Jocko Valley trails roll on

ARLEE - The Jocko Valley Trails Committee held an open house on May 24 in the Arlee High School cafeteria.

Organized by the group of five University of Michigan graduate students who are completing their Masters capstone project with the committee, the evening showcased the group's research during their one-month stay in Arlee and asked community members to get involved in the process.

JVTC chairman Gary Decker said the group worked with Arlee schools last month to get feedback from students and brainstorm possible ways to get pedestrians across the river, an alternative to the narrow Highway 93 bridge.

"We got a little ahead of ourselves in applying for these grants before going into the community and getting feedback," Decker said. "Now, we are going back, revisiting this and really getting people to think about the trails and what they need."

Nick Deyo, a landscape architecture graduate student, said because the youth will be one of the primary users of the trails, the group hosted a series of workshops with the Arlee schools and the Nkwusm Salish Language School.

At these workshops, they asked fourth, seventh and eighth graders to draw maps of their community, representing where they spend the most time.

Of the 29 roads drawn on the students' maps, only five have sidewalks or walking trails.

The group then logged over 350 post-it notes, each representing a place students said they would like to go, either where they feel safe or a place they feel is dangerous. Those locations were then transferred to a giant Google Earth aerial map in red and green dots.

"We're trying to show the trails committee what they would look like and how the trails would best serve the community," he said.

Deyo is focusing his contributions on working with the Tribal Department of Natural Resources to highlight the restoration work the Tribes are already doing along the Jocko River, implementing educational kiosks, parking and picnic areas in addition to the trails.

Behavior, Education and Communication graduate students Ann Kelley and Brittney Vanderwerff focused their efforts on community involvement and awareness. The women distributed a survey in town, which they will collect and use for analysis when they return to Michigan.

Meredith Bohdan, a Policy and Planning major, said it is impossible to plan a successful trail network without input from the community.

"The options are designed so that people want to use and will use the trails," she said. "It has to be something that they can feel good about."

Bette Samsel, whose children went to school in Arlee, said she is glad there is an emphasis on getting young people outside and away from the television.

Community member Helene Bourdon agrees.

"When you have places you can go where you feel safe, you are more likely to get out and be active," she said. "Teenagers need stuff like that to do. They get so bored around here."

Decker is excited to see where this new rebirth of energy will take the trails project.

"We need other ideas too," he said. "We would really like to see more of the community get involved."