Summer Trail Meeting Schedule

Friends of the Musketawa Trail Thursday, September 4th, 7:00pm Ravenna Village Hall, 12090 Crockery Creek Dr, Ravenna MI
Thornapple Trail Association Monday, September 8th, 7:00pm Board member Lamoreaux's house, 3 Market St, Middleville MI
Lowell Area Recreation Authority (LARA) Wednesday, September 10th, 6:00pm Vergennes Township Hall, 10381 Bailey Dr, Lowell MI
Friends of the White Pine Trail Wednesday, September 10th, 7:00pm Plainfield Township Office, 6161 Belmont Ave NE, Belmont MI
Friends of the Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail Wednesday, September 10th, 7:00pm Location TBA
West Michigan Trails & Greenways Coalition Thursday, September 11th, 1:00pm Greenville-Lowell-Ionia corridor task force, Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, 113 Riverwalk Plaza, Lowell MI

West Michigan Trails & Greenways Spring Update

Check out the West Michigan Trails & Greenways Spring Update for many exciting local trail happenings. Click HERE

Message from the West Michigan Trails & Greenways Coalition

Dear West Michigan Trail Supporters:

As we get geared up for 2008, we can reflect on many great accomplishments from 2007. We completed our $6-million Phase I capital campaign, we were able to get another 28 miles of blacktop on the ground, we're in our new office right off the White Pine Trail at 4865 West River Drive, and we are celebrating several new executive board officers.

We need your help!

Help us jump start 2008 with a donation to the West Michigan Trails & Greenways Coalition. Simply go to www.wmtrails.org/2007/join_up.htm and click on Give Online. The Coalition has teamed up with Network for Good to make your online donation quick and simple. We'll even send you a reminder of your contribution at tax season next year.

Please forward this message to friends and family who want to be a part of trail and greenspace success in West Michigan in 2008.

Sincerely,

Dennis Kneibel
President
West Michigan Trails & Greenways Coalition

Exciting News from our Friends at the White Pine Trail

Update 9/20/07

We are very happy to report that the paving of the trail to Sand Lake is done! Dean Wall of Dean’s Excavating reported that his paving crew finished the final layer of asphalt on September 19th. His crews are completing the trail shoulder restoration which involves grading the shoulders so they slope away from the trail then raking them out and applying hydro-seed to prevent erosion. During the upcoming weeks they will be replacing signs and doing the final steps needed to wrap up the project.

The Friends of the White Pine Trail would like to recognize the extraordinary work that Dean and his company did on the trail. The project was completed ahead of schedule and the final product is something we can all be proud of. Dean noted that one of the unexpected benefits of the trail paving project was all the excitement and enthusiasm that he received from trail users he happened to talk to. If you have not yet ridden the trail north of Russell Road I would encourage you to do so soon. There has been a steady increase in trail usage since the paving began as a whole new group of trail enthusiasts use the section that was only gravel before.

Group Raises $6.4 million for West Michigan Trails

Just over a year after setting the lofty goal of raising $6 million to help fund recreation trails in West Michigan, Dave Heyboer and Peter DeBoer have reason to celebrate. Two weeks ago, the pair had secured $6.4 million in contributions, money that would provide local matching funds needed to leverage $18.4 million in federal and state funds for nine trails in West Michigan. "No one ever dreamed it would happen that quick," said Dave Heyboer, president of the West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition, which got its nonprofit status in 2005 and kicked off its capital campaign in February 2006. "We thought it would take two to three years to raise that money. Two years ago we didn't know if we'd survive another day."

The group's ambitious principals have been talking up the idea of building 150 miles of new trails in West and Mid-Michigan by 2008, creating a 14-county trailways system. Having the local match in hand now would begin to make the long-term dream possible of eventually building or connecting 510 trail miles in 20 counties. Peter DeBoer, executive director for the coalition, said the coalition raised $4.7 million in private contributions from foundations, corporations and individuals. Another $1.7 million was pledged from townships and counties. "The Meijer Foundation proved to be key," said DeBoer. "Because after we got $1.2 million from the Steelcase and Frey foundations, Meijer said: 'You still have a long way to go.' "He offered us a dollar-for-dollar match up to $3 million." The Meijer match tops his previous $1 million pledge to leverage state and federal money for paving the White Pine Trail to Cadillac -- an offer accepted by the state which required that the trail be named after Fred Meijer.

