NCBR Article Trails projects receive State Parks grants By NCBR staff Share |   March 14, 2011 -- DENVER - The Colorado State Parks Board has awarded over $4 million in grants to build, maintain, plan and support volunteer programs for motorized trails throughout Colorado in 2011. The board also approved more than $1.7 million in grants for recreational trail projects for multi-use non-motorized trails. The grants for the motorized trail projects were funded solely by the sale of off-highway vehicle registrations and will pay for managing, operating, posting signs, planning and maintaining OHV routes, education programs, maps, and trail maintenance equipment. In the 2010-11 season, an estimated 132,000 off-highway vehicles will be registered with owners paying $25.25 each. Funding for the non-motorized trail grants came from GOCO, Great Outdoors Colorado; the Colorado Lottery; the Federal Highway Administration's Recreational Trails Program; and the U.S. Interior Department's Land and Water Conservation Fund. GOCO, the single largest source of grant money, provided $1 million of the total awarded through its share of the Lottery proceeds. The board adopted the grant recommendations of the nine-member volunteer Colorado State Trails Committee. The committee is appointed by the parks board and includes a representative from each of the seven congressional districts, one at-large member each from the off-highway vehicle and snowmobile community, and one member from the GOCO Board. The committee reviewed 63 motorized trail grant requests for $6 million in funding, and 43 applications requesting more than $4 million for the coming year. The motorized grants were awarded to 47 projects, with $2.53 million going toward projects on U.S. Forest Service trails and $630,320 for Bureau Land Management trails. Additional grants were awarded to the Responsible Recreation Foundation, Trails Preservation Alliance, multiple OHV clubs and others. The funds will enable trail crews to perform maintenance work, install signs, build bridges, construct reroutes, improve trailheads, and make public contacts. The roads and trails are multi-use routes, so all improvements benefit both motorized and non-motorized users. The 19 non-motorized grants were awarded to city and county governments, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, SLV Recycles (a Nordic skiing group), the Bureau of Land Management, Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, Colorado Youth Corps Association and the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership. Projects include $1.34 million for building and maintaining large trails, $183,283 for small trails and $181,237 for planning new trails and supporting volunteer efforts. The recipients of the largest grants were the City of Fruita, City of Colorado Springs and ECO Trails Program of Garfield County, which each received $200,000 grants for trail projects. The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative received $199,780 and the USDA Forest Service Gunnison Ranger District was awarded $197,164. To see a complete list of the motorized trail project grants, go to www.parks.state.co.us/OHVsandSnowmobiles/OHVProgram/; non-motorized grants are listed at http://parks.state.co.us/Trails/Grants/. For more information on Colorado State Parks, visit www.parks.state.co.us.