New greenway will connect eight public areas in Dickinson and Osceola counties
By Haley Hodges on November 29, 2017 in Blog
New greenway will connect eight public areas in Dickinson and Osceola counties
After nearly a decade of coordination, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has transferred ownership of 37 miles of corridor slated to become a new trail and greenway system in Dickinson and Osceola counties.
“The Iowa Great Lakes area is already a destination, so adding an extensive trail will give people one more reason to go visit,” said Andrea Boulton, INHF trails and greenways director. “You don’t have to just go to the lakes anymore, you can start in Sibley or Allendorf and make a whole weekend out of it.”
In the expanded northwest Iowa trail network, the east-west trail connects with the existing Spine Trail, which originally connected Milford to Spirit Lake and is expanding along Big Spirit Lake to link with the Jackson County Trail in Minnesota. On its western end, the new corridor will connect with the existing Winkel Trail between Allendorf and Sibley, creating a network to take users anywhere from Sibley to Superior and through the Iowa Great Lakes region.
This new project will connect eight public natural areas in the region including Welch Lake Wildlife Management Area (WMA), the Jemmerson Slough Complex, East Okoboji Slough, Rush Lake and Rush Lake WMA and the Spring Run Wetland Complex.
