The Juneau Assembly has approved spending up to $200,000 to hire support staff for Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area after federal firings left few U.S. Forest Service staff on duty.
The heavily trafficked attraction saw about a million visitors last year and has a higher volume of tourists — and bears — on the horizon.
The funding would go to organizations that already operate at the glacier so they can hire more staff. Those include education nonprofit Discovery Southeast and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which has a co-stewardship agreement with the Forest Service.
Shawn Eisele directs Discovery Southeast, which brings nature and science education programs to Juneau schools and camps. He said setting the funding aside is a common sense move.
“I think it gives us a lot more tools,” Eisele said. “I see Discovery Southeast and Tlingit and Haida both being in a position where we can bring on some folks that can ensure some of the basic stuff that people expect to see out there, particularly related to safety.”
The worker shortage is a result of national policy changes. In February, the Trump administration cut thousands of workers in the U.S. Forest Service, including most of the staff at Mendenhall Glacier. Some were rehired after courts challenged the firings, but some have taken a resignation option since.
The Forest Service has not responded to multiple inquiries about how many original glacier staff took the resignation option, and how many remain.
The agency released a plan in April that reduced the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center’s hours and said a handful of Forest Service employees from other offices and departments would staff the recreation area.
Now it is staffed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day but Saturday. When six ships docked in Juneau last Saturday, there were at least two Forest Service staff present at the glacier, but the agency doesn’t guarantee that will continue.
Góos’k’ Ralph Wolfe directs Tlingit and Haida’s cultural ambassadors program. Cultural ambassadors are tribal members who staff the recreation area to teach visitors about Indigenous history, language and culture.
Wolfe said between the reassigned Forest Service staff, Discovery Southeast employees and the six cultural ambassadors, things at the glacier haven’t been out of control, yet. But he’s expecting more people — and other challenges.
“We have been able to cover the basic necessities that are out there right now,” he said. “However, there is still, like, the anticipation of higher bear activity once the summer really starts going and more people.”
Wolfe said the tribe is already working to boost the number of ambassadors at the glacier.
He said more staff would help ensure safety of people using the area. The first bear sighting was two weeks ago, Wolfe said, and it took half of the staff at the glacier that day to direct tourism traffic away from the bear and give it room to get away from the trail.
“My essential concern is, I need somebody out there for bear and trail control, and I don’t think we’re seeing either of those happen too much right now,” he said.
The ordinance passed 6 to 3. Assembly member Ella Adkison voted against the ordinance and expressed concerns about all of the areas of the Juneau community that may need support as federal funding cuts continue.
“There will be a lot of worthy causes I think that will come up short on funding,” she said. “And this Assembly will not be able to support them.”
The Assembly is also considering budgeting extra money for Juneau’s public libraries to make up for lost federal grants.
The money intended for staffing the glacier comes from marine passenger fees. There are no plans to hire just yet. City Manager Katie Koester will decide if more staff is needed if either organization says safety issues are arising at the glacier.