Colorado awarded millions for trail updates. Here’s what Mesa County can expect.
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — As the future of federal support for public lands remains uncertain, the state of Colorado has committed millions of dollars toward building and maintaining trails in places such as Grand Junction, Loveland and Alamosa.
At the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in March, the commission approved a total of $2.4 million in grant money for what’s called “non-motorized” trail projects. These projects include horseback and mountain bike trails, as well as hiking routes on 14ers.
More than $400,000 is going toward work in Mesa County. It will be completed by a four-person trail crew that’s part of the county health department.
The maintenance at places like the Lunch Loops trail system — between the Colorado National Monument and downtown Grand Junction — isn’t exactly glamorous, but the work is important for keeping the routes in good condition and resistant to erosion.
The crew hikes down Moto, a trail part of the Lunch Loops system, cutting a few drainages along the way to keep water off the trail. Travis Boone, one of the crew members, smooths out a two-foot section of the trail with what’s called a Travis Tool (no relation) — a combination of a hoe, a rake and a pick, one of the specialized hand tools used for trail construction.
Mesa County Public Health trails coordinator Ross Mittelman writes and manages the grants, such as one for $123,000 from Colorado Parks and Wildlife that’s specifically for the ongoing routine maintenance.
“We're assessing winter storm damage, we're trying to get the water off the trail with a lot of drainages so they dry out and things don't puddle, because people are itching to get out there — and you really should not be riding when it's wet or muddy,” he said.
The crew will work around the valley this spring, at Lunch Loops, the North Fruita Desert and at Kokopelli near Loma. Those three trail systems together receive 120,000 visitor days per year, concentrated between February and May, according to Mittelman.
Over the summer, when it’s too hot to work in the valley, the crew will rehabilitate overgrown parts of the West Bench trail on the Grand Mesa.
Great Outdoors Colorado, the state agency that manages lottery revenue, awarded a $300,000 grant supporting expanded stewardship work for the Mesa County Trail Crew. It’s the second such grant Mittelman has received from GOCO.
The trail crew already took on more responsibility this winter, due in part to that funding. They completed fuel reduction work on Glade Park, cutting and removing some pinyon pine trees that were dense enough to threaten houses in a wildfire.
“We approach everything with the public health lens, and at the core of what we're trying to do is just get people outside for exercise, for the betterment of individuals and communities,” said Mittelman.
The trail crew primarily works on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service. Mesa County is 73% public land, and those federal agencies don’t have a similar non-motorized trail crew in the area, so Mittelman is glad to work with them as partners, abiding by their design and planning standards. The trail crew recently participated in adding 30 miles of trails to the North Fruita Desert system with those federal partners, a project that started in 2019 and wrapped up in 2024.
Over the last four years, the trail crew has been contracted by the National Forest Foundation for up to 12 weeks of work on the Grand Mesa. This season, it will be four weeks, due to federal funding cuts.
“We continue to try to support our federal agencies in these relatively uncertain times,” said Mittelman.
In February, more than 150 federal workers that took care of Colorado’s public lands were fired as part of the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce, according to the Colorado Sun. The Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction wasn’t directly affected by the layoffs, but Colorado National Monument Association executive director Johanna van Waveren says there is still some uncertainty.
“We’re hopeful that projects and plans that are on hold will resume after additional guidance, but there are a few items in limbo.CNMA will continue to be arm-in-arm with the NPS to support where we can,” she said in an email to Rocky Mountain PBS.
CNMA is the nonprofit partner of the Monument, helping fund projects like the Junior Ranger program and the rebuilding of the Saddlehorn Amphitheater.
The trail crew also receives funding from BLM through an assistance agreement grant. Mittelman says it’s a way for revenue from camping fees to be put toward maintenance at the same place people are paying those fees, such as the North Fruita Desert. It’s a five year grant that Mittelman is cautiously optimistic will be renewed this year, but he doesn’t know for sure what will happen.
How a certain spot in the trail should look or feel comes down to instinct. Boone will ride his mountain bike on this trail at Lunch Loops after putting in a few more hours of work, which will tell him if there are other sections that need attention from the crew.
The trail crew, which includes Chad Meister — who grew up in Grand Junction and studied landscape architecture at Colorado State University — puts in 160 to 200 hours of work each week, as they traverse Mesa County, hitting different trails in every direction.
Matt Harvey, spraying water at his feet to help pack down the soil in a spot just repaired by Boone and crew member Jonah Genthner, shared his philosophy: “Any trail is a good trail.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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