Finding Meaning in Writing a Grant

I recently helped one of our local trail committees prepare one of its grant applications, not usually the most exciting of tasks. The silver lining however, is that it forces us to bring together information that sometimes stays diffused for a long time. The following are two questions from the application and two responses that I hope the trail-using public will find interesting. As I was writing I thought to myself: Hey, we're doing pretty well.

What major projects have been undertaken and what have been the results over last two years?

The Top of Michigan Trails Council has completed two major projects in the last two years and has moved forward significantly toward completion in several others.

1) The $3.1 million dollar resurfacing of the North Central State Trail (Gaylord to Mackinaw City) was finished in the fall of 2007 and formally dedicated in June of 2008. The 62 mile rail-trail now has an all weather crushed limestone surface that is suitable for all bicycles.

2) The 1.4 mile segment of the Little Traverse Wheelway (Charlevoix to Harbor Springs) was completed in the fall of 2008 and dedicated in June of 2009. This especially scenic segment relocates the trail from the shoulder of US 31 to a railroad grade carved a century ago into a bluff 50 feet above Little Traverse Bay. The Wheelway is an asphalt trail.

Construction in the next two years is expected to include:
1) (Fall of 2008) Construction of the remaining 3 miles of the Little Traverse Wheelway from the Harbor Springs Airport into the city.
2) Resurfacing with crushed limestone of the entire 70 miles of the rail-trail from Alpena to Cheboygan.
3) Construction of phase 1 (approximately 7 miles) of the Boyne City to Charlevoix Trail.
4) Improvement of several trailheads, notably at Mackinaw City, Cheboygan and Millersburg.

How will project success be measured? (for example, number of new greenway miles available, number of visitors, support leveraged or similar quantified results.)

We generally measure our success in the number of new miles and the number of “improved” miles added to our network. Currently we have about 288 miles in eight counties. Of these 106 are considered improved (either asphalt or high quality crushed limestone and about 38 are acquired right of way on which no trail currently exists. That leaves 144 “unimproved” miles but, as noted above, 3 will be improved in the fall of 2009 and 70 more in 2010 or 2011.

We consider the Burt Lake Trail important not only as a beautiful stand-alone trail around the north end of one of our most scenic lakes but also as a link between our North Central State Trail in the west and Petoskey to Mackinaw City Trail in the east. Petoskey to Mackinaw City is currently unimproved and we expect progress on the Burt Lake Trail to stimulate efforts to improve it. As an example of linkage the trail distance from Gaylord to Petoskey via Mackinaw City is 99 miles. Cutting across from Topinabee to Brutus on the Burt Lake Trail would reduce the distance to about 67 miles and create a scenic new loop opportunity for riders.

Because of the labor intensity involved in doing trail surveys, we do not currently have a systematic way of measuring trail use. This excludes the Little Traverse Wheelway where several have been done. However, abundant observation reveals that our improved trails are well used and get rave reviews. There is a plethora of anecdotal evidence that attests to high usage and high satisfaction of the trails.

Photo: A line of riders on an "unimproved" trail. We aim to improve them all and build new ones.