Northern to construct walking trail around campus

Montana State University-Northern recently received more than $60,000 in grant funding to construct a trail around the campus as part of their efforts to make the area more walkable.

Northern Office of Teaching and Learning Excellence Director Lindsey Brandt-Bennett, Ph.D., said the idea to construct a trail around Northern has been on the mind of Northern staff since before she came to work Northern seven years ago.

Brandt-Bennett said there is a large swath of land in the southeast corner of the campus that is difficult to traverse on foot and this L-shaped ½ mile trail will trace the perimeter of that area of campus from Married Student Housing on Bonine Drive to 13th Street West before turning west along 13th and eventually ending at Armory Gymnasium.

A release from Brandt-Bennett on the project says it will have four entry points, one at the beginning and one at the end of the trail and then at two locations along 13th so that users can cross from Saddle Butte Drive and the hospital, all with ramps.

The funds, received through the Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Trail Stewardship Grant, will cover 90 percent of the $71,735 budget with AgWest Farm Credit, Independence Bank, Havre Trails and Northern’s Foundation funding the other 10 percent.

She said there will still be a few gaps along the perimeter of the campus, as well as between the campus and Northern Montana Health Care and Devlin Walking Trail, but the university has pledged to fill those gaps, which would connect the three areas with walkable paths and bikeable paths.

Brandt-Bennett said grants are never a sure thing, but because the project is being done in collaboration with Northern’s civil engineering technology students and ties into the university’s strategic plan, their application was very strong.

“I was pretty confident we’d get this grant,” she said. “But it was a really competitive grant cycle this year.”

She said the goal of the project, to make a more walkable campus that people will be more willing to visit, also ties in, albeit indirectly, with Havre’s Downtown Master Plan, which seeks to make Downtown Havre more walkable and inviting.

She said even though the campus is in a different area of town, they have a shared goal for both their areas.

Brandt-Bennett’s release also said it would provide access to recreation opportunities, nature, scenic views of Havre and Saddle Butte and make it easier for biology and agriculture faculty to better access more sections of campus to study vegetation in the campus greenhouse, which will be connected to the trail.

Brandt-Bennett said much of the timeline for this project depends on the availability of contractors, but she is hoping they will be able to start construction in late summer or early fall before the cold starts settling in.