SCORP 2022-27 Update

Alaska Trails is assisting AK State Parks and NPS RTCA in the current 2022-27 update of the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) through facilitating the formation of regional working groups whose purpose it is to establish sets of regional priorities, projects, and recommendations for the SCORP. The SCORP is updated every five years and serves as a guide for all public outdoor recreation in urban and rural neighborhoods, cities, and regions for a given state. This plan attempts to bring together the wants and needs of the recreation users and providers into a single comprehensive document.

The SCORP update is also an eligibility requirement for funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF provides matching grants to states and local governments for the acquisition and development of public outdoor recreation areas and facilities.

While the past SCORPs did not focus on concrete planning or project prioritizing, this current SCORP update led by the NPS River, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program and overseen by the AK DNR Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, with assistance from the Alaska Trails Initiative, provides the long overdue opportunity for a legitimate, comprehensive, project-focused, locally driven process for guiding investments and strategies for outdoor recreation. This includes addressing needs for infrastructure like parks and trails, for open space acquisition, but also for broader strategies for funding, marketing and partnership building. To reach these outcomes, RTCA and the Division of Parks are establishing a statewide group of SCORP Advisors - Statewide Advisory Group (SWAG) and a set of regional working groups.

The first meeting of the Statewide Advisory Group (SWAG) took place on April 5th, 2021. The results of these discussions will feed into the work of regional groups, and vice versa, the outcomes from the regional group meetings will be shared with the SWAG. This is an iterative agile process which aims to result in a robust statewide-significant locally-driven tool for outdoor recreation planning and advocacy.

Statewide Advisory Group (SWAG)

5th SWAG meeting took place on September 20th 2021, where all SWAG committees and regional groups' facilitators shared their progress on writing up the SCORP chapters.

Regional Working Groups

The first meeting of the SCORP regional working groups took place on April 15th, 2021 at the annual Trails Conference, with 7 statewide regional groups collaborating via Zoom breakout rooms.

There will be 3-4 more regional Zoom meetings throughout 2021, they will focus on identifying regional goals and strategies for outdoor recreation, as well as coming up with a few exemplary regionally-significant shovel-ready projects. If you would like to be part of a regional working group in your area, please reach out to us at mariyam.medovaya@alaska-trails.org

Working Group Facilitators
Seward/Girdwood/Kenai: Jessica Szelag – KMTA National Heritage Area
Anchorage: Chris Beck – AK Trails
Mat Su/Copper River: Wes Hoskins – Mat Su Trails & Park Foundation
Denali: Clay Walker – Denali Borough
Interior/Fairbanks: Bryant Wright – Fairbanks North Star Borough

Prince William Sound: Jake Borst - PWSEDD
Southeast – north: Michele Elfers – City & Borough of Juneau, Parks
Southeast – south: Kate Thomas – City of Wrangell, Parks
Rural Alaska: Morgan Urquia – Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance, NPS

More Information

Letter to Working Groups from Ricky Gease, AK State Parks Director, DNR DPOR

Regional Working Groups - preliminary work scope

Statewide Advisory Group members, March 2021

SCORP presentation, February 2021

Alaskans have a unique opportunity to influence the development and implementation of the recreation plan to better our communities and economy.

Thank you for joining this effort.