Door County state parks receive grants for mountain biking, dark sky program projects
Peninsula and Newport state parks each received $20,000 in matching grants for improvements sponsored by each park's friends volunteer organization
Christopher CloughMADISON — Projects at two Wisconsin State Parks in Door County, one involving a mountain bike trail and the other a dark sky experience, each are receiving $20,000 in matching grants from the state.
The grants were awarded to the parks' volunteer support organizations, aka friends groups, that are sponsoring each project – Friends of Peninsula State Park for a gathering area at Peninsula's new mountain bike trails, and the Newport Wilderness Society for a new natural seating amphitheater to host Newport's acclaimed dark sky programming along with other daytime programs.
The awards were approved last week by the Wisconsin State Building Commission through its Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program Property Development grants. The Knowles-Nelson program awarded a total of more than $430,000 in matching grants to 32 friends group and nonprofit conservation organizations at state parks and a state trail for projects with estimated total costs of more than $3.4 million, with the friends groups providing more than $660,000 in matching funds.
The project at Peninsula calls for the outdoor gathering area to be built at the trailhead at Lot 5 off Highland Road in the park. According to the state, the total cost to build the gathering area is $40,000, with the friends group contributing $20,000 to match the state grant.
It's part of a multiphase project to create about 18 miles of purpose-built mountain bike trails in the park; a page on the Friends of Peninsula State Park website for the project says the offroad bike trails in the park that were in place prior to this project were the park's cross-country ski trails, which generally are wide, flat and not challenging enough for the bikers.
Phase I of the trail project, 9 miles for advanced riders, was completed in November at a cost of $690,000, with Phase II scheduled to start this spring or summer to build 9 miles of trail suitable for beginners.
The Newport project seeks to use the existing space for the park's daytime and night sky programs, the day-use area between Parking Lot 3 and the Newport Bay/Lake Michigan shore that's one of the very few developed areas in the park, and turn it into a 100-seat, two-tier, natural seating amphitheater. Newport is the only certified International Dark Sky Park in Wisconsin and is highly regarded for its night-sky viewing opportunities and related interpretive programming.
The project also plans to add enhancements to the area, such as an observation deck overlooking the lake, a new storage shed near the picnic shelter building (for equipment like telescopes for dark-sky events and an all-terrain wheelchair), a boardwalk and gravel paths that would enable visitors with accessibility issues to more easily access the area, lighting for the paths, a small wall to screen off car lights from the nearby parking lot, electricity for the shelter, and a solar panel array to help provide the electricity.
Total cost of the Newport project is given by the state as $204,775, with the Newport Wilderness Society contributing $184,775 in matching funds to the state's $20,000 grant. Eric Hyde, superintendent of Newport, Peninsula and Rock Island state parks, said in a Nov. 23 story in the Advocate he hoped the project will be completed by this fall.
The State Building Commission is chaired by Gov. Tony Evers and comprised of state senators and representatives, including Sen. Andre Jacque, who represents Door County and other parts of northeastern Wisconsin in the 1st District, and a citizen member.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
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