Eight more miles of the White Pine are slated to be paved this summer from Russell Road north to Sand Lake and the Kent County line. State officials say it and the group's other projects will move ahead despite the recent state moratorium on distributing grant funds issued March 29 by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. That moratorium was one of several to deal with state cash-flow troubles. Building projects, however, funded with "pass-through" federal dollars and funds from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund are "exempt" from the moratorium, according to Dennis Fedewa, chief deputy director for the Department of Natural Resources. A project also could be exempt from the moratorium if it contributed to job creation. "Any past-due funds or projects under way or where there are commitments for work to be done will continue," said Fedewa, adding that isn't guaranteed for operations funding. Heyboer, also president for the Friends of the White Pine Trails, said his group of volunteers will continue to do trail maintenance even if those funds are not available

Paving on the White Pine Trail is expected to begin in mid-July, according Troy Rife, a recreation planner in Cadillac who is spearheading the effort. "If we get authorization to proceed in the next two weeks, we can bid it out and begin construction July 15th," he said. "If not, it gets moved back two weeks." The trail will paved with a special harder-than-normal asphalt formulation designed to withstand the rigors of studded snowmobiles. The additional $50,000 or so in costs for the material will be covered by the state snowmobile fund. The $10,000 required to develop the material was provided by the Michigan Snowmobile Association. "It's an important contribution," said Bill Manson, with the MSA. "We figured why spend all that money on trails and not do it right. This will hold up under the duress of studs."

DNR state parks chief, Ron Olson, said he is enthusiastic about being able to move forward with this project. "It will be nice to get it moving and have it provide some benefits to the trail users," he said. Olson said it has taken several days to get official clarification about the types of projects covered by the moratorium. Earlier this week, DNR staffers were saying that federal and state funds for White Pine and other trails might be held up until the end of September. DeBoer and Heyboer said that gave them a scare. Heyboer had made a trip to Lansing before New Years to deliver a $202,000 check to Olson to cover the local match needed for the eight-mile paving project. The promised bid dates for the contract already had come and gone with no action. The moratorium, if it applied to coalition projects, would mean losing another building season and setting their three-year plan back at least a year. "It's a relief to know that the approved projects will go forward," said DeBoer. "People ask me all the time, when it will be paved. The White Pine is a popular trail and this should benefit those communities north of Rockford."

By Howard Meyerson - hmeyerson@grpress.com
Grand Rapids Press Outdoors Editor
Friday, April 13, 2007
Courtesy of the Grand Rapids Press ©2007

Trespassing Issues

Once again it has come to our attention that people are using sections of the trail corridor that are not currently open. While some closed sections of the corridor are owned by the Thornapple Trail Association or Barry County, others are not. Some portions of the corridor are privately owned. In either case no one should be out there without permission. We have also received complaints that people are trespassing on privately owned sections of the corridor and are hassling the land owners when told to leave. This type of behavior does nothing to leave a favorable impression of the trail with the adjacent land owners. Respect signs on the trail. Someday we may wish to purchase an easement from someone. It’s a lot more difficult to do so from someone who doesn’t like you. Please refer to the map on this web site and stay off the sections marked in red. Thank-you.

Trail Donors Hope for Matching Funds

An effort to construct 150 miles of recreational trails across the region is receiving a boost from some familiar names. Meijer Inc. patriarch Fred Meijer is pledging $3 million, with the Steelcase and Frey foundations each offering $600,000. The money is being given with hopes that other local donors will match the funds. For his $3 million contribution, Meijer will be honored by having five of the new trails named after him. Inaddition, the entire network of trails will bear his name. "If he's going to give us that kind of money, we'll rename the township," joked Scott Hladki, supervisor for Dalton Township in Muskegon County. The township will receive $618,000 from The Meijer Foundation to build the 10-mile Fred Meijer Berry Junction Trail. The trail will connect the Hart-Montague Trail State Park with the city of Muskegon. Its estimated cost is $3.3 million.

The West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition launched the fundraising effort in February. Eight of the network trails will see new construction. "This is wonderful," executive director Peter DeBoer said. "We expected it would take 18 months, if not longer. We are really pleased." The $4.2 million from the three foundations puts the group closer to its $6 million goal. That's the amount of local dollars needed to leverage an additional $21 million in state and federal money earmarked for building trails by 2008 in West and Mid-Michigan. Meijer, 86, said his interest in funding trails has its roots in his rural upbringing and a love of cycling as a younger man when he and his wife, Lena, would bicycle in Europe with friends. "Once they are gone, they are gone forever," Meijer said. "I think city folks need a connection with nature to keep their sanity. These trails will give them a chance to see cows, a hayfield or a field of corn."

