| When folks from the country drive through a rural area, they see productive farmland, wildlife habitat, renewable timber and water cleansing grass waterways. When urban folks travel across rural areas, they see undeveloped land just right for houses, commerce or recreational use. These two vastly different perspectives are at the heart of a land use controversy brewing in Indiana.
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has proposed a massive expansion of the state’s recreational trail system. The governor has proposed doubling funding for trails to “improve fitness, health, and quality of life.”
Recently several hundred trail enthusiasts gathered, at the governor’s invitation, for a daylong summit to discuss the trail expansion plan. Indiana Farm Bureau President Don Villwock and several members of his staff were the only ones at that meeting who represented the interests of private property owners.
Farm Bureau policy does not specifically oppose recreational trail development, but says trails “must address problems of ownership, litter and trespassing.”
Farm Bureau is especially concerned that land be acquired from willing landowners without the use of eminent domain, that funding address maintenance of trails not just construction, that fencing be made available when adjoining landowners request it, and that privacy and trespassing issues be addressed.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Kyle Hupfer stated eminent domain would be “rarely used” in development of the trail system, but did not rule it out. “It will be used only when a few parcels of land are needed to complete a major trail corridor,” he said. A copy of the trail plan can be viewed at www.in.gov/dnr/trailsplan/
“Land use issues are going to be at the top of public policy concerns for the next five, 10, perhaps 20 years,” predicted Lew Middleton, spokesman for Indiana Farm Bureau.
Middleton pointed out they are not making any more land and rural areas are seeing more and more demands for uses of land. In fact, the governor himself has set the goal of doubling Indiana hog production and has committed the state to rapid growth in the biofuels area. These are both industries that use land as a basic component.
Farm Bureau is urging landowners to attend a series of open meetings being held around the state to address the trail issue.
“We can’t shy away from this debate,” said Middleton.
“Let’s grab this opportunity,” Governor Daniels told the trail summit.
Unless landowners are vigilant, the governor and trail enthusiasts may be grabbing more than just an opportunity.
Now I am not against trails, but I have observed that many of the folks who use trails give little thought to the people who have to live along the trail.
The litter, crime, noise and other issues become daily reality for those whose property adjoins trails. And not all trails are hiking trails. There are bike trails, horse trails, and ATV trails. All of these bring with them their own set of problems.
The governor wants to double spending on trails to $20 million. It sure seems to me that with all the problems facing the Hoosier state - low education performance, unemployment, and lack of rural health care, just to name a few - we could find better uses for $20 million than building more trails.
This farm news was published in the June 21, 2006 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
