A board of volunteers dedicated to promoting recreation in Jefferson County has been steadily clearing a path to connect outdoor enjoyment with local spending.
The Jefferson County Parks, Trails and Recreation Commission was established by resolution in December 2017 to boost economic development by encouraging residents and visitors to take advantage of the county’s recreational opportunities.
The commission, which held its first monthly meeting in April 2018, spent its first year trying to figure out its purpose, according to board Chair Sue Kenyon.
“We’re still fairly new as a commission, barely a year and a half into it all,” said commission member Vaia Errett. “A lot of our time so far has been spent figuring out how we function as a group and how we can best serve the county. But I think we’re off and running now.”
The commission has embarked on its first big project: creating a free trail map of Boulder for distribution at countywide businesses.
The map, which the commission expects to make available by next summer, is intended to encourage tourists and residents alike to spend their recreational time and dollars in Jefferson County rather than elsewhere or not recreating at all.
“We want it to be a resource that is readily available and easy to use, something that people have kicking around in their vehicle or in some drawer at home,” Errett said. “We have talked about approaching Boulder businesses to purchase a small square of space for advertising on the map, but this idea is still under discussion.”
Errett said they have also discussed putting QR codes on the map so people can scan it with their mobile phones and view extended, online trail descriptions.
“I think our next couple of meetings as a commission will help us to fine-tune our approach,” she said.
County Commissioner Leonard Wortman, a driving force behind creating the Parks, Trails and Recreation Commission, said it grew as an “offshoot” of County Event Planner Bruce Binkowski’s role to promote tourism and recreation in Jefferson County.
As a result, the commission ties in with the county’s recreational and events website, discoverjefferonmt.org, which Binkowski helped launch, and has a say in the content and tourism opportunities that get posted there, Binkowski said.
Wortman said he was influenced by other areas with similarly dedicated boards, such as Silver Bow County’s Friends of Pipestone, which stewards an OHV trail system. He and Tom Harrington, co-manager of the Jefferson Local Development Corporation, visited Southern Utah’s Paiute trails in 2012 to seek business-boosting ideas to bring back to Montana.
According to a memo Harrington wrote about the trip, the Paiute trail system includes over 1,100 miles of off-road trails and encompasses seven communities. An estimated 80,000 ATV riders annually logging over 200,000 hours of riding time put about $8.5 million into those seven communities’ coffers every year, he reported.
At the heart of the trail system is Marysvale, population 400. Wortman said the owner of a motel they stayed there said she only remodeled it because of the increased tourist traffic. He also came across an ATV rental business and a rock-polishing business that opened as a result of tourist activity.
Wortman said he hopes the Parks, Trails and Recreation Commission can help encourage similar economic activity in Jefferson County, though much work remains.
“There is nothing in place at this time to develop a comparable trail system,” Errett said. “I think the trails at Pipestone make up our county’s most extensive system. Someone once asked at one of our meetings if you could ride from one end of the county to the other. I think we were talking mountain bikes at the time, but it may apply to motorized travel. There was a prolonged silence in the room, until someone finally said, ‘You could. But it wouldn’t be easy.’”
Recurring concerns about the Pipestone trail system, Errett said, include trail maintenance, the number of incidents reported to law enforcement, and budget shortfalls at the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service that prevent “even close to adequate monitoring” of use.
“But if the idea of a Paiute-style trail system were put on our agenda I imagine there would be some interested discussion,” Errett said.
The commission has seven members from across the county who bring diverse recreational interests and perspective to the table, according to Errett. She said she applied to be one of them because she enjoys being outdoors and saw her participation as a good way to give back to the community.
Errett, who has lived in Whitehall for 13 years, said before working on the commission she didn’t realize how many trails Jefferson County, especially Boulder, has to offer.
“I’ve been to Boulder more in the last three months than I have in the 13 years I’ve lived here,” she said.
Errett and Kenyon have been hiking together in Boulder all summer to identify and become familiar with trails to put on the map, which they hope will be ready in time for next summer.
Through the trail map and other efforts, Errett said “I feel like we could help make an active, social community that likes being outdoors. I want people to feel connected here.”
Errett also believes the commission will be able to stimulate the economy both by attracting visitors and by encouraging residents to enjoy what their communities have to offer.
“Every time I hike [Boulder], I eat, I get gas,” Errett said. “I think there’s dollars in our pockets in the county.”