Ruth Pruis, the clerk for Jamestown Township, is expected to receive $630,000 toward the $3.7 million cost of the 13-mile Fred Meijer Kenowa Trail, which will connect Kent Trail to the Macatawa Greenway Trail. "We simply couldn't afford the trails otherwise," Pruis said. "The townships just don't have the money to do that." DeBoer said the recent pledges also mean the Fred Meijer M-6 Trail will be built next year. "Fred gave so much, we've decided to name the entire trail network after him," he said. The Meijer Foundation, he said, has put up $7.1 million for trails in the area, including the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail, Flat River Greenville Trail and the Clinton, Ionia Shiawassee Trail.

For more information on the West Michigan Trails & Greenways Coalition go to www.wmtrails.org.
By Howard Meyerson (hmeyerson@grpress.com) Grand Rapids Press Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Trail Groups Need a Statewide Perspective

I recently was struck by two things while looking at a state map of rail trails: just how far we've come and how far we still have to go. It was 1975 when the 8.9-mile Paint Creek Trail was built in Oakland County and 1989 when the Hart-Montague Trail opened. The latter was Michigan's first linear state park. Within a few years, it had 60,000 annual visitors. The 34-mile Kal-Haven Trail also opened around then. Five years later it had 75,000 using that trail annually. Back then, the White Pine and Musketawa trails were only a gleam in state trail planners' eyes. Today, there are 1,340 miles of rail trail in Michigan. Some are complete. Some not. There are 88 in all. The benefits to their respective communities have been inestimable, but most who have looked at the question agree that they provide strong economic, health and quality-of-life benefits.
State dream possible?
And yet, to look at the map, one has to wonder whether the state's vision of a network of interconnected trails ever will be possible. These are very different times. The story that changed is the usual one: State money and staffing is less available. The state was the major driving force for years. Today it is busy trying to get out of the business. Increasingly, it has looked for local partners. On the White Pine, much of the work is done by Friends of the White Pine Trail and adjacent communities. But in Van Buren County, things are different. The state just signed a 25-year lease with the county to manage 45.5 miles of rail trail there -- 14 miles of the Van Buren State Park Trail between Hartford and South Haven and most of the Kal-Haven Trail. The lease is for 25 years. The $4.4 million in rent will be offset by $4.5 million the county intends to invest in operations and maintenance.
Potential for confusion.
While those are examples of how things are changing -- and not necessarily for the worse -- management diversification rather than centralization brings with it the potential for greater confusion. You know: the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. And sometimes it simply doesn't care. For instance, Muskegon County has chosen not to get involved managing the Musketawa Trail, but Ottawa County has stepped forward. The trail runs through both. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the difficulties. What happens when you try to connect that local trail with another? What happens if you see the possibility for connecting it with another 100 miles away? The bold idea behind the Michigan Trailways Act of 1994, to form a state Trailways Commission and Trailways Fund -- a group whose job it was to coordinate and help fund state trailway development -- has gone the way of so many snowmen. It just melted into oblivion. Which where the value of grassroots coordinating groups has become essential. At the regional level there are groups such as West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition, which have brought together a strong core of local interests. It also has made it more important to have groups with a statewide perspective -- the Michigan Trails & Greenways Alliance, for example. The role once played by the Michigan office of the National Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has since shifted to this group. "There is so much to be done in Michigan that we felt we needed an organization here to keep that focus," said Nancy Krupiarz, the executive director for MTGA. Trail enthusiasts likely know her name. Krupiarz ran the Michigan Rails-to-Trails office before the national organization closed it, opting instead last October to consolidate its midwestern effort in Ohio. "We would have ended up lending our help to some of the other states," said Krupiarz, who jumped ship along with assistant director Barry Culham, who coordinated the RTC's popular Michigander bike ride. They formed the non-profit MTGA and the two are now focused intently on statewide coordination and trying to give a boost to mid-Michigan communities, which Krupiarz said "have been neglected for so long." In an effort to get the left hand communicating with the right, the MTGA is hosting Connecting Michigan:A Statewide Trails Planning Partnership conference in Flint on April 13. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has been invited to speak. Department of Natural Resources director Becky Humphries has agreed to speak. Michigan Surgeon General, Kimberlydawn Wisdom has been invited also to speak. Krupiarz said considerable discussion is needed. "Fifty percent of the trails are the state's and the other 50 percent are locally operated," she said. "Whether it's way-finding signs, maintenance, promoting trail-based tourism or finding money, there isn't a lot of coordination. We're hoping to bring the other regional efforts into a statewide program." With such a long way to go and so many disparate parts, the idea of statewide connected trailways needs a friend. I suspect we will hear a fair bit more about MTGA in coming years.
By Howard Meyerson - The Grand Rapids Press - Friday, March 17, 2006
Check out www.michigantrails.org for more information on the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance. MTGA brochure/trail map is usually available at most Grand Rapids area bicycle shops.

