41.0°

It's worth the effort, though.

The Boy Scout Camp trailhead - a public access point to Eagle Beach and wildflower-dotted meadows - has been a Juneau recreational spot for at least 70 years.

What is now the trailhead was once the end of the Juneau road system.

Just hundreds of feet away, a remnant of an old, Depression-era picnic shelter remains as a reminder of the historic end of the road.

But if a new federal plan goes through, the trailhead of the Boy Scout Camp Trail and its immediate surroundings could be put up for sale to a private buyer.

Stone said Friday she is worried about losing access to the easy walking trail.

The Boy Scout Camp Trail is one of a limited number of places where Juneau residents with physical limitations - such as the disabled or small children - can take an easy walk through the woods on flat land, she said.

As a disabled person living on a limited income in Juneau, "I'm really cut off already," Stone said. "That whole area out by Eagle Beach is like a sanctuary to me."

The proposed U.S. Forest Service sale is restricted to 6 acres, but in addition to the trailhead, it includes some shoreline access at the confluence of the Herbert and Eagle rivers and timber on either side of the Boy Scout Camp Road.

The 6 acres were originally deeded to the Forest Service in 1935 by Juneau homesteader C.L. Gelsinger. At the time, the spot was already a popular recreation spot at the end of the Juneau road system, said Diane Mayer, with the Southeast Alaska Land Trust.

City lands and resource manager Steve Gilbertson said last week that he is displeased with the proposed federal sale because the 6-acre plot is completely surrounded by 147 acres of city-owned recreational land.

The city park land - purchased from Channel Construction for roughly $800,000 in 2003 - is off-limits to most development under a private-public partnership with the Southeast Alaska Land Trust. It includes salmon streams and coastal wetlands.

Previously, Channel Construction owner Shorty Tonsgard had hoped to build a home and a gravel quarry on the 147 acres. Public opposition helped defeat his quarry permit, however.

Soon after, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided a grant exceeding $550,000 to help the city buy the 147 acres. The city ponied up the rest of the money in 2003. A stipulation of the grant was that the land retain its natural, scenic condition, Gilbertson said.

To now sell public access land inside the 147 acres to a private developer would be like "driving with one tire missing," Gilbertson said.

While working on the sale with Tonsgard, the city of Juneau also approached the U.S. Forest Service about acquiring the 6-acre plot.

That request was turned down because the Forest Service didn't have a method to give the land to the city at the time, Gilbertson said.

The Forest Service doesn't "give away" its land unless it is part of a swap or enabled through federal legislation, said Ray Massey, a spokesman for the Alaska Region of the U.S. Forest Service.

If the 6-acre parcel is sold to a private buyer, it's likely the existing public easement along the road will be retained to preserve trail access, Massey said.

Gilbertson said the parcel should instead to be kept in public ownership to maintain "the integrity of the park system out there."

The city shouldn't have to spend more money to buy the 6 acres from the Forest Service, Gilbertson said. Federal funds are what made the original, 147-acre purchase happen in the first place, and the city would be more than happy to take over management of the land, he added.

Massey said that the Forest Service wants to hear everyone's concerns about the proposed land sale, and others throughout the United States.

The Forest Service put up a national list of potentially eligible forest land sales because it is trying to provide another five years and $800 million in funding for rural schools and roads, Massey said.

The Bush administration seeks to discontinue a previous formula for funding the rural schools and roads program with timber dollars.

The 6-acre plot at the Boy Scout trailhead was selected because it is one of many "noncontiguous areas" of the national forest system that is outside the regular forest boundaries, Massey said.

There are other major trailheads in the lower 48 states that also have turned up on the sales list, Massey added.

"They've already raised those concerns down there," Massey said.

The land sale proposal will be put on the U.S. Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period on Feb. 28.

People in Juneau who want to comment on the proposed sale can do it now over e-mail, Massey said.

The federal e-mail address is SRS(space)Land(space)Sales@fs.fed.us.

• Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at elizabeth.bluemink@juneauempire.com.