In a major environmental address Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder proposed a 599 mile hiking and biking trail from Belle Isle in Detroit to the Wisconsin border in the Upper Peninsula.
By adding more than 200 miles of trails in the Lower and Upper peninsulas to connect existing greenways, Snyder said he hopes to make Michigan the “trail state.”
In his address, Snyder instructed the Department of Natural Resources to turn their attention to connecting private and public trails with the help of both private and nonprofit partners.
“I think a trail like this could put us on the map and get people to start talking about it,” said Todd Scott, Detroit greenways coordinator for the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, in an interview with mlive.com.
“It would be real cool to see a sign that said ‘Wisconsin – 600 miles this way,” Scott said in the interview.
Depending on funding and acquiring land use rights, the trail could be completed in three to five years.
