Duluth’s Endangered Trail Corridors!

Duluth, Minnesota is a city blessed with abundant forested corridors – from ridgeline forests to cascading streams, that create a nearly unequaled opportunity for an urban trail system that would be the envy of any city in the nation (especially a city identified by Outside magazine as one of the 30 Best Towns in America).

What many don’t realize is, much of this forested land is identified as State of Minnesota “tax-forfeit” land and managed by the St. Louis County Land Department. To us and just about any other citizen in Duluth, this is public land – land we’ve come to use and enjoy for decades, just as we would a city park. To the County, this tax-forfeit land is “disposable” – land viewed as having worth in its disposal or sale so it can again be put on the tax rolls to generate income for county government. The Land Department will argue that the sale of this land will provide tax relief to citizens and provides dollars for local schools. My question is, when was the last time you saw your taxes go down because a parcel of tax-forfeit land was sold? Umm – never?

To many of us, these lands have much more value for the recreation they provide and the vast potential they have to provide revenue for small businesses that utilize these lands and dollars that outdoor activities generate. After all, we’ve heard over and over again in the last year or so that people aren’t attracted to Duluth because of places like the Aquarium. They’re attracted here because of the Lake, the forested hillsides and the trails in and around Duluth.

So what’s the problem with the tax-forfeit land anyway? It’s public land afterall. Yes, it is public land, but it’s actively and agressively being sold as we speak all over the City of Duluth. It’s being sold to adjoining landowners, developers and anyone else looking for a piece of forested land in the City.

At the last public auction, the St. Louis County Land Department sold a piece of tax forfeit land near the Enger Golf Course which effectively severed a very important potential trail corridor connecting West Duluth with the Duluth Heights area. This land sale shown in the accompanying photo (click on photo for larger image. Red indicates the parcel to be sold. Yellow lines are identified trail corridors. Orange lines are existing trails that have been identified by GPS. Please view the trail prioritization form on the trail planning page for more info about the affected trails) cuts off trail #24, the Coffee Creek Trail. This parcel has already been sold. The only thing we can do now is approach the City and determine whether or not the recently passed Comprehensive Plan has any teeth. This parcel is identified in the Comp Plan as part of an acknowledged trail corridor. Our only hope for this trail corridor is to have an easement approved that will allow a corridor for a future trail.

Also sold in June was a large platted area in Amity Creek. This area was sold to the Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) effectively wiping out a network of trails used for decades by local residents for hiking, dog walking and mountain biking. Again, it will take cooperation with HRA to ensure that we maintain a corridor for trails and hopefully at least part of the system of mountain bike trails envisioned for this area.

Sadly, there’s more. In the most recent booklet released by the St. Louis County Land Department identifying available land up for auction at the next land sale in October, Four identified trail corridors will be affected.

In Morgan Park, trail #73 (Morgan Park Trail West) and trail #68 (Morgan Park School connector trail) will be affected by a land sale. In West Duluth, trail #51 (Macarthur School Spur Trail) will be severed. And, way out East, trail #93 (Moose Mountain Trail) will be have it’s terminus near Lake Superior sold to the highest bidder.

So, what can we do about it? We can complain certainly. Nothing wrong with that. But, we can also start taking a more proactive approach. As an organization, DATA needs to be constantly vigilant to catch these sales before they make it to the auction block. That might mean going into the Land Department office once a week and asking to see what parcels are planned for sale in the future.  It might mean constantly making our City Planning Department aware of our goals to make trails in Duluth more convenient to its citizenry and creating opportunities for people to stay active and healthy.  It will certainly mean educating our local leaders about the benefits of easily accessed trails to the health of our citizens, our economy and our environment.

More directly, we need start working hard now on developing a comprehensive trail plan for the City to adopt that will legally identify our future trail corridors for protection. This will take a lot of effort, cooperation and funding to accomplish. We’ll be meeting with the City Planning Department to discuss how best to protect our identified trail corridors, and we’ll also begin meeting with city councilers and leaders about specific parcels of land that have been or will be sold.

It’s also important that the public expresses how much they value their local sanctuaries of forested land in the City for recreation and exercise. Most people think these forested lands are protected public lands, when in actuality much of the greenspace in the city is only an auction away from being sold to the highest bidder. While it’s very disheartening to see Duluth working hard to sell it’s open public greenspace while most cities in the nation are doing everything they can to preserve what greenspace they have left (city governments elsewhere are even going so far as getting grant money to buy and preserve more greenspace) we can do our part to at least preserve corridors to maintain our trail connections throughout the City. That will mean protecting these corridors where we can, and working with developers to ensure we have easements to at least allow a trail corridor to maintain its neighborhood connections. The trails we’re proposing will benefit everyone in this city from the busy parent looking for a quick jaunt in the woods after work to the developer who sees the benefits of trails. There will be obstacles to overcome as we continue to see our goals through, but we’ve got strong legs right? Take some time to let those around you know what’s at stake. Let them know that the forested land down the street isn’t necessarily always going to be there for a walk in the woods. Working together, we’ll make our trail connections a reality.

July 17 Trail Planning Meeting Notes Posted

Notes from our July 17 Trail Planning Meeting have been posted on the Trail Planning page.

