SZM - After meeting with the trail maintenance expert team...

SZM - After the meeting with the trail maintenance expert team from Crater Lake NP (USA) in Triglav National Park.
The trail maintenance expert team from Crater Lake National Park
(USA) is concluding the restoration of the trail in Pokljuka Gorge and preparing for
work on the Soča Trail
A meeting with members of the
expert trail maintenance team from the sister Crater Lake National Park
from the United States of America (USA), who are restoring the trail through Pokljuka Gorge and the Soča
Trail in Triglav National Park, took place today at the Triglavska Roža Information Center in Bled with journalists. Guests and employees of the Public
Institute Triglav National Park (PI TNP) presented their joint work and
experiences and described the continuation of the expert team's visit to Triglav
National Park.
We have been hosting the trail maintenance expert team from the USA in Triglav National Park for more than a week. "In last year's floods, the park trails through
Pokljuka Gorge on the Upper Carniola side of Triglav National Park and the Soča Trail on the
Soča Valley side of the park were damaged, and immediately after the floods they offered us help with trail restoration from the sister Crater Lake National Park from the United States of America. It was a sincere desire to help, which proves that cooperation is not just something written
in sister park documents, but is alive in practice. It is not just cooperation,
but friendship, part of which is also selfless help between employees in both
parks," said the director of the Public Institute Triglav National Park (PI TNP)
dr. Tit Potočnik.
With their work, they have taught our colleagues a lot
The team of six experts who exclusively deal with trail restoration started work immediately upon arrival last week in Pokljuka Gorge. As Miha Marolt,
maintenance manager at PI TNP, said, the trail in Pokljuka Gorge was quite damaged,
and the works took place in a steep rocky area. To start them, it was necessary to wait for suitable weather conditions, which still shaped the course of the works in this and the previous week. He added that PI TNP employees who participated in the works learned a lot from the

American guests. "They approached the tasks in a completely special way," also said Robert Varl from the technical maintenance department at PI TNP.
Andrew Hoeg, team leader from Crater Lake National Park, trail maintenance supervisor, presented the team and its daily work related to
trail maintenance. Before arriving in Slovenia, he did not have much data on what awaited them, as it was difficult to assess the extent of the damage from photos and videos. They repaired a significant part of the trail and ensured that the trail through Pokljuka Gorge is relatively safe again. Although the team of experts from Crater Lake National Park was focused on work, its members explored Triglav National Park and Slovenia in their free time. Numerous organizations enabled them free visits to attractions (Bled Castle, Natural History Museum of Slovenia, Vogel,..), provided transports (Toyota Adria) and experiences (Bohinj Tourism, Agrarian Community Nomenj-Gorjuše,…), for which we sincerely thank them.
Overall, the working visit of the expert team was enabled among others by Crater Lake National Park from the USA, which has been sister to Triglav National Park since 2017, together with the fund of the mentioned national park, the Embassy of the United States of America in Ljubljana and others.
Approach Pokljuka Gorge with caution even now
How important a natural monument in Triglav National Park Pokljuka Gorge is was presented by Mojca Pintar, head of environmental education at PI TNP. The nearly two-kilometer-long Pokljuka Gorge was carved by the former course of the Ribščica River during the retreat of glaciers 10,000 years ago. When the water dried up, Slovenia's largest fossil gorge remained behind it. In 1930, a passage with wooden bridges was arranged over the narrowest part. PI TNP strives to preserve the natural processes and authenticity of the gorge with as few interventions as possible. At the same time, we warn visitors to enter it only under favorable weather conditions and with appropriate hiking footwear and clothing; a helmet is not superfluous.
The Municipality of Gorje, together with PI TNP, is striving to establish a traffic regime that would keep visitors' motor vehicles in Zgornje Gorje, where the visit to Pokljuka Gorge would begin. The walk through Zgornje Gorje and the settlement of Krnica to the entrance to Pokljuka Gorge is already a special experience that enriches the visit to Pokljuka Gorge.
Already this week, the expert team is moving to the Soča Valley, where they will repair the Soča Trail on sections washed away by the Soča River in the flood. They will also attend the main ceremony on the 100th anniversary of the signing of the lease agreement for the establishment of the Alpine Protection Park, Slovenia's first protected area and predecessor of Triglav National Park, which will take place on May 31 in Trenta.