Easements Add More Miles to Paul Henry-Thornapple Trail

A mere $2,300 may complete one of the last steps before bikers and hikers can take to several miles of newly paved trail in southern Kent County. The Kent County Parks Department bought six easements -- at five sites -- for portions of the Paul Henry-Thornapple Trail in Gaines and Caledonia townships and has only a couple more to go. Some easements were needed to veer the trail off its diagonal path and have it cross streets at intersections for safety, said Roger Sabine, parks director. Three easements were donated by Caledonia Township and Caledonia Schools, who both owned part of the corridor itself. The other three were purchased from private land owners to run the trail parallel to roads. The most expensive was $2,055. The trail, acquired from the Rails to Trails Conservancy, runs from 44th Street in Kentwood to the village of Caledonia and on to the Barry County line, along a former railroad bed. Only the portion inside Kentwood is paved. The plan is to pave another seven miles from Kentwood to the center of Caledonia. The rest of it will wait until a traffic signal goes up at M-37 and 100th Street, Sabine said. The Michigan Department of Transportation granted $355,000 and the county budgeted $125,000 for the paving. The Kent County Commission's Finance Committee has recommended the easement purchases to the full commission, which is likely to approve them Nov. 17. When complete, the 42-mile trail will run from 44th Street and Kalamazoo Avenue SE to Vermontville in Eaton County.
By Ron Cammel - The Grand Rapids Press - Thursday, November 03, 2005

Trail Boosters Licking Their Chops.

You may have heard the good news coming out of Congress earlier this summer: In a rare bit of good form, pushed by good people like Rep. Vern Ehlers, West Michigan will get more than $9 million for recreational trail projects. That money was made available by passage of the federal transportation bill and was lauded by biking and trail enthusiasts across the country. The $286 billion transportation bill will up the ante for recreational trail development nationally over the next five years. Funding is to rise to $370 million, about $100 million more than the last go-round in 1998. "It's tremendous," said Peter DeBoer, the new executive director for the West Michigan Trails/Greenways Coalition. "We haven't received any funding like this ever before in West Michigan."
$9 million over five years.
The $9.024 million is slated for a variety of projects including M-6/Paul Henry Trail, the Musketawa Trail, White Pine Trail, Fred Meijer Heartland Trail and Flat River Trail. It is money that will be doled out over five years, 40 percent available the first year. The only catch is that the trail money requires a 20-percent local match. That's right, nearly $2 million in local money will be required to be able to spend the federal dollars. Given these trying fiscal times, where municipalities can't even afford to fix their roads, one might wonder: Where's the good news? Again, enter DeBoer and his now four-year-old organization.
Fund drive in progress.
"We have a capital campaign going that will address the local match requirement and much more," said DeBoer, outlining a vigorous goal of "$25 million for West Michigan trailways from Alma to Pentwater and south to Saugatuck. "We have 150 miles on the ground now and we'd like to add 137 miles. We hope to create a huge loop around West Michigan." Pie in the sky? Maybe not. The coalition, which includes influential and get-it-done groups like the Friends of the White Pine Trail, professional planners, environmental groups and municipalities, already has raised more than $200,000 from community foundations for trail projects. DeBoer said $100,000 is going to help Kent County build a quarter-mile trail connecting Millennium Park with Kent Trails -- work that is being done right now. The Friends of the White Pine Trail, have a proven track record as well. The group raised another $100,000 some years back to help fund the trail bridge that was built over West River Drive. DeBoer said the group's nearly $26 million capital campaign includes the $9 million-plus from the federal government, plus another $11 million from state coffers. That would be either federal money given to the state for transportation projects or the Natural Resources Trust Fund. That leaves $6 million for the group to cover in order to meet the required local match. DeBoer declined to say just how far along the group is toward meeting that goal, but he did say: "We are well on our way." The community foundation money the group raised will be doled out to 11 other projects besides Kent County -- including $20,000 to the city of Muskegon. The city is working on funding its Laketon Trail, a planned connector along Laketon Road, which will hook up with the Musketawa Trail (Marne to Muskegon) and bring people into the city of Muskegon. "There will be just a mile of this trail to go after this," said DeBoer. "We hope to make a big loop that would go Holland to Muskegon to Grand Rapids to Holland. And that is just Phase I for the group. DeBoer said the coalition also has a Phase II plan. It has its collective eyes set on a goal of 500 miles of trail on the ground. Pie in the sky?
Maybe not. It is certainly good news that West Michigan has such an active group of trail enthusiasts, people that work hard to make the necessary connections -- in order to put trails on the ground and to secure whatever funding is available for them.
By Howard Meyerson - The Grand Rapids Press - Friday, September 09, 2005