Commission Meeting Agenda Item No. 4
Presenter: Trey Cooksey

Action
Texas Statewide Recreational Trail Grants Funding
Recommended Approval of Trail Construction, Renovation, and Acquisition Projects
May 25, 2023

I.      Executive Summary: Staff seeks approval from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (Commission) to award federal and state funds allocated under the National Recreational Trails Fund (NRTF) grants for trail construction, renovation, and acquisition projects. This approval obligates NRTF money to eligible trail projects based upon the recommendations of the Texas Statewide Trails Advisory Committee.

Lea el Resumen Ejecutivo del Tema Núm. 4 en español

II.     Discussion: The NRTF is funded by a portion of the federal gas tax generated by gasoline purchases to utilize off-highway vehicles, such as off-road motorcycles and four-wheelers, for recreation. The purpose of the NRTF is to provide funding for projects that create new or maintain existing motorized and non-motorized recreational trails. These federal funds are administered by the Federal Highway Administration and distributed to states via a formula that considers state population and sales of fuel for off-road recreational vehicles. Nationwide, $85,000,000 was appropriated for the program for federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2023; Texas’ share of these funds is $3,954,874. Seven percent of the state’s annual apportionment ($279,638) is utilized to cover costs to administer the program, leaving $3,675,236 to fund projects. The Texas Legislature has added an additional $1,000,000 per year to the program (pending passage of the state budget), which includes an additional $1,000,000 for this year from Sporting Goods Sales Tax funds. Several projects funded in previous years were completed under budget and five projects were cancelled, creating an additional $700,000 available for reallocation this year, which Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has been utilizing to fund trail improvements in state parks. The result is a total of $6,375,236 of federal and state funding available to fund eligible trail construction projects.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as enacted in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, created this funding source and stipulates that states must have a trails advisory committee made up of various trail user-group representatives to be eligible to receive the federal and state funds. The purpose of the trails advisory committee is to provide guidance in the distribution of these funds.

Local sponsors must submit trail funding proposals by February 1 of each year. This year, thirty-eight projects were submitted for funding consideration, requesting $10,686,338 in funds. The nine-member Texas Statewide Trails Advisory Committee met in March 2023 to review the submitted trail project applications and develop a list of recommended projects for funding.  Each project was reviewed by the advisory committee and scored based on the quality of the project, its cost effectiveness, its impact on recreational trail opportunities, and the geographic distribution of funds. The Texas Statewide Trails Advisory Committee recommended funding sixteen of the project applications, totaling $5,144,214 of funding assistance. Exhibit A contains the list of submitted projects, with funds requested, project descriptions, project scoring, and advisory committee funding recommendations.

The NRTF requires that 30 percent of the federal funds be spent on motorized recreational trail projects, 30 percent on non-motorized trail projects, and the remaining 40 percent be designated as discretionary. Because few public park entities in Texas provide opportunities for motorized trail riding, it is typically difficult to generate enough motorized trail proposals to meet the 30 percent motorized trail requirement. As such, the grant funding limit for motorized proposals is $600,000 per project versus $300,000 for non-motorized proposals. Additionally, up to 5 percent may be used to fund educational projects.

III.   Recommendation: The staff recommends the Commission adopt the following motion:

“The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission approves funding for the fifteen construction projects and one educational project in the amount of $5,144,214, as recommended in Exhibit A, and for state park trail improvements in the amount of $700,000.”

Commission Agenda Item No. 4
Exhibit A

Ranking of 2023 Recreational Trails Grant Proposals

*Projects in bold indicate motorized request*

Total Requests = $10,686,338

Total Recommended = $5,144,214