EnivroHorse Public Issue Paper: The Case for Saving
Trails from Budget Cuts (&Costs of Trails ATT. A)

By Adda Quinn

Mary Burns asked the County Trails Advisory Committee on February 11, 2003, to identify trails that could be closed since the Park and Recreation Department is facing a 12-20% budget cut by mid year. In a subsequent Park and Recreation Workshop on March 6, the magnitude of the problem was further defined. Staff reduction could mean reduction in trail maintenance capability. Trail users are very concerned that trails not be closed. We offer the following information to assist the County in priority setting.

1. In a Needs Analysis and Financing Options Study published in August 2001, a survey of County residents was taken. Country residents stated clearly that the number one item on the list of spending priorities for County parks was the need for natural areas and open spaces with passive access (trails). Analysis revealed that people want/expect access to these open spaces via trail networks. Parks and Recreation should be looking at lower priority items in their difficult job of budget cutting.
2. In San Mateo County's Shared Vision 2010, item 15 specifies that residents have nearby access to green space, such as parks and recreational opportunities. In times of economic hardship, County Parks and Recreational opportunities become of greater importance to those who have fewer resources. Care should be taken in the budget cutting process to assure that the least essential items are cut. Access to public property must not be denied. Trails are needed for such access thus trails should not be closed.
3. Given the current uncertainties associated with the terrorism, people are not making plans even to go to very far from home. People stay home when they feel threatened and use their local parks and recreational areas. We must not be closing the very facilities that people will be using more than ever!
4. Trails cost ~$25,000 a mile to construct. (See Attachment A) Why would the County abandon such a costly capital asset when there are other ways to cut costs? ? For instance, in Huddart Park, the number one expense is water for the lawn. Huddart is the largest water consumer of the California Water Company. Water is a scare commodity in the arid West. Why are we watering lawns and thinking of closing trails? Before any trail is abandoned, a thorough economic impact study should be required to determine what the most cost-effective actions are. Since trails are passive assets requiring only periodic attention, it is likely that they will fall low in demands on budgets if a sincere budget analysis is undertaken.
5. In San Mateo County's Shared Vision 2010, item 2 specifies that civic engagement, including volunteerism is highly desirable. There is an active and willing pool of volunteers that is under-utilized for trail maintenance. County staff has been conservative in working with volunteers since they are required to provide supervision and assume liability. This seems to be counterproductive if in fact Park and Recreation needs labor. Trail maintenance is not rocket science, although there are new recommended methods for trail construction that need to be learned. We ask the County to figure out a way to use more volunteers rather than close trails.
6. Maintenance to keep the trails open is fairly low cost compared other park needs. Trails could survive for years on a minimal maintenance program. There are volunteers willing to both donate funds and labor to maintain these trails as a stop gap until better economic times return.
7. Many land managers have been successful in obtaining grants for trails through State and Federal Transportation programs and for habitat conservation for wildlife. The Bay Area Ridge Trail and the Truckee Donner Land Trust should be looked to as models for success in this regard.
8. Mounted Search and Rescue (MSAR) additionally provides the County with volunteer capability often needed to find missing people. The County Sheriff's Dept is concerned about trail closure potentially inhibiting its ability to access public lands to locate lost people.
9. Hikers and bikers can go almost anywhere. City streets may not be as aesthetic as forest trails, but they are available to others users, and unsafe for horses. Trails are essential to equestrian use.
10. Many people are disabled, and only have access to parks through their use of livestock. If equestrian trails are closed, they could be impacted.
11. According to recently completed studies, it is estimated that the ANNUAL economic and social contribution of equestrian activities in a county comparable in size and composition to San Mateo County is ~$300 million per year.
12. Investment in horse trails is returned by a multiplier of 4 to the economy of the surrounding area according to data from the American Horse Council.
13. Equestrians make extensive use of and serve as guardians and advocates for public parks and open spaces in San Mateo County. For 2001, San Mateo County has calculated the value of equestrian volunteer service at its equestrian parks based on 3843 hours at $76,858.00. For 2002, 3900 hours were logged by Volunteer Trail Patrol in MROSD properties.
14. If equestrians do not have horse trails, we cannot provide the County with this volunteerism. With reduced park staff, the need for volunteers will increase, not decrease.
15. A horse can easily cover 15-30 miles a day, providing eyes and ears to report on what is happening in remote areas.

Attachment A

The Cost of Building Trails

The cost to build one mile of trail can be highly variable. However, there IS a cost invested in trails that can often be quite high. In times of budgetary limitation for land managers, trails should not be items considered for "closure" due to lack of staffing. Trails should be considered as "facilities" or as some category immune to cuts. The following data was gathered and used in defense of threatened trail closures.

