Evergreen Stewardship Fund

In Memory of Meichen Plumhoff

On July 20th, 2025 we lost a cherished member of our team, Meichen Plumhoff. Serving as our Trail Crew Lead, Meichen was a force of nature and an inspiration to everyone who knew her.

To honor Meichen’s commitment to stewardship and quality trail building, we’ve launched the Evergreen Stewardship Fund to reflect her lasting impact on our community and trails. The fund, established through a generous contribution from her family, is designed to provide long-term support for trail work and trail workers, ensuring that her legacy of hard work and dedication will continue for years to come. 

This Fund is invested and the principal is protected following a policy passed by the Sitka Trail Works Board of Directors. Our long-term goal is to grow the principal, through donations and investment returns, to a level that annual earnings would fund the salary of a future trail crew leader. The grant-dependent nature of most trail work means that many seasonal trail professionals don’t know if they’ll have a job the following year. A permanent position provides the certainty for someone to invest in a career and cultivate the technical skills needed for the challenging work, a win for workers, for the community, and for public lands

About Meichen

Meichen was more than a hard worker; she was a natural teacher and mentor. She taught our interns, volunteers, and new crew members with a candor and energy that brought people in. Her extensive knowledge of trails was matched only by her generosity in sharing it. She had a way of leading with integrity and a quiet determination that motivated the entire crew to do their best work. 
But no one worked harder than Meichen herself. After a long week of leading the crew, she’d be out on the trails on her own time, exploring with her dog Teddy or planning future projects. She built structures from solid rock and hefty cedar that will stand for decades, and her legacy is etched into every single one of them. Her impact is evergreen.

Contribute to Evergreen Stewardship Fund

Below are a few trail maintenance projects that Meichen worked on, and that this fund will support into the future.

Mosquito Cove

Kaasda Heen

Sea Lion Cove

Other Ways to Give  

The Evergreen Stewardship Fund is built to last, so your gifts will leave a legacy. Since the Fund is managed by a professional wealth management firm, many types of gifts are acceptable. 

  • Cash, check, credit card, ACH or bank transfer 
  • Stocks, bonds, and other investment products 
  • Qualified Charitable Distributions from your IRA 
  • Estate bequests, named in your will 
  • Beneficiary designations from a retirement account, donor-advised fund, life insurance policy, brokerage account, or other financial account 

If you have any questions about how to give to this fund, we are happy to talk. Give us a call at 907-747-7244 or email SitkaHikes[at]sitkatrailworks.org. 

The Sitka Trail Works Board of Directors is responsible for setting the policy governing the Evergreen Stewardship Fund and has directed that spending be limited to 5% of the fund’s average value, protecting the principal by using only a portion of the annual returns.  

Your donation to Sitka Trail Works, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is tax deductible. 

 EIN# 91-1815739

801 Halibut Point Rd, Sitka, Alaska 99835

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