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by Terry Stone for The Parsons Advocate
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A plan to connect hiking and biking trails in Canaan Valley is getting a boost thanks to more than $200,000 in state grants for the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Canaan Valley Institute. The project will get an additional boost with a $40,000 match from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and 120 volunteer hours from the Tucker County Trail Association.
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The “Heart of the Highlands Trail System” is designed to connect the trail systems of five agencies in Tucker County– the Monongahela National Forest, CVI, Canaan Valley State Park, Blackwater Falls State Park, and the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The five agencies have more than 400 combined miles of trails, and plans include connecting the trails, standardizing maps and trail markings, and coordinating the marketing of the area as a destination area for a regional trail system. With connections to the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area, the Allegheny Trail, American Discovery Trail and the Allegheny Highlands Trail, it is hoped that the Heart of the Highlands Trail would eventually join the National Trails System.
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The refuge received $156,800 in a Transportation Enhancement Grant that Fish & Wildlife will match.
“With very few connections we can tie all the trails in the area into a regional trail system,” said Jonathan Schafler, refuge manager. “This project is more about building relationships than building trails. While the end result will be a trail system; the Heart of the Highlands Trail will enhance Tucker County's ’s recreation offerings and should have an economic impact on the area.
“I am going to do everything in my power to see that the money we need to spend on labor, materials and trail construction is spent in Tucker County.”
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Phase I of the project will involve building a trail between CVI property on Camp 70 Road and refuge property along Cortland Road in Canaan Valley. Future plans include connectors with the two state parks, a trail between Thomas and Davis, and access to the western side of Canaan Valley.
CVI was awarded $62,623 in a Recreational Trail Grant to construct a 3.1-mile trail between Davis and the refuge trails. This trail will be on the south side of the according to Ken Dzaack, land manager for CVI, and will also be part of the Heart of the Highlands Trail System.
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The trail will be less strenuous than some in the area, making it user-friendly. Dzaack said it will pass some interesting rock formations, wetland “micro-environments” and blueberry patches.
In order to meet the required 20 percent of funding that the project sponsor must provide, CVI has secured a commitment of 120 hours of volunteer labor from the Tucker County Trails Association and a pledge of $20,000 from the National Youth Science Foundation.
“The idea about having an interconnecting trail system has been around for 25 years or more,” Dzaak said. “We finally have an avenue to get the ball rolling on this project. The key will be to keep building on this success.
“We had extensive input and support from the County Commission, Mayor Joe Drenning of Davis and the Tucker County Convention and Visitors Bureau,” Dzaack said. “I can’t say enough about the contributions made by members of the Tucker Trails Association. They have donated countless volunteer hours in improving the trail systems in the county.”
Both Schafler and Dzaack agree that there is still a lot of planning and map work to be done before the work can begin, probably next spring.
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“An important aspect of this project will be volunteer involvement,” Dzaack said. “If you are on the trails in Tucker County–hunting, fishing, hiking or biking – we would like you to think about how the development of the trails will benefit the community, the county and the region.
“We will need volunteers in the future to contribute to the planning of the system, donate the use of equipment and volunteer labor.”
Both the Recreational Trail and Transportation Enhancement Grants are funded through the Federal Highway Administration and administered by the state Department of Transportation.
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