Trail News

GHORBA Receives $50K for Houston Area Trails

During summer 2007, GHORBA was instrumental in obtaining two grants for trail expansions in the Houston Area.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Grant for Conroe

The first is for completion of the trail at Carl Barton Jr. Park in Conroe, Texas.

The Conroe Parks and Recreation Department, in collaboration with the Greater Houston Off-Road Bicycle Association, recently received a National Recreational Trails Grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department administers the National Recreational Trails Fund in Texas under the approval of the Federal Highway Administration. This program receives its funding from a portion of federal gas taxes paid on fuel used in non-highway recreational vehicles. The $45,000 grant will allow the off-road multi-purpose trail at Carl Barton Jr. Park to be renovated and expanded to five miles.

We are very fortunate to have received funding as competition for funding was intense. We are excited that the trail will be renovated and expanded as this will provide another quality of life amenity to the citizens of Conroe in which all ages will benefit.
—Mike Riggens, Director of Parks and Recreation.

Carl Barton Jr. Park is located at 2500 S. Loop 336. Other amenities at the park include baseball fields, soccer fields, playground, pavilion, and pond.

For all those hard working volunteers who ripped out heavy undergrowth to get the first 2.5 miles completed – you should know that your 625 hours of volunteer time were worth $6,250 in matching funds towards this grant. Hard work pays more than you think!

REI Grant for Roy C. Burroughs Park

GHORBA Board member and Roy Burroughs Park Trail Steward Bill Begnaud prepared an application for a $5,000 REI grant, which we are pleased to announce was also successful. Thanks to Sheryl Sitts of REI Willowbrook for nominating us for this grant.

The funds will be used for trail design, materials and support to build the single track trail system at Roy C. Burroughs Park near Tomball in Precinct 4 of Harris County. Roy Burroughs Park will shortly also become the western terminus of the 33 mile long Spring Creek Greenway Project, along which we hope to build more singletrack trail.

For Further information, contact vptrails@ghorba.org

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  1. Way to go guys! That is fantastic news!

    By: Mat
    Oct 10

  2. How about using some of that money for the memorial park bike trail. Those trails are in need of some of some serious repair! What used to be the easy trail(yellow trail) is now a difficult trail! Needs a lot of dirt to cover the tree roots!

    By: mark bolden
    Oct 11

  3. please consider using some of that money to add some jump’s and repair the trails

    By: patrick
    Oct 11

  4. Thanks for your comments. Grants are issued to specific projects and so cannot be diverted. Our Memorial Park trail steward is getting to grips with his trails, working with volunteers (you!), the conservancy and the city. Memorial Park Conservancy obtained a grant for Memorial Park and some of that money will be used to attack the most serious problems on the trails there.

    By: Kevin Highfield
    Oct 12

  5. Fantastic job folks! Woodlands Cycling Club has a host of volunteers ready to help with the projects in our area . . . Conroe/Spring/Woodlands, so don’t forget us in your work party invites.
    CJ

    By: Joe Noack
    Oct 12

  6. You’re welcome Joe. Most of the work will be done by Talon Trails, but not sure exactly how the contract will be structured – either they do all the work, or a composite of them + volunteers. Details should be worked out soon enough. The trick is we can use volunteers on other projects – Spring Creek, Double Lake, Roy Burroughs – and let the pro’s get on with CBJ. Either way, we want to ensure that CBJ becomes a cool, desirable MTB destination.

    By: Kevin Highfield
    Oct 12