Neighborhood Trails Good for Fairbanks, AK

Neighborhood Trails Improve Our Community

Full article here:  http://newsminer.com/2007/07/15/7921

“Quite a few Fairbanks neighborhoods have the benefit of fairly quick access to one or more neighborhood trails or bike paths, though very few have networks comparable to the ones in these new subdivisions. And that’s too bad. A neighborhood trail system, especially one that allows immediate access to each homeowner, is a wonderful asset. The benefits of a good neighborhood trail system are many:

A CONVENIENT PLACE TO EXERCISE: Trails make getting exercise much easier. Fairbanks has a lot of trails, but neighborhood trails eliminate the need to get into your car and drive to a trailhead. How wonderful it is to be able to just zip out the door onto the trails. We live in a society where obesity is becoming a large health problem, so finding ways to encourage people to get some exercise benefits the whole society.

A WAY TO ENJOY NATURE: There’s something about being outside in nature that many people find rejuvenating. Trails offer that chance to reconnect with nature and get some spiritual relaxation along with exercise.

A PLACE TO MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS: Our society is becoming increasingly insular. Many people have never met their neighbors or if they have, only briefly. Trails offer a place where neighbors can meet and connect with each other in a relaxed setting.

ENHANCED PROPERTY VALUES: Access to trails increases property values. In a recent nationwide survey by the National Association of Homebuilders walking and jogging trails were the top amenity desired by prospective homebuyers.

INCREASED SAFETY: The vast majority of people who use trails are responsible citizens. Most users of a neighborhood trail system are neighbors. The more responsible neighborhood people who are out and about, the more eyes are watching the neighborhood and can spot anything amiss.

The benefits of greenbelts and neighborhood trail systems are clear and we, as individuals and as a community, should be doing more to encourage these amenities in new developments. But how? One obvious action is to always ask about access to trails and greenbelts if you looking to buy land or a house. Buyer demand is a big motivator for developers. Another way is to encourage the local government to require trails and greenbelts in new developments or at least provide incentives for developers to include them.”

The same can be said about Duluth.  Neighborhood trails will be a benefit to all of us.

Healthy Plans Grants

“Three organizations in the Cape Fear region received grants totaling more than $185,000 from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation……The foundation also awarded a $30,200 grant to create parks and recreation facilities in Hoke County.

David Jackson, director of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, said the study will map out the number and types of recreation facilities and parks the county needs.

“It will give us a rhyme and reason to our development,” Jackson said.

When the study is complete, it will be used to help the county receive more grants for future parks and recreation development, County Manager Mike Wood said.

The foundation gave $56,800 to Communities in Schools of Moore County to build a 1-mile fitness trail with exercise stations and a community learning garden at Aberdeen Elementary School.

The fitness trail will be used for physical education classes and will be open to the public. The garden will be used to teach children about healthy foods.

The foundation awarded 11 grants and paid out more than $560,000 to statewide organizations during its spring grant cycle. The foundation’s primary goals are to improve overall health and increase access to healthy activities.”

Full article here:  http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=267432

Trails in Truckee, CA

“I always tell people, if we want to keep the stars shining brighter in Truckee, we have to get people out of their cars,” Fitzpatrick says. “We have to have these trails to improve environmental quality.”

Even the issue of development is tied to trails, as the Town of Truckee partners with the proponents of new subdivisions to create trail connections.

The Tahoe City Public Utility District first conducted a survey of trail users in 1994, and updates the information annually, says Cindy Gustafson, the district’s assistant general manager.

“Our trails are our most heavily used recreation facilities: We get over 400,000 users per year, and that continues to grow,” Gustafson says.

And while the trails are considered a recreational facility, the study found not everybody uses them purely for recreation. Seventy percent of those surveyed said they were commuting to work, school, restaurants, shopping, or other recreation areas, while only 30 percent said they were there for recreation alone, Gustafson says.

“So much of the traffic in our community is going to a recreation site, so if we can get more off the road it’s helpful,” she says, emphasizing the overall benefits of trails in the area. “They are very, very important as a quality-of-life issue for residents and visitors, the ability to walk or ride into town is very important.”

Full article here:  http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20070709/NEWS/70709001/0/FRONTPAGE

Amity Creek Mountain Bike Trails

Good article in Sunday’s Duluth News-Tribune about the Amity Creek mountain bike trails.  I’m not sure however, exactly how “stealthy” those trails are.  Many of the trails in the Amity Creek area west of Seven Bridges Road have probably been there for decades – used by walkers, bikers and others.  The article implies a lot of “construction” went into these trails, when I’ll bet, mountain bikers probably used a few existing paths that were already there and created other trails simply by riding there.  Overall a good article though.

The other matter is the status of the land in the area where most of these trails are located.  Much of this land has been sold or is under threat to be sold for housing development.  This is a situation we’ll need to address immediately to ensure that we maintain a good mountain bike trail system in this area and we don’t lose the best sections of trail to development.  This is but one of many trail corridors at risk to being lost to development, a situation DATA will have to be ever vigilant to be aware of.

Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=45726§ion=outdoors,outdoor%20news&freebie_check&CFID=42080520&CFTOKEN=15443804&jsessionid=883010ed14a2132a3c63

Notes from June 12 Trail Planning Meeting Posted

Hello friends!  Back from 2 weeks out west.  Nice to be home, but already missing the sweet mountain air!

Notes from our June 12 Trail Planning meeting have finally been posted to the Trail Planning page.  Also posted are the updated West Central Trails map and Trail Prioritization form which now include the new proposed trail connecting in with the Heritage Center in West Duluth.

Also please note the new committees that have been formed with brief descriptions for each committee on the Volunteer Opportunities page.