We've been remiss in our coverage of a poorly executed off-road vehicle trail project in Houston, Minnesota.
Late Thursday afternoon, Tony Kennedy reported for the Star Tribune Outdoors section, Review finds stewardship gaps in motorized trail project in Houston, Minn.:
The state Department of Natural Resources did not fully comply with federal environmental review procedures for a planned, off-road vehicle park in Houston, Minn., according to a federal highway official.
The lapse, explained in a memo obtained by the Star Tribune, happened during the land acquisition phase of the slow-developing project and doesn't disqualify it from continued federal support. But now that the procedural gap has been investigated by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), officials are focused on the upcoming possibility of an expensive environmental review that lacks a pre-ordained funding source.
Houston City Council Member Cody Mathers said this week that the developments could galvanize local opposition to a plan long nurtured by DNR and the city as a regional playground for riders of ATVs, side-by-sides, Jeeps and dirt bikes. The DNR has said southeastern Minnesota is bereft of off-highway vehicle trails on public land and City Hall sees the would-be park as a sweetener to the local economy.
"We've learned that some steps were missed,'' Mathers said. "I guess it kind of confirms what some of the opposition has been saying.''
Critics say the proposed complex of 7.5 miles of trails and a "rock crawl'' area would invite noise pollution and environmental damage to a delicate, erodible piece of land that includes a rare section of bluff prairie, habitat for timber rattlesnakes and signs of other valuable resources.
Karla Bloem, a naturalist who previously worked at the DNR, said she blew the whistle on the Houston Trail project for what she considers wide-scale environmental neglect. She poured over government documents dating back to the project's origin in 2009, finding that the DNR bought land for the motorized trail complex without first clearing environmental review hurdles tied to the acceptance of grant money from the highway administration.
"This whole thing would have taken an entirely different route if DNR would have coordinated with federal agencies from the start,'' said Bloem, executive director of the International Owl Center in Houston.
Her campaign against Houston Trail is focused on the steeply sloped site, not against ATV riders. Besides ripping the DNR for side-stepping the federal level of environmental review tied to FHWA grant money, she has publicly shamed DNR for ignoring resource-protection concerns voiced by the agency's own field staff.
"This isn't about minor paperwork,'' Bloem said.
One of her examples is a recommendation from Lisa Joyal, DNR's endangered species environmental review coordinator. In 2011, Joyal advised her agency that any off-highway trail planning should completely avoid two areas on the site: A rare native remnant of "dry bedrock bluff prairie'' and a natural forest of red oak, white oak and sugar maples. Nevertheless, Bloem said, the trail complex was designed to tread across both areas.
Bloem is part of a grassroots group in the Houston area that started a "Save our Bluffs'' lawn sign campaign. This summer, the organizers circulated a petition signed by 400 people requesting that the City Council cancel development of Houston Trail. The signatures constituted 59% of the voting population, Bloem has said. . .
Read the rest at the Star Tribune.
For a taste of some of that local sentiment, check out a couple of letters to the editor of the Fillmore County News. There's Russell Smith's Let’s rethink the Houston OHV trail:
The OHV trail proposed for Houston’s South Park is extremely unlikely to yield any significant financial benefit for the community.
I’ve taught marketing and marketing research for 28 years, currently at Winona State University; I’ve also conducted a good deal of tourism-related research. Over the years I’ve seen my share of wrong-minded tourism development that degrades nature and disrupts communities, always with prior assurances of a financial payoff that never adequately compensates for the loss of natural habitat, the loss of a community’s quality of life and the loss of opportunity to pursue other more promising and suitable alternatives. An abundance of credible research on this topic has provided best practice do’s and don’ts for small town and rural tourism development. My recommendation for Houston’s OHV trail is ‘don’t.’ . . .
