NRTF grants to build two parks; protect Jaxon Creek

Dec. 31—FRANKFORT — Railroad Point's Christmas present came early when a state trust fund board agreed to fund a new park on Crystal Lake.

Situated at the lake's outlet and dam, the waterfront property is wedged between the shore and Betsie Valley Trail. Ed Hoogterp, Benzie County Parks and Recreation Commission's chairman, said plans are to add parking, a universally accessible kayak launch, boardwalks and more.

It's a capstone on a years-long effort to preserve 220 acres of land at Railroad Point, Hoogterp said. There's a long stretch of undeveloped shoreline, part of the Betsie Valley trail and more hiking paths through the woods.

Other grants and private donations helped, as did the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and the Crystal Lake Association.

People love to walk across the wedge of land set to become a park, to the point where it's been over-loved, Hoogterp said.

"And what excites me is that we're going to find a way to allow people to keep using this the way they love it," he said.

The Natural Resources Trust Fund recommended granting $300,000, which the land conservancy pledged to match, Hoogterp said. It's yet to be determined how much the project will actually cost, and he figured construction could begin in spring 2024. Rising costs could require cutting some features or raising more money, but the main design elements will remain, especially safety and accessibility improvements.

Trails and beaches

Railroad Point was just one of dozens of projects the NRTF selected for its annual round of grants, according to the Department of Natural Resources. Board members at their December meeting tabbed 45 recreation development or land acquisition projects totaling $23,306,200 in grant requests.

A few others are in northwestern Michigan, including rerouting a bit of the North Country Trail south of downtown Kalkaska and building a trailhead with parking near the Boardman/Ottaway River's north branch.

Cash Cook is Kalkaska Downtown Development Authority's director, and said the project fills a longstanding need for a proper trailhead in the officially designated "Trail Town." Rerouting the trail along the river and through town would spare it from any future cuttings on state forest lands.

It also puts trail hikers close to the village's various amenities, including lodgings, restaurants, a post office, grocery store and outdoor outfitter, Cook said.

The DDA put together a big partnership, including the North Country Trail Association, village government, Kalkaska Conservation District and other recreation groups, Cook said. Still others chipped in, with Rotary Charities of Traverse City, the Consumers Energy Foundation and Impact100 Traverse City giving grants.

Those donations will help match a $250,000 NRTF grant, Cook said.

North Country Trail walkers will get a new 1.4-mile pathway instead of 2.2 miles of walking on road shoulders, according to a description from the DNR.

The project also will include accessible boardwalks and bridges over the river, plus a kiosk with trail maps, Cook said. A modular boardwalk system will let contractors install it with minimal disturbance to the ground below.

"There are very few ADA-accessible water assets around this part of the world, so another reason why we wanted to put this together is purely for access to the river for local folks, too," he said.

More planning is needed, including getting permission from the Michigan Department of Transportation to connect a driveway to U.S. 131, Cook said. He hopes construction can begin in summer 2023.

Those who trek the 4,800-mile, North Dakota-to-Vermont see all kinds of sights along the way, said Kenny Wawszczyk, North Country Trail Association's regional trail coordinator for Michigan. Other National Scenic Trails like the Appalachian or Pacific Crest are much more remote.

And the NCT passes through the grasslands of North Dakota, the lakes and woods of Minnesota's "Arrowhead," Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the Jordan River Valley ... the list goes on.

Wawszczyk agreed those sights include Kalkaska's roadside attraction, a giant leaping trout, among others in the various downtowns the trail passes through.

"We want to go through these towns and provide opportunities for those hikers and just a different, unique perspective, too," he said.

In Traverse City, another grant will replace a beach bathroom in sore need of upgrades, and add another in a different busy corner of the city's waterfront.

West End Beach's bathroom will be demolished and replaced with an accessible one that could have two stalls in each half, depending on the cost, city Parks and Recreation Superintendent Michelle Hunt said. It will also include a bench for changing.

The $200,500 grant, which the city will match, will also add a single-stall bathroom near the parking lot between the city's Open Space and its volleyball courts, Hunt said.

She chose prefabricated bathrooms for both, since they can handle rough weather and the wear and tear public facilities endure.

Plenty of people want to see new bathrooms at West End Beach, so the grant recommendation is exciting, Hunt said. She's also enthusiastic about adding another near the volleyball court. Construction is set for 2024 to coincide with MDOT's work on Grandview Parkway.

Oil and elk

In the NRTF's 46 years, the fund's administrators have awarded $1.3 billion both to buy public land and to develop it into parks, according to the DNR.

It was originally called the Kammer Recreational Land Trust Fund after the bill's sponsor, Sen. Kerry Kammer, state lawmakers adopted it in 1976, according to The Alpena News and DNR.

Kammer and others offered the fund as a compromise to a dispute over plans to drill oil and gas wells in Pigeon River Country, a sprawling tract of state forest northwest of Atlanta. Among the wildlife to call it home are some 1,200 elk, and it's crossed by three pristine rivers famed for their brook trout and, in one case, sturgeon.

Environmentalists feared the drilling would harm the elk herd, and that lax regulations wouldn't protect the land or water. They initially blocked the drilling in court, and then-Gov. William Milliken threatened to veto a bill giving oil developers more leeway. But the 1973 oil embargo added pressure to tap more of the state's fossil fuel reserves.

Kammer and his aide worked with the DNR and others to build on an idea suggested by Michigan United Conservation Clubs' then-President Tom Washington: Use the money oil companies pay to the state as a trust fund to buy more public lands.

Voters took to the idea, enshrining it in the state constitution in 1984 and agreeing several times since to raise a cap on the fund's total. Money for acquisition, development and payments in lieu of taxes on the land the fund buys comes from investments and interest.

Other nearby parks to benefit from trust fund grants include high-profile recreational sites like the Boardman River Trail and Hickory Hills, as previously reported.

Headwaters

Another recommendation isn't in the middle of town nor part of a multistate trail. But preserving 160 acres of land on Blair Townhall Road in Blair Township is exciting in its own way, DNR Recreation Grants Unit Manager Jon Mayes said. It's surrounded by state forest, so acquiring it is like filling in the hole of a donut.

"If we can fill that in, it makes management of the state forest so much more efficient because you don't have to worry about where property line boundaries are if you're going to do wildlife habitat enhancement or going to do timber treatment," he said.

What's more, the square of land holds the headwaters of a branch of Jaxon Creek, according to a project description. It's a cold-water trout stream that feeds into the Boardman/Ottaway.

Chris Sullivan, GTRLC's director of land protection, said the organization helped facilitate the purchase after finding out the DNR was interested in buying, and the owner was looking to sell.

Not only does protecting the land from development spare the wetlands and other habitat there, but it prevents an outsize impact on recreation, Sullivan said. Hunters, for example, would have to stay at least 450 feet from any occupied building there.

Next, state lawmakers will consider the NRTF board's recommendations, Mayes said. They typically approve the grants although sometimes not until summer.

"But if we can get it approved in, say, March or April, it would be outstanding, we could get our communities started on these projects," he said.