A future stretch of the Great Redwood Trail at the confluence of Blue Stone Creek and the main stem Eel River | Photo by Alicia Hamann via thegreatredwoodtrail.org.

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PREVIOUSLY

  • END OF THE LINE? State Senator Mike McGuire Drafting Legislation to Dissolve North Coast Railroad Authority, Form 'Great Redwood Trail Agency' to Manage Humboldt, Mendocino Assets
  • All the Fight Has Gone Out of the Northward Coast Railroad Authority
  • It'southward Official: Sen. Mike McGuire Introduces 'Smashing Redwood Trail Act'
  • U.Southward. Supreme Courtroom Roundfiles North Declension Railroad Potency's Entreatment; McGuire Bill to Dismantle Agency Progresses Through Legislature
  • 'Great Redwood Trail Deed' Passes Country Senate Unanimously; Assembly Left to Wrestle With All the Details
  • Will the Nifty Redwood Trail Act Pass Before the NCRA Goes Off the Fiscal Cliff?
  • Up Confronting Legislative Borderline, McGuire Scales Back 'Great Redwood Trail' Plans in Hopes of Getting Bill Past Assembly, Governor
  • The Pecker Formerly Known as 'The Great Redwood Trail Act' Has Passed the Assembly
  • END OF THE LINE: Gov. Brown Signs McGuire Beak to Eviscerate the North Coast Railroad Say-so, Start Trail Planning
  • Senator Mike McGuire Discusses 'Smashing Redwood Trail' At Humboldt Trails Top
  • Conservation Nonprofit Buys Chunk of Mogul's Massive Ranch on the Eel, in the Path of the 'Great Redwood Trail'; Group Still Looking for Donations to Acquire the Remainder

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Early in Th night's Zoom-enabled town hall meeting to talk over the Great Redwood Trail, Land Senator Mike McGuire asked everyone in his remote audience to close their eyes and imagine.

Map of the proposed road for the Great Redwood Trail courtesy Kevin Wright, Marin County Parks Dept.

"Imagine a strip of land," he said, "roughly fifty feet wide and running for 320 miles, from the border of the San Francisco Bay in Marin County through the vineyards of Sonoma County, showcasing the stunning beauty of Mendocino County through the redwood- and oak-studded hills of the Eel River Coulee, and and so you're gonna end your hiking risk on the fog-shrouded shores of Humboldt Bay."

While this ambitious trail project remains by and large imaginary, information technology took a major step frontward on Th when the lath of the Due north Declension Railroad Authorisation (NCRA) unanimously voted to railbank the bureau's right-of-way betwixt Willits and Samoa, a move that would allow a multi-utilise trail to be congenital atop the existing railroad prism.

"Even a few years ago this [proposal] would have died on the vine," NCRA Board Member Richard Marks alleged later on on Facebook. "Only the new board enthusiastically supported [the railbanking proposal] and the Great Redwood Trail will become reality and create many jobs and recreational opportunities."

The board of the NCRA, which will soon transition into a trail authority, directed its staff to submit the necessary paperwork to the federal Surface Transportation Lath. In a telephone phone call with the Outpost Friday afternoon, Marks said he sees no reason why the railbanking proposal would be denied.

McGuire, who authored the legislation to dismantle the supremely dysfunctional NCRA and create the nation'southward longest runway-to-trail, was characteristically exuberant Th evening. He noted that there'south "a ton of work ahead," including developing a primary program, conducting feasibility and design studies, securing untold millions in funding and, eventually, building the trail.

"But I've got to tell you," he said, "we're off to ane hell of a start."

Millions of dollars have already been invested, and on Dec 8, McGuire introduced Senate Beak 69, which he said "will officially, and once and for all, disband the North Declension Railroad Authorisation, which is a hot mess and is broke." In its place the pecker would create the Smashing Redwood Trail Say-so and empower it to construct and operate eponymous pathway.

The NCRA was created in 1992 in an try to salvage the floundering freight rail industry in Northern California, but the land agency's mission — to preserve the track corridor — was never funded, and when severe flooding and landslides wiped out portions of the rail line through the Eel River Canyon in 1998, the infrastructure remained defunct.

In 2008, voters at the southern end of the line approved the formation of the Sonoma Marin Area Runway Transit (SMART), a passenger rails system that has since resumed some rider service with plans to eventually run from Larkspur to Cloverdale.

Kevin Wright, external diplomacy manager with Marin County Parks, said at last night's meeting that the southern segment of the Great Redwood Trail will run alongside the existing runway line while the northern segment, from Willits to Humboldt Bay, volition likely vary dramatically, with broad, paved bikeways through cities and more than narrow, "single-track" sections of dirt trail through more remote areas, including the Eel River Coulee.

"Information technology'due south a wild stretch," he said, noting that having hiked and rafted through at that place, he's seen lots of erosion, abandoned boxcars, derelict infrastructure and what he diplomatically called "great opportunities for environmental restoration." Only while acknowledging that some washed-out areas are indeed in bad shape, Wright said 75-85 percent of the canyon is ready and available for trail use.

The rail line, which was formerly leased long-term to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co., includes xix major trestles, 38 bridges and 42 tunnels, the longest of which is 4,313 anxiety long, Wright said. All these features will be incorporated into the Keen Redwood Trail.

Michael Jones, the founder of agile transportation consulting company Alta Planning + Design, was on mitt Th night. (McGuire called him "an all-star in the trail world.") And he offered an outline of the next steps in the procedure, including a master plan, which may require an ecology impact report and thus plenty of opportunity for public interest. There's too the question of where the funding will come from and who volition build it.

Members of the public who live nearly the correct-of-style have voiced concerns about privacy, security, liability, litter, access to agricultural operations and more, and Jones said those issues need to exist taken seriously. "The public will have a huge role in this," he said.

Laura Cohen, western regional director of Rail-to-Trails Conservancy, said during the coming together that such public access tends to increment property values along trails while boosting the economies of nearby communities via lodging, tourism, public sector expenditures and more.

He argued that the Great Redwood Trail will eventually take its place alongside the likes of the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail as "an iconic American trail."

McGuire said that the master plan will ensure that the public will have "a seat at the table" all the way through the process, and he expects it to take a year or two only to go the funding for that plan. Only over the past 24 months, partners in this effort have managed to secure about $30 million to move some critical segments forrad, including the four-mile gap in the Humboldt Bay Trail between Arcata and Eureka.

The ultimate cost of this ambitious project remains an open question, though last fall McGuire scoffed at a state written report that institute the price tag could run every bit high every bit $5 billion.

"My goal is to do this project correct, not fast," he said, explaining that funding could come up from transportation agencies, voter-canonical parks bonds, nonprofit groups and/or private investors.

"It'due south complicated," the senator said. "Information technology's not going to be easy. And we have eyes wide open going into it."

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Correction: The headline of this post initially, and incorrectly, stated the line would be railbanked from Willits to Scotia, rather than all the way to Samoa. The Outpost regrets the error.