Normally, we could expect the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to oversee the interests and well-being of all parties involved in this issue, but it seems that much of this oversight is being delegated to OHV clubs and associations, groups that now bill themselves as “experts” in trail development and management. Our problem is that these groups are now targeting the bluffs of Southeast Minnesota. As it turns out, this is highly desirable real estate. Bluffs provide more exciting trails that challenge increasingly powerful machines designed to penetrate deeper into rugged terrain. In order to achieve their expansion goals, club “experts” have assured environmentalist that the local wildlife will scarcely know they’re around. City councils and rural administrators on the other hand, are more interested in the financial payoff, and the clubs are only too happy to predict impressive economic benefits in order to close the deal. Problematically, these benefits may be overstated to say the least. . . .
Sounds like regulatory capture. After a St. Louis County Commissioner weighed in with Be very careful about pulling the plug on the Houston OHV park, locals struck back. Bloem replied in Houston and Gilbert OHV trails are as similar as apples and tomatoes:
I have a degree in biology, have lived in Houston County my whole life, and have done environ-mental education programs on the proposed Houston OHV Trail site for 15 years.
Com-paring the Iron Range OHV Recreation Area in Gilbert and the Appleton Area Recreational Park to the proposed Houston OHV Trail is a bit like comparing apples to tomatoes. They may seem outwardly similar, but they’re very different.
The Gilbert area is built on an old iron mine and Appleton in an old gravel mine. Houston’s proposed location is a relatively undisturbed, naturally vegetated bluff with one of the rarest habitats in the state, at least two threatened species, four species of special concern and seven species of greatest conservation need. The soils are classified as highly erodible. . . .
Despite these concerns, the DNR has chosen to do no formal environmental review for the trail alignment.
There is also an old lime kiln in good condition, from around the 1880s, in close proximity to the entrance trail. It is made of dry stacked stones on a steep hillside, and very susceptible to damage from erosion or direct vandalism.
The City of Houston already has tourism, with significant plans for growth. According to the Minnesota State Trail User Count 2018 Report, 11,435 people used the Root River Trail at mile marker 35 in 2017. In 2019 (pre-COVID) the International Owl Center had 12,619 visitors to their center. In comparison, the Gilbert OHV area (which is 36 miles long compared to Houston’s 7.5 miles) had about half that many visitors based on data provided by the DNR. Tourism will grow considerably when the new Owl Center facility is built, with annual visitation estimated to be a minimum of 40,000 people/year (based on research by the University of Minnesota.)
Noise is a far bigger issue here. The closest trails to the nearest rows of houses in Gilbert and Appleton are 0.8 miles away. In Houston they are just 0.2 miles away, elevated on a bluff.
Trail construction and maintenance are critical to success. Gilbert is owned and maintained by the DNR, Appleton by Swift County, and Houston’s would be owned by the city but maintained entirely by volunteers.
The opposition to this project is not new, nor just “a few people.” There was a petition back in 2013. This year a new petition requesting the cancelation of the project was signed by 400 people, although more were opposed and uncomfortable signing. This represents a minimum of 59% of the city’s voting population, 24 business owners, 24 non-resident property owners, and 35 adjacent landowners.
According to the 2017 Minnesota Outdoor Activities Survey, 95% of respondents participated in hiking/walking outdoors in the past year, 65% biked, 54% canoed/kayaked/paddle boarded, while only 36% rode an OHV vehicle. Although OHVs are a fast-growing segment, OHV recreationists are still dwarfed in numbers by the traditional silent sports with a small environmental footprint.
The City’s ability to obtain non-OHV grants from the DNR in the future would not be impacted if the City withdrew from this project (according to DNR grant staff.) They also would not likely be required to repay half a million in grant dollars received… the DNR attorneys are reviewing what the consequences of withdrawing would be.
There are solid facts and much research that stand behind those who want to protect our bluffs in Houston. We aren’t against OHV trails – just this location.
The name Karla Bloem rang a bell for us and we remembered that she is the Executive Director of Houston's International Owl Center, a most delightful organization. We're guessing that the Center isn't getting into this fight--but we're citing her leadership as evidence that her objections come from a strong understanding of her region's natural resources.
Photo: The proposed Houston Trail project in the Driftless Area could be headed for more environmental review; photo supplied to the Star Tribune by Karla Bloem.
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