LEASK LAKES, LETS LOOK TO THE FUTURE
By Bill Rotecki

     On a sunny day go to Ward Lake and look at the joy on the kid's faces there. Now just take a moment and think how incredibly valuable places like that are to this community. What would Ketchikan be like without them? These places happened because people went out of their way to make them permanently available to residents of Ketchikan. Those of us involved in the Leask Users Coalition are trying to do just that with a part of Leask Lakes. We are trying to secure for the public a small portion of the Leask Lakes tract to be available for future fishing, recreation, hiking, wildlife viewing, hunting, camping, and other uses for the people who live here. The specific locations of greatest interest are: an area around the lakes; a corridor next to the stream running to the salt water; a corridor that could connect a hiking trail to the Naha; and a small area to provide for critical winter deer range for the most extreme of winters.
    We are working with the Alaska Mental Health Trust (AMHT) to ensure that the trust could meet their needs and we could get access to a small but important part of the tract. There are many options through fundraising, grants from charitable organizations, contributions, wetlands funds, wildlife funds, recreation funds, and other opportunities. This is not a pie in the sky plan, it is feasible and we feel confident about that because other communities far smaller than Ketchikan (think Gustavus for example) have succeeded at projects of even greater magnitude. We do not have a perfect plan, or a final plan, but we are working on it. If AMHT is willing to cooperate and this community wants to support this effort, I have no doubt we can achieve it. So far the community has shown wide spread support. Both the Borough Planning Commission and the Borough Assembly have passed resolutions supporting our work with AMHT. The Outdoor Recreation and Trails Coalition, Trout Unlimited, the resource committee of the Chamber of Commerce and others have written letters of support. The USFS, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service are all agreed on the high recreational and wildlife values of the parcel and where possible have assisted us in our research for the project.
Lets work together within this community and with AMHT to make this project a success. Future generations may not know how it got there, but they will be extremely grateful for our efforts when they find themselves canoeing across the lake or catching a fish in the creeks or hiking from Harriet Hunt through to Loring.

Bill Rotecki

Hm 247-8189
Wk 225-5078

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