This commentary is by the members of the Kingdom Trails Landowner Advisory Committee. Their names are listed below the text.
Many of us take the ability to recreate in our backyards for granted. Recreation brings physical and mental health benefits, incentivizes conservation across our state and provides much-needed economic stability and resilience for our rural communities.
Current numbers show Vermont’s outdoor recreation economy brings $2.1 billion into the state, 4.8% of Vermont’s total GDP, the second-highest percentage in the nation. Even in our most rural counties, the Kingdom Trail Association, whose trails extend throughout the Caledonia County towns of Burke, Lyndon, and Kirby and the Essex County town of East Haven, generates over $10,000,000 in annual direct spending for the Northeast Kingdom region.
Yet none of this would be possible without us, the landowners who allow KT’s trails to cross our properties. Our land makes this economic impact possible, yet we do not receive any incentive or compensation.
We are not alone. Currently, over 70% of Vermont’s public-access trails are on private land and dependent on the benevolence of private landowners. With increased demand on our trail assets, non-profit trail stewardship organizations, like KT, face more and more challenges in retaining public access to crucial trail corridors. This low-impact economic driver is at risk, and we need your help.
The Kingdom Trail Association’s Landowner Advisory Committee requests support for H.147, a bill relating to establishing the Recreational Trails Compensation Study Committee, a proposal that would analyze how to create a mechanism to recognize landowners that provide public access for trails. This proposal includes a localized outdoor recreation economic impact study to better understand the value across recreational activities and land ownership.
KT is a world-class trail system deeply intertwined with the local community and local economy. In 1994, Northeast Kingdom community members banded together to develop the multi-use nonprofit trail network that is KT. We, the undersigned, are the members of KT’s Landowner Advisory Committee. We represent the different geographic locations within the trail network, varying size properties and land uses.
Our committee’s primary role is to support KT in facilitating a better and more productive engagement with all 106 landowners and encouraging communication between KT and the landowners. In short, we represent the 106 landowners who generously, and without compensation, make their properties available for the trails that make KT and the positive economic impact possible.
We know firsthand the economic, public health and conservation benefits of communities investing in outdoor recreation. This question of how to develop an appropriate mechanism to recognize private landowners will be a critical component of how we retain public access to Vermont’s trail system. This study will result in concrete recommendations on many aspects of outdoor recreation, including how we, as a state, should invest in trail maintenance and stewardship. Please support Kingdom Trails and their private landowners by supporting this legislation.
Doug Clarner, Burke
Tom Brodrick, Burke
Jim Crone, Lyndonville
Jon Falabella, East Haven
Georgia Gould, Burke
Michael Greenblatt, Lyndonville
Dave Kennedy, Burke
Jaime Lipka, Burke
Blake Nuzzo, Burke
Cody Sayers, Burke
Marti Walther, Burke
