When last we left the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, it was being coy about the precise location of the 222 miles of potential new rail-to-trail bike paths it claimed exist in the state of Minnesota.
We now know that the group was being shy on purpose. Such a public list of potential projects would be highly sensitive because, it now says, "actual public unveiling of where these lines are in detail could potentially cause political and public jeopardy to those projects."
That is from Eric Oberg, director of Trail Development for the national nonprofit that works to expand the mileage of multiuse trails in America, particularly those that convert abandoned rail beds to biking and hiking trails. Minnesota has 74 such trails covering 2,107 miles, second-most miles in the nation after Michigan's 2,437.
His reserve only heightened the question: Where will Minnesota get its next great bike path?
Oberg, by the way, said the 222-mile estimate of potential new Minnesota trails is "very conservative; it could be double that." But the conservancy isn't releasing any maps. When Oberg was asked if such information would, in essence, provide valuable information to opponents of rails-to- trails development, he said, "That I think would be accurate."
Across the country — perhaps less so in Minnesota — coalitions of adjacent land owners, property rights activists and random bikeophobes have fiercely opposed new biking and hiking paths on old rail lines.
Complaints about conversions from rails to trails usually lament the loss of commercially viable rail lines (even though the federal government has to designate the line unnecessary before it can be abandoned), and broader allegations that the arrival of cyclists and hikers would bring an unacceptable onslaught of crime, litter and Subaru station wagons. At one point in Kansas, for example, opponents' law suits held up development of 300 miles of trails.
The conservancy has learned, generally speaking, to tiptoe up to abandoned rights of way, organize redevelopment and then try to close the deal through local and state governments before the alarmists can hire lawyers and light torches.