Great Redwood Trail Gets $3 Million and a Legal Settlement Smooths Its Path
Press release from Senator Mike McGuire’s Office:
It has been a week of great news for The Great Redwood Trail which will stretch through California’s rugged North Coast.
Both the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Resources and Transportation approved the Governor’s request for $3 million dollars to carry out the next steps outlined in Senator McGuire’s landmark legislation SB 1029. And separately the North Coast Railroad Authority’s (NCRA) Board of Directors approved a legal settlement, bringing an end to a near decade old bitter fight over their EIR.
“It’s been a great week for the North Coast and for the Great Redwood Trail,” said Senator Mike McGuire. “Settling the lawsuit, which had gone on for way too long, allows for the next chapter to unfold. The $3 million requested by the Governor and approved by the Legislative budget committees, will usher in a new day for the North Coast. The funds will be put to work to wind down NCRA and formally kick off the all-important master planning process for the Great Redwood Trail.”
The Assembly and Senate subcommittees overwhelmingly approved the governor’s request for the implementation funding. This budget follows the course laid out by SB 1029, authorizing $1 million for an initial assessment of the right-of-way for the Trail, $1.5 million for research on the estimated 1,900 property easements along the 300 mile rail-to-trail line, and $500,000 to complete the audit of NCRA’s finances and the possible transfer of a portion of the line to the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART). These findings will help facilitate the closure of NCRA and the transfer of the right-of-way to successor agencies.
In another major development:
After hiring new legal counsel earlier this year, the NCRA Board of Directors authorized their staff to begin settlement negotiations with the litigants in the Environmental Impact Report lawsuit that reached the California and US Supreme courts. NCRA counsel met with the Friends of the Eel River and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, co-litigants in the case, and worked out an agreement that involves decertifying the controversial EIR and approving legal fees already awarded by the court. For further details on the settlement, please contact Mitch Stogner, NCRA’s Executive Director.
“Resolving the issues that have plagued this rail line over the last 30 years will not be quick or easy, and we know there is a lot of work in front of us. That said, we’re off to a strong start and have made dramatic progress over the last year, and I’m excited to start working with the community on the ultimate design of the Great Redwood Trail and beginning the transition of a functionally bankrupt rail agency to a thriving trail organization,” Senator McGuire said.
The Trail will replace the crumbing railroad on much of the 300-mile-long track, and will become a significant economic driver for the rural North Coast communities it winds through. California outdoor recreational economy is one of the fastest growing economic sectors of the Golden State. It generates over $92 billion a year, is responsible for nearly 700,000 jobs, over $30 billion in wages, and brings over $6 billion in tax revenues back to state and local communities. Once completed, the Trail will attract hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors alike to hike this spectacular landscape and inject needed funds into the greater North Coast region.
Earlier this year a whopping $32 million was secured to build out urban portions of the Trail in Marin, Mendocino and Humboldt counties. The funds came through trail grant programs from both the California Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
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We ought to be able to get some good wild land fires going in the canyon once we open it up to the public. This is a terrible idea. Right of way should be abandoned and returned to land owners.
Agreed. Let’s return the land back to the Native Americans.
The native Americans have no right to any of the private land up here, they were just squatting on there land with no claim to it. They had no land title or deed to any of the land, whatever army or muscle they had lost all right to the land a long time ago. In the absence of a formal government and court system the rule of might is what determines who has ownership over something. Native Americans lost that fight a long time ago, we were nice enough to hook them up with some free reservation land. Please stop saying or injecting that the natives somehow own this land. If they do why are we not paying property taxes to them?
So by your logic, if someone comes along to murder you and your entire family- and don’t forget to throw in numerous acts of rape- then the murdering rapist scum can then take over your property and that is okay by you.
Question: do you claim the label “christian” or are you a secular advocate of genocide?
…”the commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, Sir Jeffrey Amherst wrote (commanded) to Colonel Henry Bouquet at Fort Pitt “You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians [with smallpox] …”
“…Phips decided that the Penobscot people were enemies, rebels, and traitors to King George II. ”
Did you notice that? The colonists were commanded by King George.
Did you know that the colonists then began a Revolutionary war AGAINST King George?
The colonists fought the Brits.
Some of the colonists, like Phips above, were loyal to the King. Phips was a problem. The non loyalists of the King fought and died to be free from the likes of Phips and the King.
Some tribes sided with King George and morons like Phips.
Some tribes sided with the colonists.
Some tribes took no sides and just massacred whoever they saw.
