BLT unveils trail plans
Planners, county officials, landowners and concerned citizens gathered Monday evening to discuss the future of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) at an open house held at the Logan Parks and Recreation Center.
The Draft Master Plan for the Northern Section of the BST was unveiled and representatives from the BST Master Plan Committee, Bear River Association of Governments, Cache County and BioWest – the main consultant on the project – answered questions and gleaned input from attending citizens and representatives from various organizations.
From this point, Steve Klass, public involvement coordinator for the Northern Bonneville Shoreline Trail Master Plan Committee, said the plan would be open for more public input online at www.bonneville-trail.org/north.htm.
Jeff Gilbert, community development director for the Bear River Association of Governments, said the Cache Trails Committee will also present the plan to communities because the Master Plan is just a recommendation for each municipality to deal with individually.
Andrea Moser, BioWest employee, said they provided alternatives to facilitate public input and now it is up to the communities to implement any plans.
“The plan is a guideline for communities to follow,” Moser said.
The Bonneville Shoreline Trail Committee began in 1991 to create a trail system along the rim of the ancient Lake Bonneville that provided a non-motorized connectivity through much of Utah, Klass said.
Gilbert said trails have been implemented throughout the Wasatch front during the past 10 years, and currently sections of trail exist from south of Provo to Logan.
The northern portion of the BST is different from its southern predecessors in that a cumulative master plan has been produced to aid communities in the design and implementation of a cohesive trail system, Gilbert said.
There are many lessons to be learned from the southern sections, though.
David Wallace, a Logan resident and member of the Utah Native Plant Society, said that in the Salt Lake and Provo areas volunteers did much of the work.
“I’d like to see something like that happen here, too,” Wallace said.
Community meetings were held in October 2001 to obtain public input on where trails should be located and what residents wanted to accomplish with the trail, Klass said, and the Master Plan presented Monday was the first draft of the results of those meetings.
Attendees ranged from ranchers concerned about the BST cutting through their land to native plant advocates hoping to influence the selection for seeding when trails were constructed.
Curtis Dent owns about 400 acres between Richmond and Smithfield, which is bisected by the current proposed route of the BST. He said he is concerned about the trail cutting through his land not only because it would destroy his ranch, but because it would disrupt one of the last major deer migration routes in the valley.
Dent was also concerned with vandalism and liability issues.
“When a bull runs over a biker, I don’t want to be responsible. That’s too much liability,” he said.
Gilbert said there are laws that protect property owners from being responsible if they grant easements for recreational use and increased use actually reduces vandalism.
Klass said, “The people who recreate don’t tend to be the burglar-type. Plus, those people who would damage property require privacy, so more people will actually help. The recreator may become the farmer’s friend.”
Destruction of agriculture land was another aspect Dent said he was concerned with.
“These sorts of trails are for urban areas. I won’t be able to exist if I have a trail cutting through my ranch. I think it’s a good idea for developers to be required to have a trail through their subdivisions, but in ag land, the open space is already preserved,” Dent said.
Gilbert said the Draft Master Plan did not look at issues like ownership, cost, current access or politics, but mostly focused on what made sense physically.
“The idea is to provide connectivity,” Gilbert said. “And we will work with private landowners to implement the trail system.”
Dent said, “I’m just glad to see that the government is not going to force the landowners to comply with the plan by condemning property or anything.”
Most citizens have been very supportive of the idea, and even landowners opposed to the trail going through their property appreciate the plan as a whole.
“As a concept, I think it’s a great idea. I just don’t want it going through my property destroying my ranch and the deer migration,” Dent said.
Jake Gibson, a sophomore, native of Logan and majoring in watershed science, said he is excited about the plan.
“I’d just like to see it happen. I’m here to see how I can help it go through,” Gibson said. “Trails make a community wealthy. There are trails and corridors throughout Logan City where you can access the mountains or the valley without crossing too many streets. That makes a place rich.”
Other citizens, like Nathan Hult, said they are excited about the beautiful scenery which may be preserved by the BST.
Cache County executive Lynn Lemon said he believes more developed trails will lead to a decrease in unauthorized use.
“If you give people a place to do things in a nice area, there is less-likely to be any trouble,” Lemon said.
Northern Utah has a better opportunity to implement a regional-trails plan than other places like Salt Lake had, said Jay Aguilar, Cache Metropolitan Planning Organization.
“Right now we’re not developed yet at the 5,100-foot-elevation line. But when exclusive developments do come in those areas, they will block off access for the public. The BST can prevent that,” Aguilar said.
Richard Toth, Natural Resources professor at USU, said maintaining access was an important function of the trail, and that the proper structure may be developed by use of the bench-line and power company easements.
Klass said, “We need this. We need a place to walk and relieve stress so we’ll be nice people. It’s like a long, skinny city park, and there is a culture that develops around its use. But it will take time.”
Anyone interested in getting involved may contact Jeff Gilbert at 752-7242 or jeffg@brag.dst.ut.us.