The U.S. Forest Service is planning to build a few dozen new cabins in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in the coming years. The agency is proposing higher fees – $75 a night – to help keep up with the increased cost of maintenance.

Lifelong Petersburg resident Brian Richards and his wife stay at Forest Service cabins every summer. The 40-year-old said they reserve several cabins that they travel to by boat.

“It’s like a bucket list,” Richards said. “We want to use them all. I’d say we prefer cabins by lakes or rivers, you know, water, it just kind of adds another element.”

The couple sees their cabin stays as good for their mental health. Richards calls it “natural therapy” that helps them reconnect.

“The more we get out there and walk around and look at the trees and listen to the birds and just, you know, disconnect from civilization, I think it’s just incredibly beneficial,” he said.

Richards is excited to see more cabins coming to the area. The Forest Service plans two new cabins in the Tongass this year at El Capitan Interpretive Site and Mendenhall Campground, and four next year at Herbert Glacier in Juneau, Woodpecker Cove near Petersburg, Little Lake near Wrangell and Perseverance Lake near Ketchikan – they’re mostly on the road system for increased accessibility.

Similarly, there are six new cabins scheduled for the Chugach, with half built this year at Porcupine Campground in Hope, Meridian Lake near Seward and McKinley Lake near Cordova, and half next year at Granite Creek and Turnagain Pass. That means the Forest Service needs to set the nightly fees for the cabins soon. The agency is required to have fees set six months before they charge them.

“It can be tricky,” said John Suomala, the recreation program manager for the Tongass.

Suomala helps set the cabin fees. He uses a cost analysis that looks at several factors such as local economies and what similar cabins are going for.

“Part of it too is just, you know, local expertise, from the districts, people that live in these communities,” said Suomala. “Just kind of thinking about, you know, what are the prices within these communities now and what do you think your neighbors are willing to pay.”

The nightly fees for staying at a Forest Service cabin in Alaska mostly range from $35 to $75. All of the new cabins are proposed for $75 a night except for two – one near Ketchikan is $65 and one at Juneau’s Mendenhall campground is $125 because it has electricity and nearby showers.

The new cabins are just a fraction of what’s available to the public. The Tongass has 142 cabins just in Southeast. Most are remote and get visitors less than 10 nights a year. Last year, it cost the Forest Service $700,000 to maintain them. The nightly fees covered about $500,000.

Suomala said the popular, more accessible cabins help subsidize the remote ones – and that’s their hope with the new cabins coming on board. But ultimately, he said, the public will help set the price.

“We want feedback to, you know, to get an idea, like are we way off here?” Suomala said. “Do you think it should be higher? Do you think it should be lower? We can’t raise the fee based on feedback from the public but we can lower it.”

As for Richards, he said $75 a night won’t be a deal-breaker for him and his wife, Ola.

“Because, it’s worth it for us,” he said. “I guess my concern is for a lower-income family. I would hate to think that someone wouldn’t stay at a cabin because they can’t afford it. I think that’s a real shame.”

The deadline for public comments on the proposed cabin fees is July 2. People can comment in person, online, by phone, email or snail mail.

More Alaskans will be able to access food stamps following lawmakers’ vote to expand eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Wednesday night.

The change comes after more than a year of extreme delays in food stamp distribution across the state that left thousands of vulnerable Alaskans without aid for months at a time, driving many into debt and inundating food pantries with food insecure families. State workers caught up on the backlog in March.

Alaska will join 42 other states in using an approach called “broad based categorical eligibility” to streamline applications for the program. The move eases the requirements to get benefits and should reduce the administrative burden that contributed to a backlog in the state’s Division of Public Assistance.

Ron Meehan, director of government affairs for Food Banks of Alaska, said he shared the news with fellow advocates and food bank managers in a flurry of late-night text messages.

“We are feeling really relieved and excited about the implications of this,” he said. “This is something that has been a pretty significant priority for the Alaska Food Coalition and the Food Bank of Alaska, not just in the two years since this latest significant backlog, but really for at least a decade.”

Broad based categorical eligibility makes households with incomes less than twice of the federal poverty line eligible for the program. Previously, the threshold was 30% more than the poverty line in Alaska. It is a priority for food advocates because it allows more people to qualify and save up enough money to gradually exit the program. The bill also removes a component called the asset test, which kept people with more than $4,000 in savings from accessing food aid. That meant anyone with a car or a house would have to liquidate those assets and spend down cash before qualifying, Meehan said.

Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage and the bill’s sponsor, has pushed for the legislation since last winter, when the state was still in the midst of the backlog. Her proposal, House Bill 196, was rolled into another piece of legislation, House Bill 344, on the last day of the session. The Senate passed it unanimously, while the House voted 26-14 to agree to the final version of the bill. Some lawmakers have lauded its success as one of the session’s major accomplishments.

“We have the ability to feed thousands and thousands of more Alaskans. It also allows more kids to have access to free lunch. And I think that is a great thing in terms of the food crisis that is in our state,” she said on the House floor Wednesday night.

Mina saw the inception of the current food stamp backlog as a legislative staffer after the number of jobs handling applications were reduced in 2021. Now, as a lawmaker, she is responsible for a policy change that she says will streamline the process. She said her efforts as a member of the House minority were boosted by support from veteran Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, the Senate majority leader — and because the problem affected every region in the state.

“There was just such an opportunity in the midst of all of that chaos to really step back and think, ‘What are the things that we can do to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?’” she said.

Since 2022, the state government has been scrambling to address the backlog and Gov. Mike Dunleavy has added more than $70 million to state budgets over the last two years to fight the crisis. The money has gone to computer upgrades, new staff and direct aid to food banks. Supporters say the new legislation marks a turning point to a proactive response to food instability in Alaska.

Though the changes could dramatically increase food aid to Alaskans, they will cost the state only about $140,000 because the SNAP benefits are paid for by the federal government.

Mina worked with the program’s state manager, Division of Public Assistance Director Deb Etheridge, to make sure the changes would help workers get through food stamp applications more efficiently. She credited the state administration with investing in new technology and said it is also important to retain staff at the Division of Public Assistance.

“Those are all just pieces that are starting to come together,” she said. “Hopefully by next year, we’ll see more Alaskans being able to eat and also more Alaskans able to transition off the program.”