If you have a beef with the colonists who fought the moronic loyalists to the King (who wanted all tribes wiped off the face of the earth), then so be it. We at least know whose side you kneel to.
I don’t kneel to anyone- that is a submissive behavior unfamiliar to me but perhaps one more natural to you.
On the other hand, i don’t apply random timelines to which genocidal colonial power to denounce. All the genocidal colonial two-leggeds, at any time in any place are murdering scum, every time.
Also, the apologists defending and rationalizing this kind of sick sociopathic culture are suspect personalities too- even if they haven’t personally committed acts of racist murder themselves-so far. But they are definitely the kind likely to join death squads killing women, children and oldsters when they get the chance.
If the colonists were racist murderers, as you declare, there wouldn’t have been a native american or loyalist left alive.
Same with all the wars. If the US soldiers were the murdering assaulting morons that the Lefties declare them to be, there wouldn’t be a single villager or foreign countryman left alive.
But they weren’t, which is why we all live to argue over any history topic decades later. Which leads into a question. How much of the media is and always has been corporate owned? Why? What is their agenda?
shak is a Genocide denier, same as a Holocaust denier.
By your lame logic, the murder of Jews during the Holocaust does not qualify as genocide because there were survivors. The same would apply to the ottoman turks taking out Armenians, etc..
Such a dishonest argument displaying weak thinking.
My conclusion is that you are a white supremacist troll or a russian bot, or both.
You are dismissed.
WS, Our colonists and soldiers fought against genocides. Had they of fought for genocides, none of the other teams would have had survivors.
There are reading comprehension courses online, btw, that you might find of interest.
Name one ethnic group that did not kill in order to maintain a position of power.
I think sorryfolks might be a born again secular advocate of sarcasm. I hope.
🕯Agreed. 👍🏾
I hope all the land owner’s will fight this project to the bitter end. There will be garbage, fires, trespass hunting, shooting and God knows what else. But I am afraid the land owner’s probably don’t stand a chance.
“will be”? From the looks of it I’d say there is already garbage, fires, trespass shooting and hunting, and god knows what else happening by plenty of born-and-raised locals. The type of people who travel to places to hike 300 mile trails are normally the types who genuinely care for the environment and treat it respectfully by not littering, not trespass hunting, and not using fire recklessly.
There are jerks in every group. I stand by what I said and will not back off. One other thing for you is what do these earth loving hiker’s do with their poop and toilet paper? Pack it for 300 miles? Maybe they eat it to recycle.
I think they would probably do the same thing I do when having to poop in the woods……bury it.
You could always carry a doggie bag.
1900 easements is going to be VERY expensive unless the state wants to use eminent domain. And if they do that, they’ll forever piss off everyone north of SF. The State of Jefferson crazies will be thrilled.
” Once completed, the Trail will attract hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors alike to hike this spectacular landscape and inject needed funds into the greater North Coast region.:
Again…..where in the hell is this money going to come from? How exactly is this trail going to break even, unless there is more revenue-generating development allowed along it? I don’t see a lot of Air BNBs or a Quality Inn or even a mini mart opening up along those back stretches. People seem to think that everyone is going to abandon all other trails in favor of this one. That “newlywed excitement” is only going to last a couple years. Then it’s going to be a hell of a grind to make that trail and the maintenance in BFE pay for itself. And when governments cut costs in down years guess what’s first to go? Parks and recreation.
Exactly. Another way for them to take over nor cal.
Fantastic!
Maintenance on the trail will be expensive after every big storm, just like it was for the railroad.
3 million ? Isn’t true we ( tax payers) will spend 3 million on trail work Eureka target to Bracut?
$3 Million ? No.
We will spend more than that. Oddly, most of the money spent on the trail is in order to ‘preserve’
the er… ‘railroad’ to run… privately owned ‘speeder cars’.
We should have just: Use the railroad bridge, pull the rails and ties out, pave the trail on the right of way
and call it good.
The whole north bay trail would have cost a fraction of the current total expenditures.
The Speeder rides are extremely popular and the folks that run them have done a tremendous amount of work to maintain the corridor. The concept of throwing out the usable rail lines to put in trails is shortsighted. Where the rails are still usable they should be preserved not only for the speeders but for other uses like peddle rail cycles or perhaps in the future light weight battery powered transit vehicles. With proper design we can have both walking paths and these types of economic drivers
Not everywhere needs a trail. Not everyone wants to ride a bike. Let’s have trails where they fit and let’s use the rails where we can.
Mr. Warmuth,
I think you are talking about $13.3 million, maybe not.
