The Iowa BIG students working on a trail labeling project at Palisades-Kepler State Park met with local first responders about what they see as necessary for trail markers.
The students have previously walked the trails and identified where signs are needed to be labeled throughout the park, as well as developed names for many of the trails that may not have been named.
Mount Vernon-Lisbon police chief Doug Shannon, Lisbon-Mount Vernon ambulance service director Jacob Lindauer and Mount Vernon Fire Department assistant chief Derek Boren were present at the meeting.
The students noted that each trail will now get wooden signs installed at the beginning and end, to help hikers identify which trail they are walking. Along the trail, the students wanted to have a marker of some type to identify where someone may be on the trail. Those will be double sided carsonite markers, to help people walking in either direction on the trial say where they are located in case of an emergency.
Students would also have specified markers near some of the hazard areas on the trails.
The students are designing a digital version of a map that would be accessible by people in the park, as well as first responders.
The cost of the project is roughly $800, depending on the number of signs designated necessary.
Shannon said the importance of the trail project was keeping consistent with what has been done in other parks.
“The public needs to know the names of these trails first, as that helps them identify to dispatch or first responders where they are located in the park,” Shannon said.
All three first responders said having trails named is a huge help in case of an emergency.
Boren reminded students of the importance of keeping things as simple as possible.
“If someone knows they’re on this particular trail and can give us a last sign post they may have passed, that truly helps in response,” Boren said.
Boren suggested that trails follow a consistent path numbering system, using the side closest to the river as a zero point, with numbers increasing from there.
“That tells us as a first responder if we’re reporting to marker 4 of this particular trail, that maybe it’s closer to park in the campgrounds near that trail to stage in case of an emergency, instead of starting at the river and taking a little longer to find someone,” Boren said.
Shannon asked about having maps in the park that outlined all of the trail systems as well, and park ranger Carl Fairley said that is part of a larger project for possibly early next year.
First responders will have digital and printed versions of the maps, and there was talk of using the GPS coordinates for every mile marker to be overlaid into GIS data that responders could also benefit from in the future. That portion of the project is still being researched.
The group of BIG students includes Cole Simons, Brock Tiedeman, Ryan McCafrey, Jace Rickertson and Nate Patterson. Their teacher is Mark Mattson.