Building a Sustainable Model for Trails

Guest Opinion

The Grand Traverse region is a place most clearly defined by water and the natural features of our sugar sand beaches, cold water streams, inland lakes, and wooded hillsides. Another feature that has come to define our region is the access provided to these spaces through sustainable trails that immerse us in the landscape and bring our senses alive.

A hiking trail through one of our area’s many nature preserves offers a certain quietude. A mountain bike trail provides a place for all ages to find their speed and flow state. There are miles of cross-country ski and fatbiking trails through our state forests where you can enjoy all four seasons. Other trails and pathways connect us in practical, everyday ways to our local schools, work, shopping, and services.

Our region has become particularly well known for its network of multi-use, non-motorized trails, and there are over 100 miles of trails and greenways throughout our community. Many of these trails have been created, managed or supported by TART Trails, Inc. Mention the TART network and it means different things to different people—the TART in Town, the Leelanau Trail from Traverse City to Suttons Bay, the Acme Connector, or the Nakwema Trailway, a generational project now being planned to connect Traverse City to Elk Rapids and, someday, Charlevoix.

What may surprise you: all of these trails have been planned, designed, engineered, constructed, and maintained without a dedicated, recurring source of public funding.

Instead, these community assets have relied on a unique, collaborative, cross-sector model that relies heavily on a generous philanthropic community, federal and state grants and, more frequently, local government support. The idea is to leverage every available resource to get good projects done.

I have seen firsthand the multitude of benefits our local trail network provides: improved public health, safer ways to get around without sitting in a car, connections to neighbors and friends, access to parks, beaches and public lands, a place to walk the dog away from traffic, and a boost to our local economy and quality of life.

For all these reasons, I feel lucky to live in a place where the community is doing so much to live in alignment with its values.

Our community should be proud of the trails we’ve developed. But the model for how trails get done, just like everything in life, is limited and has to evolve to meet the vision our community has for itself and its trail network. A reliable source of public funding for public trails could be an important next step in the evolution of the network.

The Boardman Lake Loop Trail may be the best example of the power of public funding and the leverage and impact it can bring.

Today, tens of thousands of us experience the Loop simply as part of the community. We walk it. We ride it. We use it to get somewhere or to go nowhere in particular. It connects neighborhoods, businesses, parks, the library, Logan’s Landing (and now Short’s Landing), and the Boardman/Ottaway River.

But the Loop didn’t happen because one organization or government decided to build it. It took decades. It required the City of Traverse City, Garfield Township, Grand Traverse County, the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, TART Trails, state and federal agencies, private donors, and many others to put the pieces together.

Private and local dollars helped unlock larger state and federal investments. Different partners funded different pieces. The result is an asset none of those partners likely could have created alone. That’s leverage. And it’s how we’ve built trails here.

The lesson of the Boardman Lake Loop isn’t that public funding should replace private philanthropy, partnerships, or grants. It’s that reliable local funding can make those other resources more powerful.

It can also help us address something far less exciting than building the next trail: taking care of what we’ve already built. Pavement deteriorates. Bridges and boardwalks age. Grass grows. Snow falls. Storms bring down trees. Maintaining what we have is a critical part of the trail planning process.

This November, Grand Traverse County voters will consider a six-year, 0.3-mill countywide trails millage. For the first time, it would create a dedicated source of public funding for building, connecting, and maintaining the county’s non-motorized trail network.

Any proposal for a new tax deserves scrutiny. Voters should ask how money will be spent, how projects will be prioritized, and how results will be measured. Under the proposal, the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners would retain final authority over budgets and expenditures, with recommendations from a trails advisory committee representing communities throughout the county. Ultimately, voters will decide whether this particular millage is the right mechanism.

The public-private model that built our trail system has worked extraordinarily well. The Boardman Lake Loop is proof. The opportunity now isn’t to replace that model. It’s to strengthen it.

Brian Beauchamp is the Director of Strategic Engagement at TART Trails and has been involved in local trail planning (and use!) for over 17 years in the Grand Traverse region.

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