Survey shows impact of Trout Run Trail

"If you build it, they will come."  That's the famous line from "Field of Dreams," but it's not always true.  Sometimes a project doesn't draw the number of people that its proponents hoped for.

Fortunately, that's not the case with the Trout Run Trail.  At various times this past spring and summer, volunteers on the trails in five Northeast Iowa counties have been taking a user count and handing out surveys about the trails.

The surveying is continuing.  But data from four days of surveying in May and July showed nearly 5,000 trail users.  Of the total of 4,832 trail users on those four days, 3,517 were using trails in Winneshiek County--73 percent.

The figures also showed growth in usage from May to July.  1,268 users were counted in Winneshiek County in a two-day period of May.  That figure grew to 2,249 users in a two-day period in July--a 78 percent increase from May.  Almost all that increase came in the number of bike riders--there was just a modest increase in walkers and runners.

Upper Explorerland Regional Planning will be doing another regional count this fall throughout the five-county region.  Trail users are also being encouraged to take an online survey to share their thoughts on our trails:  www.surveymonkey.com/s/NEIowaTrailUser.

For additional information on the trail user survey and trail counting efforts, please contact your county conservation director or Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission Transportation Planner Karla Organist at korganist@uerpc.org or 563-382-6171.