{"id":100206,"date":"2018-04-22T19:46:21","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T01:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-begins-cataloging-trail-network\/"},"modified":"2018-04-22T19:46:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T01:46:21","slug":"silverton-begins-cataloging-trail-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-begins-cataloging-trail-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton begins cataloging trail network"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The town of Silverton is cataloging its trail network, examining the possibility of expanding and improving the system.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Silverton is taking a major step in getting its network of trails in order.<\/p>\n

Louis Fineberg, Silverton\u2019s town manager, said Tuesday that the town hadn\u2019t updated its travel plan since 2004, which catalogs existing trail networks and what types of recreation can occur on them.<\/p>\n

When the town caught wind that the Bureau of Land Management was planning on doing the same for trails located on the agency\u2019s managed land, Fineberg said the town wanted to take a proactive approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to create our community vision so we could just hand (the BLM) our planning document and say this is what we would like,\u201d Fineberg said.<\/p>\n

The town of Silverton held its first planning session to envision the future of its trails in February, drawing nearly 40 people from all user groups, such as mountain bikers, hikers, all-terrain vehicle users and horseback riders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of that meeting was to update our existing trail data,\u201d Fineberg said. \u201cWe laid out a few paper maps, and we asked people to draw on the maps where they know where trails are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The town will now compile that information into a GIS map, and once it\u2019s done, the town will have its first comprehensive base map for the area\u2019s trails, Fineberg said.<\/p>\n

The next planning session is 6 p.m. May 8 at the Kendall Community Center.<\/p>\n

Fineberg said one of the major benefits in this effort, aside from having a complete catalogue of recreational trails, is the ability to develop new trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a mystery that the mining industry has declined here, and Silverton really needs to focus on a new economic development strategy, and outdoor recreation is certainly a part of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By mapping out all the trails and bringing all the different user groups together, the town can more accurately document what exists, and any potential new opportunities for recreation through grants.<\/p>\n

Fineberg said the community meeting illustrated a clear need to build connector trails to expand the area\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea being if you have a unified network, you can create all kinds of trips without building many new trails,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeAnne Gallegos, director of the Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce, also said the effort has a huge economic and marketing benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to connect all those mountain ranges and have a true user experience that is navigable, obvious and has a trail map,\u201d Gallegos said.<\/p>\n

The town of Silverton\u2019s planning comes as the BLM readies to begin to draft the first travel management plan for its lands around Silverton.<\/p>\n

As per BLM process, each area has a \u201cResource Management Plan,\u201d which is the overall guiding document for the specific region. A \u201cTravel Management Plan\u201d is a subset of that document.<\/p>\n

Elijah Waters, Gunnison Office Field Manager for BLM, said a travel management plan identifies what trails are in an area, and what uses are allowed, which can include restrictions on type of travel or seasonal closures.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s never been a travel management plan for around Silverton, he said.<\/p>\n

Waters said the BLM will be an active and listening participant as the community develops its own vision. Once that\u2019s finished, the BLM intends to start its travel management plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir process doesn\u2019t take the place of ours, but I think they are doing a lot of the heavy lifting early,\u201d Waters said. \u201cOur intent is to take their product and use that as basis for our proposed action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waters hopes the BLM has that complete by May 2019. The process would go through the National Environmental Policy Act and a public comment period.<\/p>\n

Cam Hooley, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Forest, also said that agency is looking to update its travel management plan for areas around Silverton. Yet that effort likely won\u2019t start for a couple of years, she said.<\/p>\n

When user groups get together to hash out where and when their preferred recreational activities are allowed, there is often conflict, but Fineberg said this process, fortunately, has been smooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better to include everyone in the process,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to learn to live with each other. So far there hasn\u2019t been anything negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to improve, expand recreation data<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,658,4259,976,1562,327,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-hiking","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-silverton","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100206"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}