A View of the Clinton River from the trail

Congratulations to Rochester Hills for their recent purchase of greenspace.

From the Daily Tribune:

The land, located east of Livernois and north of Avon, adjoins the Clinton River Trail. It was paid for with money from a 0.3-mill 10-year millage passed in September 2005 for the purpose of acquiring and preserving natural green space in the city.

The land acquisitions are to permanently preserve wildlife habitats, protect woodlands, wetlands, rivers and streams and expand the Clinton River Greenway and other trail corridors.

If not mistaken, this land is on the north side of the Clinton River Trail and contains some informal deer paths/singletrack.  This land acuisition may allow public access to the Clinton River Trail from the north — a huge benefit to those of us using this trail for transportation.

This isn’t the last land acquisition so long as Rochester Hills has it’s 0.3 mill greenspace millage.

They’re inventoried all of the potential greenspace within their boundaries and have prioritized their acquisition.  There is an excellent map on-line showing this.

The International Mountain Bicycling Association brings a huge amount of professionalism and energy to the table for all of us that use trails.

Now it’s our turn to step up.  We need mountain bikers to contact the National Park Service.

According to IMBA:

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has proposed an important rule change that will make it easier for parks to open trails to mountain biking. IMBA urges mountain bikers to register comments in support of the new rule. We have been asking the NPS to make this change since the 1990s — we now enter a 60-day commentary period to make the change official.

We know that several groups are working hard to defeat this proposal. It will take thousands of comments supporting the NPS to ensure the rule is approved. Please lend your voice to the discussion today.

Fortunately IMBA has made it super simple to contact the National Park Service.

And they’re also so professional about it.  As opposition groups rely on whipping up emotions and passions to get a response, IMBA writes a white paper that responsibly lays out the impacts of this rule change.

A rule change will not diminish protections that ensure appropriate trail use. All regular NPS regulations, General Management Planning (GMP) processes, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) still applies. Absolutely no environmental processes will be shortchanged. The public will still have ample opportunity to comment both locally and nationally. The parks that have existing mountain biking have gone through the GMP and NEPA processes and the trails are signed, actively managed and documented in the superintendent’s compendium.

If you want to support IMBA a bit more, by all means consider an IMBA membership.

And if you hurry, you can still get the tax deduction for this year.

We mentioned this a couple days ago when discussing Trust Fund grants, but it’s worth further coverage.

But first, we note that much non-motorized transportation road funding comes from MDOT (e.g. Transportation Enhancements, CMAQ) and the state fuel tax (a minimum of 1% of which must be spent on non-motorized facilities.)  But the bottom line is all road projects should routinely accomodate bicyclists — that is the Federal Highway Administration policy guideline — and facilities such as bike lanes and paved shoulders should be paid for through the same funding sources as roads.

No legal road user group should have to bring their own pot of money to the table in order to get safe facilities.

Now the Transportation Funding Task Force is recommending that the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund be diverted for transportation.

It’s a terrible idea.  Michigan voters changed Michigan’s Constitution to prevents such diversions so it’s difficult to understand how or why anyone would make such a recommendation.

Since 1976, Trust Fund grants have been a fundamental source for funding recreation and parkland acquisition in Michigan.  That funding has been used at the local and county levels, as well as by the DNR. Most of the area’s rail-trail projects are around because the Trust Fund helped purchase the land.  A list of Trust Fund projects is on-line.

We recommend contacting Governor Granholm to let her know you oppose diverting the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund for transportation.

Dennis Muchmore is the executive director for the MUCC also serves on the Trust Fund board.  He certainly doesn’t dance around the issue as his recent press release shows (see below).

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Proposed trail bridge over Telegraph Road in Pontiac

The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) Board has recommended funding for 81 recreation projects and land acquisitions totaling $48.5 million be funded for 2008.

This was the most ever awarded for Trust Fund grants.  This is due to the higher prices paid for mineral (including oil & gas) leases on state property.

“Michigan is blessed with natural resources and special places that should be protected and enjoyed for generations to come,” said Governor Granholm. “These recommendations represent ways that we can ensure that Michigan citizens and visitors will be able to enjoy outdoor recreation now and in the future.”

A Threat to the Trust Fund

The Trust Fund is set up so that it can continue to fund recreation projects and land acquisition projects after the gas and oil run out.  That’s not the threat.

The threat is the Transportation Funding Task Force who recently recommended that the Trust Fund monies be diverted into the transportation budget.  As a whole, this was perhaps their only out-of-the-box recommendation yet it only shows how out-of-touch they are with reality.

Fortunately in 1985 Michigan voters put the Trust Fund in the state constitution to protect it from bad ideas such as this.

In the words of Dennis Muchmore, the MUCC Executive Director, “Raiding the Trust Fund would be an outrageous and unwarranted attempt to circumvent the public will.”

2008 Recommended Grants – Recreation Projects

Clinton River Trail Bridge (Pontiac), $485,000. This project will construct a new pedestrian bridge, approach and ramps over Telegraph Road.  This is absolutely huge and it almost didn’t make the cut.  This is only partial funding.  Additional grant money will be required.

Bell Creek Park Non-Motorized Trailway (Redford), $450,000. This project includes development of 600 feet of elevated boardwalk across a floodplain of the Bell Branch of the Rouge River, connecting two sidewalk ends. A 75-foot long bicycle/pedestrian bridge will span the river.

Kensington Metropark-Milford Trail Connector, $315,000. The project would include 1.2 miles of paved trail from the Kensington Metropark loop trail to the Milford-Kensington Trail (at the Dairy Queen.)

2008 Recommended Grants – Land Acquisitions

DNR  Southeast Lower Peninsula Land Consolidation, $4 million. This project will acquire various properties within Southeast Michigan, but especially private land within our state parks.

Academy Preserve Acquisition (Monroe), $2,192,500. This project will acquire approximately 128 acres of open space in the City of Monroe with a portion of Frenchtown Township. The site includes an oak savannah, oak-hickory forest, lowland forest, farmland and a forested island in the River Raisin.  There you go, Erie Hiker!

Michigan Air-Line Railway (West Bloomfield), $1,452,500. This project will acquire approximately 17 acres, or 2.5 miles, of railway corridor that connects the existing West Bloomfield trail west to Haggery Road.  This is great news for a trail project we discussed earlier.

Got 30 seconds to donate to help us improve biking in Michigan?

If you do, please visit the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy web site, fill in their simple form, and tell President-elect Obama that you want funding for trails in the economic stimulus package.

There’s been a mad rush behind the scenes to collect information on “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects.  While road and bridge projects will likely be funded through this package, we’d prefer seeing some greener alternatives.

And biking and walking certainly fit with Obama’s call to reduce our demand for foreign oil.  Studies show that building biking and walking facilities induces more to choose these green modes of transportation.

C’mon.  It’s just 30 seconds.