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/feb/12/final-leg-humboldt-bay-trail-one-step-closer-compl/
Every rail tie is hazardous waste. Will need to be taken somewhere expensive. The slides, the rotten and missing culverts … better tack a few zeros on that price tag. Sounds great to city folk who dream of a weekend getaway and a stroll along the river. Once it’s all repaired at maybe a hundred million. The upkeep will be hefty. The land through that country is on the move, and man nor machine can stop it.
So the railroad couldn’t keep the Eel River tracks to the North open? California can with tax paying dollars for a bike trail? How about fixing the County Roads first!
The money is coming from trail grant programs, not fix the roads program.
Hmmm…. so where does the ‘trail grant’ program money come from ?
Let me take a wild guess… gas tax ?
Grant money comes from taxes! It is not free money like many people think! If there wasn’t so much grant money given away there would be more for infrastructure like fixing roads!
Money can be moved between programs, you know.
I can’t see how anyone can think this is a good thing. I fully support trails on public land but the vast majority of the railroad runs through private property. 1900 landowners. So lets say the easement is 150′ wide which is being generous then any time someone steps out of that right of way like to camp, go to the river, take a pee) they will be trespassing on private land. There will be no enforcement of this trespass as most of this land is extremely rural and as has been mentioned, the fire danger is huge. Senator McGuire apparently has no concern for the property owners. In theory this is an excellent idea but in reality its a nightmare with the government opening private land for public use. If there is a plus side its the NCRA closing down which has been a titanic waste of money.
While I am a great fan of trails and would like this to succeed, I wonder if maybe some money should have been spent on a Feasibility Study. If the statement “:…hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors alike to hike this spectacular landscape ” is true where will all these people sleep? Hiking it would take at least 20 days for a fast hiker and even biking it about five days. Extensive campgrounds will be needed at least every 20 miles or the sanitation issues would be horrendous. I have ridden through there in a train both directions and know space ia limited. The canyon is deep and narrow a lot of the way. But if you solve these problems you could have a huge winner. Where communities, particularly in the east with so many successful Rails to Trails projects, this has proven true. This project has greater obstacles as in addition to a need for facilities for hiker and bikers, there is a major issue of unstable ground that tends to slide in major storms or after earthquakes. This problem beleaguered the railroad and will be an issue for a trail as well. We shall see.
Bill dance is correct. This is a terrible idea. Putting clowns out to wonder around in the canyon is stupid. Very few places does the right a way even allow acces to the river. So the hikers will be trespassing. Going to to the cabins. Do you have any water? Can we use your bathroom? Can we use your phone? There’s no cell service. This trail sucks!
Streets of SF, meet Paths of Northcoast.
I have friends hiking the Apalachian Trail right now. Every little town along the way benefits greatly from the hikers.
anny, you are correct. However, almost the entire Apalachian Trail is on public land – big difference.
A very boucolic an idealistic idea by people who think riding bicycles is recreation and going to the gym is a workout, lol
In reality, who knows how the trail will be utilized?
Imagine the maintenance costs!
I want to live like a Marin county resident too, I want to ride my bike around in humboldt county on the weekends!
The only difference between me and the bills advocates, is that my bike would be a quad.
If this redwood quad trail happens, I’d like to see independently owned general stores at every town on the trail, all with their own local radio stations..
That’s my dream
And i want quads to be legalized on all public roads.
Protect the environment from Bigfoot’s carbon footprints!
Fuel efficient quads are best practices! Lol
Wow 3 million for 300 miles of trail along an old railroad bed. Let me guess they want to keep the option for speeded car on this trail also ? So the new price tag is going to hit another 300 million to save the tracks eventually ! When that 4 mile trail in Eureka cost 13 million !Not a good idea. Let’s get the fire crew inmates in there and have them pull out all of the old rails and ties etc. Scrap what can be scrapped to offset the cost of this boondoggle. I agree with all of the comments prior to this. “Squatters and tweeks lane” will be the new trail name.
Park your new Suburu at Dos Rios for the hike down the canyon with the wife and kids for a week!
Good fucking luck if you can even recognize the burned out hulk when you (I mean IF you) get to the armpit of Alderpoint…
Who is the rose colored glasses wearing utopian douchebag numbnuts dumbass that dreamed this up?
God damn, are people even living on the same planet anymore?
My sentiments exactly… “Great”– the newest marketing weaselword to join “Smart” and “Natural”…. declare the Dos Rios to Dyerville section a Wild and Scenic River with no trail.
🕯With everything I’ve read it makes me wonder how many illegal grows this trail might disrupt?