{"id":70888,"date":"2021-05-19T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/letters\/experience-is-why-i-support-trails-build-alaska\/"},"modified":"2021-05-20T15:35:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T23:35:52","slug":"experience-is-why-i-support-trails-build-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/letters\/experience-is-why-i-support-trails-build-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Experience is why I support Trails Build Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In response to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/advocates-dont-want-conservation-corps-efforts-to-trail-off\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&ldquo;Advocates don&rsquo;t want conservation corps efforts to trail off,&rdquo;<\/a> I would like to publicly advocate for Trails Build Alaska, an effort to secure funding for a statewide trails workforce development program. Governor Dunleavy and the Alaska State Legislature have the opportunity to invest $12 million of the $1 billion stimulus funding the State is receiving to fund this program . COVID-19 cost many people their jobs and reminded us of the importance of outdoor recreation and connecting with our natural environment.<\/p>\n<p>I am writing this from the perspective of someone who worked in the entertainment industry and lost their full-time job last March. Not only did I lose all of my income, I also lost my sense of purpose, livelihood, and daily social interaction. After a month of unemployment and lockdown, I was lucky enough to get a job as a crew member with Trail Mix without any prior experience. I did not expect how much working on trails would improve my mental state and teach me about the land I live on. Being able to positively contribute to my community by sculpting the outdoor environment was a truly rewarding experience.<\/p>\n<p>There are many people still in need of work and our land needs attention now more than ever. Trails Build Alaska will be a statement that our government actively invests in Alaska&rsquo;s people, land and economy. I wish for this community to support and uplift this program so that it can have impact on a statewide level.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sarah Wallace,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Juneau<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8226; <em><ins>Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/have-something-to-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Here&rsquo;s how to submit a My Turn or letter.<\/a> <\/ins><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many people still in need of work and our land needs attention now more than ever. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":70900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-70888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70888"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=70888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}