Haines Highway Corridor Partnership Plan September 12, 2006 Chapter One Introduction The forty-mile Haines Highway runs from the community of Haines, Alaska to the Canadian-U.S. border at Pleasant Camp, British Columbia. This Alaska State Scenic Byway provides visitors the opportunity to see at any time a significant bald eagle population year round within the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. During the fall and winter months, travelers of the Haines Highway are treated to viewing the WORLD’s largest congregation of bald eagles in one location at over 3,500 eagles. The major eagle roosting sites are along the Haines Highway which traverses the Chilkat River Valley and is appropriately named ‘The Valley of the Eagles.’ In addition, this area offers visitors exceptional education, cultural and heritage experiences Our national symbol: A bald related to the Native Tlingit people, the Yukon Gold Rush, eagle perched within the Chilkat Eagle Preserve settlement history, and an exceptionally well-preserved early 20th century military fort. The Haines Highway also provides access to exceptional recreation including hunting and fishing found in the rich resources of the Chilkat River Valley, and the Lynn Canal fjord. All these resources and opportunities provide a perspective on the real Alaska. The main objectives of this corridor plan are the following: ° Complete the requirements for designation in the America’s Byways Program, a national effort to recognize America’s most authentic and special roads and associated communities, ° Encourage economic development in both the Borough of Haines and in the Village of Klukwan, ° Assist the Borough of Haines, Village of Klukwan, and the various interested individuals and property owners along the route, as they work to manage the increasing levels of tourism occurring along the 1 Highway, and ° Lay out a strategy for telling the story of this unique place so that visitors leave with a memorable, meaningful experience that will entice them to return in the future. 2 Chapter 2 Background on Byways What are Byways?1 A byway is a road that is more than just a strip of pavement connecting two places. Traveling along a byway provides an experience. Whether that experience is tremendous scenery or the opportunity to see and visit historic villages or to learn about the natural or cultural history of the place, a byway is more than a transportation route. Certainly, the road itself and the transportation that it allows is the core reason why the road exists. But whether it is historic or natural significance, a byway also conveys something about the personality of America through the experience of traveling that route. The America's Byway Program (formerly the National Scenic Byways Program) has been in existence since 1991. The Alaska State Byways Program was formed just a few years later, in an effort to participate in this new national endeavor. Today there are 125 roads in the United States that have been given the designation of national byway. Beyond that, there are several hundred more byways, located in all 50 states that have been given designation as state byways. In addition, some federal agencies identified roads under their jurisdiction as having exceptional qualities, and thus those agencies have designated roads as Bureau of Land Management Backways, Forest Service Byways or National Park Service Scenic Roads. There is nothing new about the concept of byways. Since the invention of the automobile, local and national groups have attempted to make travelers aware of routes that offered the best Schematic map of the Haines Highway scenery or the most interesting experiences. The most well- 1 Please note: This chapter was recently written by this plan’s consulting authors for the Sterling Highway, here in Alaska. This chapter struck such a responsive chord along the Sterling that it seemed foolish to not provide these same, clear explanations of key concepts for the Haines Highway plan. 3 known of these efforts would be the American Automobile Association's scenic route recommendations. As long as people have been driving cars, they have sought out routes that offered beautiful vistas, unusual attractions, and great destinations and experiences. It is a natural part of why scenic driving is one of the most popular recreational pursuits in America. In addition, there is a long history of towns and regions seeking to attract more visitors by making those visitors aware of the resources that lie along those routes, be they world class fishing, historic communities, or cultural experiences. What is new is that byways are part of a new trend in American thinking about highways and special places: How can local people initiate and control efforts to link economic development with the enhancement of special places, and how can state and federal government support those efforts without interfering or placing burdens on local people? The old model for these types of initiatives was that of the federal government becoming very involved directly with the ownership, management or regulation of a place. Thus, the federal government created National Parks and designated National Forests. State and local governments purchased land to create parks and created regulatory designations on historic districts, and used regulations to control the type of development that occurred within that area. This old model resulted in land being purchased or taken by eminent domain from private property owners, or it resulted in restrictions that prevented people from using their land in the ways that they wanted. The old model resulted in too many regulations and controls defined by governments located in state capitals or in Washington, DC. The old model put emphasis on the protection and management of resources that sometimes lay within private ownership. The old model had a preference for resource protection, rather than economic development. The national and state byways efforts are good examples of this new model for ‘special place recognition.’ This model uses a different set of tools and a different attitude. The new model does 4 not buy land; the new model does not place regulations on local property owners. The America's Byways Program and the National Heritage Area Program (another similar national effort) share many similarities as examples of these new special place recognition efforts. The National Heritage Area Program is an effort by locally- established groups that wish to link economic development with the enhancement of heritage resources. These groups can then work with the National Park Service as technical assistance providers, if the local groups so choose. The Byways Program is similar but has a broader scope beyond just heritage resources to include economic development of the highway and six intrinsic qualities: recreation, cultural, scenic, natural qualities, archeological, and historic, found along the route. Both the byways and heritage area programs are guided and driven by local groups. Before a byway can be considered for inclusion in the national program, there must be evidence that local groups of elected officials, citizens, business owners, and property owners are supporting and organizing the effort. In those cases, the appropriate Federal agency (Federal Highway Administration for byways) then will work in partnership with the local group to help them accomplish their goals. The Byways Program is about recognition of outstanding highways, the communities along it and the opportunities along the highway. There are no mandatory regulations associated with the Byways Program (with the exception that the program prohibits new billboards along national byways, but this is already a prohibition under Alaska law and is thus not an added burden along the Haines Highway). It is true that a small number of byways feel that additional locally-sponsored regulation is appropriate to help them address their particular needs. However, generally speaking, this is not the case, especially in Alaska. As with any locally controlled program, it will be the wishes and preferences of the people in that area as to whether regulations are considered. There are some parts of the country that are more 5 interested in local regulations, whereas other parts of the country have no interest in seeing additional regulations associated with the byways. In those cases, no regulations emerge as part of the Byway Program; this is typical of Alaska and the desires of its residents and is the case with this partnership plan for the Haines Highway. By far, the majority of byways are focused on integrating economic development with non-regulatory investments associated with the highway and community resources. These groups work to attract more visitors and find ways to use public funds to stimulate private investments in new businesses, make highway improvements, and enhance the resources along the highway such as improving recreation opportunities. These groups can also look at ways of dispersing peak visitor periods over longer periods of time and thus reduce congestion associated with short peak visitation periods. The Byways Program will commonly invest in interpretation (i.e., signs, interpretive kiosks, museums, or visitor centers, etc.) in order to better tell the story associated with their special place. There's an understanding that in order to draw visitors and to keep them entertained while they are visiting, there is a need to educate them and make them aware of the place’s special qualities along the highway and in the communities along the corridor. And so, what are byways? Byways are special transportation corridors that local people feel strongly about and want to shepherd into the future. Local people form groups to support that road and they then sometimes seek state or national designation in order to make more people aware of the road and to obtain state or federal funding to help them with the investments that they wish to make. Economic diversification is often the key reason why groups form byways.