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MROSD
February 21, 2003
According to Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District planners, regular trail construction cost is estimated at $2.50 per foot; accessible trails ("Whole Access") at $7/foot. However, this figure includes only the cost of someone running trail construction equipment through on a normal, grassy site. These figures do not include staff/volunteer time, or significant vegetation removal, or construction of structures (such as bridges). Obtaining figures including these factors would depend upon the specific trail site and would require a planning study.

Stephanie Jensen
Public Affairs Manager (current)

This is in response to your October 27 (1998) email regarding trail construction and maintenance costs. I apologize for the delay in responding-your questions had to go through a number of people in order to obtain information.
While we do not have a specific breakdown of the actual per-unit cost of trail construction, there is a "rule of thumb" rough estimate that we have used in the production of our Regional Open Space Study (map and information soon available): that amount is $4.50 per foot, or $27,360 per mile.
Likewise, we do not have actual dollar amounts per mile for trail maintenance; however, the overall budgeted maintenance expense for 1998-1999 is $1,335,909, which is about 45% of the total operations budget. That amount, however, is not broken down between trail maintenance and other maintenance activities.

Malcolm Smith (now gone)
Public Affairs Manager
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
voice: (650) 691-1200
fax: (650) 691-0485
email: mrosd@openspace.org
www.openspace.org
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The Trails Center in Palo Alto
February 20, 2003

Giving a meaningful cost estimate for trail construction/maintenance
Has always been fairly tricky given the wide variation in difficulty. For new construction, our rule of thumb has been $3.50-5.00/foot (the higher figure is for wider trail); for maintenance, $2.50-4.00/foot, depending on the type of work needed. These figures assume predominately, if not exclusively, volunteer hand labor, and 4-foot maximum width (about the limit for practical hand construction in steep terrain - in flat or gentle terrain, the same or lesser amount of effort could be used to construct up to
6-foot trail). The above costs reflect the aggregate administrative (i.e. overhead - in our case, relatively high) and actual field costs (low), but not necessarily inclusive of materials such as retaining structures, rock, etc. Any time materials are major component, costs rise dramatically.

Given all that, a conservative range for 1 mile of new construction
might be $18,480-26,480, while maintenance (assuming extensive maintenance along the whole width) would be $13,200-21,120. I believe commercial rates are typically within that range, although I would have to check around for current charges.

I should note that some time ago, the Trail Center changed the costing
Model to a per-workday cost, given the high variability of our projects. Under this model, we estimate $1,250/workday under the assumption that we can build approximately 350 feet per day on 3-3.5 foot wide trail. Our costs might be higher for 4+ foot wide trail (on the order of $1,600/workday), depending on the conditions. Sometimes this means that our per-foot cost is quite high, while other times, low. It works out to a little over $3.50/foot, though.

Geoffrey Skinner
President
Trail Center
3921 E. Bayshore Rd.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
http://www.trailcenter.org
650 725-0280
650 725-1120 FAX

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November 25, 1998 email from Peter Donohue to J. Franklin Sorba
Here are some numbers from BLM, USFS and Sutter Equipment (makers of the Sweco 480):
Hand Labor.......$6970 to $34,850/mile
Note: Easy to hard (1000 to 200 ft./day) based on a 10 man crew with a supervisor.
Backhoe/Excavator.....$2,200 to $11,000/mile
Note: Easy to hard (1500 to 300 ft./day) based upon a 5 man crew plus operator.
Sweco 480 (Rent)......$320 to $1,710/mile
Note: Easy to hard (8000 to 1500 ft./day) based upon operator and 1 laborer.
These estimates are based upon brushing/grubbing, tread construction, bank stabilization and some drainage feature construction. Obviously there are a lot of variables in these cost estimates.
Hope this helps a little!
Jay Franklin SORBA
IMBA-GA

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ELCR February 17, 2003

This varies so much that I've never even tried to put together a figure. Believe it or not, but an excellent source from DuPage County (Chicago suburban area where I used to live) says the figure for their trails is now $80,000 per mile! However, there's a plan to upgrade trails in the area were I live that will do 35 miles for less than $100,000. The type of use, topography, soils, number of water and street crossings, etc. make this number swing from a low of "manual labor with shovels on acquired land" to a high of "expensive acquisition and built by government."

Kandee Haertel
Executive Director
Equestrian Land Conservation Resource

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State of California Park and Recreation Dept.

The major environmental damage done by trails is cutting of an initial trail. After that, maintenance is needed, but there is usually very little environmental impact from a cut trail that has proper drainage. (Keith Demetrak State of California Dept Parks and Rec Chief Planner at Committee for Green Foothills meeting Feb. 13, 2003).

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