Winneshiek County could be getting equipment to help with recreational trail use count

Winneshiek County is one step closer to getting a machine that could be used to count the number of users of the county's recreational trails.

The County Conservation Board has given its approval to have Winneshiek County be one of the counties participating in Upper Explorerland's purchase of five such machines--one for every county served by Upper Explorerland.  However, the four other counties must also agree to each purchase one machine.  Additionally, the County Conservation Board intends to ask the City of Decorah to split the cost of the one machine that would be for Winneshiek County, since much of the trail count in Winneshiek County would involve Trout Run Trail.

If all the participants agree to share in the cost, the machines would be able to replace some of the human volunteers who now must be recruited any time a trail count is done.