The Tri-Rivers Conservation Foundation is in the planning phase of a three-mile bike trail in Louisa County that would connect existing trails to those in Muscatine County. According to Cathy Nigg, Director of the Port Louisa Wildlife Refuge, the Louisa Trails Council and other partnering organizations have been working for several years to construct a bike trail along Louisa County Highway X61. While designing the trail, they discovered a three mile section between Louisa and Muscatine Counties that was complicated to plan. They received a Federal Land Access Program grant that paid for the planning of the trail, and now it’s ready for construction. In order to get the funds for the construction and engineering for the $270,000 project, the foundation applied for a second Federal Land Access Program grant, but needed matching funds to help the grant along.

The matching funds arrived in the form of a $35,000 grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation in November. Now they just have to wait to hear back about the land access grant, which Nigg says should be some time this winter, and then begin bidding out the construction. She estimates the trail will be ready to ride on in early 2018. Nigg believes the trail is important to the economy of Louisa County, because many bicyclists from around the state and country utilize portions or the entirety of the Mississippi River Trail that begins in Minnesota and goes to Louisiana. Those bicyclists usually take time to recreate and eat while in Louisa County, which Nigg believes will help tourism and spread the word about the county. Additionally, Nigg says the foundation has been attempting to promote the hiking and biking trails to residents of the county in an effort to get people more active and healthy, and she says having a safe and modern trail to use will go a long way to achieving that.