Portneuf Greenway seeks public comment to improve local trails
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POCATELLO – An organization dedicated to improving trails in the Portneuf Valley is now inviting the public to help with that mission.
Starting in October, the Portneuf Greenway Foundation has planned monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of the month through the winter to create the Unity Trail Improvement Plan. These meetings will allow any community member to attend and contribute to the plan, which the foundation says will also go on to improve its 20-plus miles of walking and biking trails throughout Pocatello and Chubbuck.
“We are going to try to (figure out) some general ideas for how to make the city’s job easier as far as maintaining the trails, and then how to make the trails more pleasant places to be,” said Dan Harrelson, president of the Portneuf Greenway Foundation.
The focus of these meetings will be on improving the Portneuf Health Trust’s Unity Trail, which runs from Franklin Middle School up to Portneuf Medical Center. This trail is just one in a larger greenway system the foundation plans to expand to directly connect Idaho State University and the Portneuf Wellness Complex.
Beyond that, foundation leaders said they hope to eventually expand the greenway system so much that it connects in a triangle around Pocatello and Chubbuck.
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The meetings will center on improving the Unity Trail, with a priority on “reducing undesirable vegetation like cheatgrass, and replacing it with native, pollinator-friendly plants,” according to a press release from the foundation.
While the plan will not be used just to improve the Unity Trail. The foundation’s release says, “The Unity Trail improvement plan will become a template for the remaining trails, with the ultimate goal of enhancing all trails over time.”
The first meeting, on October 1, will be a guided walk of the Unity Trail to familiarize attendees with it. People who want to attend this can+ Medical Center front entrance at 4:30 p.m. People will be able to learn more information about the planning meetings on this walk, or it can be the only one they attend.
“If you come to the walk, you’re not committed to spending your whole winter at these meetings. It could be one and done,” Harrelson said.
Going forward, people who attend the rest of the meetings will find them to be like a “brainstorming session,” Harrelson said.
“(They will) gather around a table with a big aerial picture and talk through different ideas that people want to do,” Harrelson said. “So all you need for those meetings is an opinion,” Harrelson said.
Harrelson encouraged anyone who’s interested to come to the walk, and learn more about how they can help contribute to the future of the Portneuf Greenway.
“Everybody’s welcome. Anybody that’s got a belly button and an opinion, they’re welcome,” Harrelson said.