Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance

07/30/2026

Thank you Bob Hallinen for a life well lived, and all the stories you told through your camera lens. The Iditarod Trail thanks you!
Photos by Bob Hallinen.

07/23/2026

Youth Employment in Parks (YEP), a program of Anchorage Park Foundation and Municipality of Anchorage, worked on trails all over the city this summer.

How many of them said working on the MIDDLE IDITAROD TRAIL in Girdwood was their favorite?!? Found out what they told the Anchorage Assembly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCwAwZ9hzKw&t=3811s

Anyone who gives the correct answer will be entered into a drawing - one lucky correct answer will win an Iditarod National Historic Trail patch, mailed to you!


PS - Here what the Mayor had to say about YEP, starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCwAwZ9hzKw&t=3500s

06/23/2026

🚨Urgent Advocacy Moment: Trails Town Hall Wednesday 6/24 at 8am Alaska time!🚨

Join the trails community for an urgent Trails Town Hall to learn what you can do to pass the Legacy Restoration Fund extension!

What to expect?

🥾Overview of the proposed legislation

🥾Up to the minute state of play

🥾How each of us can make an immediate impact.

Congress is quickly advancing an extension of the Legacy Restoration Fund which has provided over $9 billion in funding over the last five years to address the public lands maintenance backlog, including significant investments in trails.

Register here to get the link for the Town Hall: https://www.americantrails.org/training/trails-town-hall-passing-the-legacy-restoration-fund-extension

06/22/2026

🪧Advocacy opportunity: Virtual trails Town Hall this Wednesday at 8am Alaska time!🪧 (use the link to register)

Tell Congress you support re-authorizing the Legacy Restoration Fund, money for much-needed maintenance on America's public lands.

Join American Hiking Society, American Trails, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Back Country Horsemen of America, Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Public Lands Alliance, Partnership for the National Trails System, and other organizations leading this fight.

Congress is quickly advancing an extension of the Legacy Restoration Fund which has provided over $9 billion in funding over the last five years to address the public lands maintenance backlog, including significant investments in the Iditarod National Historic Trail. The trails community has been a leading voice in the initial creation of this fund and its extension.

The Town Hall will provide an overview of the proposed legislation, what's happening in D.C., and how YOU can make an immediate impact.

Over the next two weeks Congress will be moving at a breakneck pace to advance this bill with the goal of getting it to the President to sign into law by July 4.

The future of our trails and ensuring they receive the funding they need and deserve is on the line.

Register to attend the virtual Town Hall here: https://www.americantrails.org/training/trails-town-hall-passing-the-legacy-restoration-fund-extension

Connecting and transforming communities through the power of trails.

06/01/2026

Anchorage Museum recently hosted historian Bathsheba Demuth to speak about the economy of mushing and how it has shaped Arctic &subarctic culture… and how that’s changing today, as a result both of motorized travel eclipsing dog travel and the decline of once abundant salmon runs. She speaks about writing the biography of the Yukon River, as a living ecosystem-plus-culture.

The recorded lecture is now available online!

Register now for Are the Dogs Running Today? A Lecture by Historian Bathsheba Demuth on crowdcast, scheduled to go live on March 25, 2026, 01:20 PM AKDT.

05/29/2026

Seeking an Alaskan communications professional to support Iditarod Trail⬇️⬇️

Join us! Meaningful work promoting Alaska's trails, sharing history, and engaging trail users. ⛰️🧗‍♀️🐕‍🦺🛷 Flexible, contract-based work arrangement. 🚵⛷️🥾🎉

Check it out here:

05/20/2026

Congratulations to COAST-X for completing your snow machine expedition from Bethel to Utqiagvik! We're glad you were able to use the Iditarod Trail for part of your trip.

COAST-X 2026 A coastal traverse connecting communities, observations, and knowledge along Alaska’s Arctic shore In Spring 2026, COAST-X will travel by snowmachine along Alaska’s western and northern coasts, moving from community to community to document environmental change and share observation...

04/24/2026

**West Susitna Access Road**
DOT needs to hear from you. Historic trails or properties that will be impacted by road development may have been overlooked or omitted!!

DOT has opened a public review period for the West Susitna Access Road Project, deadline May 23, 2026. This review is for the Programmatic Agreement, the document which outlines how historic properties & resources will be dealt with during road construction.

The public is able to review and comment at https://publicinput.com/westsusitnapublicpa

For general information about the project: https://dot.alaska.gov/westsusitnaaccess/

04/20/2026

The President wants drastic cuts to public lands funding and staffing (again).

“By systematically cutting budgets and firing career staffers, it’s the administration paving the way for wholesale sell-off of these lands.”

Proposed for BLM:
76% cuts for the National Conservation Lands (Iditarod National Historic Trail falls here)
61% cuts for Recreation Management
100% cuts to Cultural Resources Management (this includes monitoring historical and archeological sites)
100% cuts to Wilderness Management

This is not “government bloat” that can be trimmed. Public lands budgets and staff have been flatlined or shrunk for years, and the consequences are felt.

This is a direct choice to willfully ignore the American public’s love of its wild places and desire for access to public lands -- for decades, the most and maybe only truly bipartisan issue where the great majority of Americans agree.

Want to help? TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS that funding for federal public lands agencies is important to you. In our three-part government system, Congress passes the budget. The administration provides its input, and so can you.

It has the most acres and the least funding per user of any of the Department of Interior agencies. So why is Secretary Doug Burgum aiming to gut its budget?