DNR grant to help fund next steps in Idema Explorers Trail
OLIVE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has approved an agreement to use $715,000 in funding from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to continue work on the Idema Explorers Trail.
The Ottawa County Parks & Recreation Commission says this is the third grant — and the largest, by far — provided by the DNR for this project.
Ottawa County reached an agreement in 2022 with the DNR to design, build and maintain the Idema Explorers Trail at the Bass River State Recreation Area that covers parts of Robinson Township and Allendale Charter Township.
The Idema Explorers Trail is part of the grandiose Grand River Greenway campaign that aims to build a system of green space that follows the river from Grand Haven all the way to Grand Rapids. In all, the trail will stretch 36.5 miles, from the Grand Haven Channel to Millennium Park in Walker. The entire project was forecast to cost $41 million. At least $7 million has already been raised from private philanthropic groups.
Sneak peek at transformation coming to GR’s Canal Park
The Bass River Segment spans 7.4 miles, picking up the trail at Riverside Park on North Cedar Drive and carrying it all the way to the Eastmanville Bayou near 68th Street.
The trail will be broken up into four phases, with crews starting at the western edge and working east. Phase one is expected to be completed in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Each following phase is expected to take an additional year to finish.
DECADES OF PLANNING
The project was one of the first major goals of the Ottawa County Parks Commission when it was founded in 1987. Two years later, the commission adopted its first ever Parks and Recreation plan, which introduced the Grand River Greenway.
The concept was a mission to protect the land around the Grand River and convert it into more recreational opportunities.
Sign up for the News 8 daily newsletter
“It started with, ‘OK, let’s get these properties, let’s conserve this parkland, make sure we’ve got these individual parks for people to recreate throughout the county. And then let’s get them connected,’” the OCPRC’s Jessica VanGinhoven told News 8 in 2022.
At that time, there were only two county parks along the Grand: Riverside Park and Deer Creek Park. They constituted 38 acres of land and less than half a mile of riverfront.
By 1994, those numbers had jumped to more than 3,100 acres and more than 13 miles of riverfront, boosted primarily by the Bass River State Recreation Area — a converted gravel mine site purchased by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Prescribed fire season underway in Huron-Manistee National Forests
The Grand River Greenway study was completed and presented in 1995. After more than two decades of work and planning and the approval of a second park millage, the Grand River Greenway Project was launched in 2016 — building new trails and incorporating existing ones to connect Grand Haven and Grand Rapids.
“We’re completing the project in segments,” VanGinhoven said. “We really had to break it down to smaller pieces for a lot of reasons: to get funding, to work with landowners, to get easements. A lot of the trail goes through (county) property, but a lot of (other property owners) have worked together with us in order to make this a reality.”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
