Director Hal Hart's approval of the new trails is reckless and dangerous. It makes absolutely no sense to build any new trails within an area that's a known brown bear corridor; to allow single-track trails, whose advocates emphasize the thrill of riding fast and hard in "roller-coaster" fashion, is especially egregious. Have municipal planners already forgotten the maulings that occurred on trails near Campbell Creek several years ago?
To even propose the construction of trails that almost guarantee biker-bear conflicts — and then to allow those trails to be built — is irresponsible. It's also highly hypocritical of the municipality to be part of local "bear aware" educational efforts that seek to minimize human-bear conflicts, then give its approval to trails and an activity that will increase such conflicts and may very well lead to a mauling and serious injuries, perhaps even death.

Many of us Anchorage residents who care about wildlife — bears and moose included — have serious concerns about the continued expansion of single-track trails in municipal parks, particularly when those who build and use the trails then complain about increased encounters with large and potentially dangerous animals. Case in point is Kincaid Park, where the expansion of single-track trails has led to increased encounters of bikers with moose — followed by calls for a hunt to decrease moose numbers. As I've commented in the past, the continued construction of trails fragments wildlife habitat so that moose and bears and other animals have fewer and fewer places they can go to find refuge from people. There are already plenty of single-track trails in Anchorage; why build more trails that benefit a single recreational user group (admittedly a highly organized and politically connected one) and also promise to increase human-wildlife conflicts?

The brown bears that fish for salmon in Campbell Creek may adjust their behaviors in response to increased human use, but they're not going to stop using that corridor. And when you have people traveling at fast speeds, along narrow trails with little visibility — or warning for either bears or bikers — you're setting up a dangerous circumstance, while ignoring most of the best-practices guidelines for safe behavior in bear country.

Mayor Berkowitz, are you paying attention? Your supposedly progressive and enlightened administration is behaving in a very regressive, ignorant, foolhardy and dangerous way. Do you wish to be party to an action that may very well lead to serious injuries or death, against the advice of those who know the dangers best (including the local state wildlife manager and one of the country's top bear researchers, both at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, as well as the municipality's own Watershed and Natural Resources Advisory Commission)? I don't know if it's too late to put on the brakes, but someone needs to halt this single-track roller coaster before it does serious harm.

— Bill Sherwonit
Anchorage

The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.