Trails Advisory Meeting, Thursday December 20, 2001
Iowa DOT

This first public trails meeting for the trails advisory committee was held this December at the Iowa DOT.  It was open to the public because federal guidelines now require that these meetings be made public.

This committee is made up of individuals appointed by the DOT and DNR, who sought recommendations from people in the parks system.  Members were selected to represent user groups, rather than geographical areas of the state.

The newest member of this group represents water trail users.  There is a single representative for walkers, hikers, bikers, and birdwatchers, another for equestrian users, another member represents biking, cross-country skiing and inline skaters.

Meetings have been held as needed to process applications for trails projects and go over issues, a minimum of twice yearly.

Their primary function is to distribute funds generated by a motorized recreational fuel use tax from ATVs, snowmobiles, motorized boats and dirt bikes.  A formula is used to determine what each state gets and Iowa’s portion is around $750,000 a year.  The requirements as this group understands them is that 30% is to be allocated for motorized uses, 30% for non motorized uses and 30% for diversified projects.

The projects selected for funding have to follow federal guidelines which include the requirements set out by the Environmental Policy Act.  There are design guidelines and eligible activities include education, safety, OHB brochures, mapping projects, construction, design, development, maintenance activities and renovation.  Applications have to have a government cosponsor. It can be any level of government.

The committee decides what it’s priorities are and use a point system to rate projects.  The more uses allowed, the more points given. Projects that can be used by the disabled, older citizens and other special groups get more points. The degree to which there are trail linkages,  opportunities for other projects, ties to trails, greenways, natural and historical areas, compatibility with regional plans all earn additional points - the more plans, the more points. No more than 80% of a project can come from this program’s funds, therefore the degree to which plans deliver funds from other sources, both private and public adds points, for example, if the boy scouts help maintain a trail.  The degree to which citizens are  involved counts.  If the idea originated with citizens rather than with a city or county board, the project gets more points. Public/private partnerships to continue maintenance receive more  points than a project requiring city or county crews to provide the service. An extra 10 points is given if the area is cleaned up prior to use.

Applications should be postmarked Oct. 1 of every year. After applications have been collected they are packaged up and sent to committee members who set up a meeting and are supposed to score the applications before the meeting  When they get the scores they make a list of motorized and non-motorized projects, then go down the list until they run out of money.  .  Approval is a staged process: once this group has ranked the projects, it goes to the transportation commission and ultimately to the federal highway commission for approval.

The list of applications for this year has already been submitted, since the deadline is October 1<sup>st.  All the money allocated to Iowa has been spent each year and some years there have been no motorized projects.  When that happens they have to apply for a waiver.

Public comments follow:

Jane Clark presented a plan made by Audubon for a birding trail along the Mississippi, pointing out that this would do a lot for areas along the river, bringing birders, who spend a good deal of money to these places. She showed examples of maps made by Minnesota and Texas of birding trails.

Gregory Vitale expressed his thanks to the federal representative for the public meeting, pointing out that this has not happened in the past.  He said that bikers are not a homogenous group. There are off-trail and trail groups and both should have representation.</sup> He suggested that Audubon, the Sierra Club and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation should also have representation.

Gary Roland, the representative for paddlers, talked about the need for signage for landings, camping and hazards along water trails.  There are 3000 miles of waterways and 300 access points.  He talked about his project of finding access points along the Des Moines River.  Finding some of them took five years.  There has been no organized effort to make a water trail happen.

There was a question from a DNR man about the interpretation of  the rules determining what percentage of the funds should go toward motorized uses..  His understanding is that these rules have been loosened up and more is left to the state's discretion.  He believes 95% of users in Iowa are non motorized.  His question is whether non-motorized users should get a greater percentage of the money.

The United States has a code for recreational trails that include environmental benefits & mitigation.  It provides for redesign of construction to minimize the impact to the environment this speaker did not hear that in this code.

Jerry Cramer, VEEP of a snowmobile group pointed out that this funding comes from a gas tax fund that is designated for non highway motorized use and there are 45,000 motorized users in Iowa. He, himself, has snowmobiled 3000  miles in Iowa, getting only 10 miles to the gallon.  He believes motorized users get little out of what they put into this.

He runs the groomer in his area and lets cross country skiers know where he groomed.  He said it would be helpful to snowmobilers if cross country skiers could wear luminescent markings to reduce injuries.

I suggested that another source of funding should be developed so that other users could have a voice, said that mixing snowmobiles and cross country skiers is dangerous, and mentioned that designated trails in Story County outside of cities are designated as hunting areas and are suitable only for hunting because they are undeveloped.  Pheasant hunting is allowed on trails and it is the most hazardous of all hunting activities.

Mr. Garst of Garst Seeds brought up the problems of west central Iowa rails for trails. He wanted assistance finding money for his trail project.  He knows of no one in his area who can afford to contribute to this project and potential trail areas are deteriorating because they are not being developed.

The reply was that they are only able to fund about 25% of the projects that apply because they run out of money.

Q: How many advisory groups are there that can get access for various kinds of trails funding?

A: There are state trails and enhancements programs, this group, Iowa trails 2000 and another group.  There is overlap among the membership of these groups.

Q: How many user groups are there?

A: She doesn’t know.  Some usergroups are more well organized and easy to identify because they make their presence known. It is easier if they come to us and say we’re here.

Q: How would people find out about the program?  There are applications on a website, and people can contact [log in to unmask] . Nancy Burns goes to meetings and speaks, and there was a mass mailing to cities and counties when this started. Send a letter if you want to be represented.

There was a question about whether the composition of this group had ever changed.  The reply was that it takes people some time to learn how to rate projects, and that a long term is an advantage.

Comments are being accepted until January 10^{th.  Contact} [log in to unmask]

Peggy Murdock