ST. GEORGE — Sounds of nature are overshadowed by backhoes connecting the Halfway Wash in Paradise Canyon to the St. George Trail System. Homeowners say paving the wash impacts wildlife and natural habitat more than what city officials agreed to. 

Homeowner Meagan Butterfield said working with city officials had been positive. Still, she said the project is not turning out as expected.

“The agreement to minimally impact wildlife and the natural habitat has been abandoned, and the neighborhood is suffering the consequences of a reckless and unneeded quarter of a mile pavement of a former dirt trail,” Butterfield said in an email to St. George News. “It is truly sickening to see how St George spends money unnecessarily destroying trails right outside our Gem – Snow Canyon.”

Butterfield added that the promised 8-foot trail has turned into a 10-foot trail. She noted that visitors can’t park on the streets in the Paradise Canyon neighborhood due to the homeowners’ association rules. She said there is no parking provided near the wash.

The pathway of the Halfway Wash trail is south of the Sonoran Drive bridge to the north of the tunnel under Snow Canyon Parkway. This section goes from the existing pathway near the tunnel. It follows the planned layout for extending the path on the East side of the wash. It then crosses over the wetland area and a bridge over a streambed.

The city is also replacing a small bridge, which will be a few hundred feet south of the Sonoran Bridge and ties it into the existing Horse Trail. The paved section of this pathway, or Halfway Wash Trail, would end adjacent to Sonoran Drive.

David Cordero, St. George communications and marketing director, told St. George News that the Halfway Wash Trail will provide the only paved trail access to the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve for residents of the vicinity. He said the project cost was $397,000 from the City’s Park Impact Funds.

“Having been in the city’s masterplan for decades, we feel this trail is vital as it connects the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve with the city trail system,” Cordero said.

Cordero added the city’s original proposal for Halfway Wash Trail included a preferred trail alignment that would have required an easement and use of Paradise Canyon’s sidewalk/walkway. The Paradise Canyon HOA elected not to allow the city to use that easement. The city’s next option was to develop the trail on city property through the wash.

Cordero said the city met with Paradise Canyon’s HOA and community members to mitigate impacts to the wash. Those conversations resulted in the city reducing the trail width from 10 feet to 8 feet and agreeing to designate the area as the Halfway Wash Nature Reserve. The city also decided not to pave the trail on the north side of Sonoran Drive up to the Red Cliffs Reserve, further minimizing the project’s environmental impact.

Paradise Canyon resident Toni Allen said the paved path still encroaches upon the ever-shrinking habitat of wildlife. This paved trail seems contradictory to “protecting” the fox, bobcat, bluebirds, bunnies, tortoise,and many other wildlife dwellings in this natural wash, Allen said.

Cordero said the city follows the original dirt trail alignment and keeps the disturbance minimal.

“When the trail is complete, the contractor and city are committed to restoration of the disturbed area up to the paved trail, which may include replanting trees or bushes that needed to be removed for the trail,” Cordero said.

Another homeowner John Southrey emailed St. George News to say that what is happening to the Halfway Wash “far exceeds” what the city of St. George officials represented to Paradise Canyon residents.

“Specifically, the depth and expanse of the trail extension’s irreversible habitat destruction and alteration are more than just some inconsequential environmental intrusion,” Southrey said. “The trail extension is also an incursion into our private subdivision that affects primarily the residents whose homes adjoin the Wash and who purchased their homes, in part, because of the Wash’s nearby natural aesthetics, wildlife habitat, and quietude.”

Southrey said that the city of St. George’s Parks and Community Services Director Shane Moore and Landscape Architect Paul Stead and Joe Nielson told him that the trail extension clearing is much wider than they wanted and is a bigger intrusion than they had planned.

“We hope these promises will be kept,” Southrey said.

Southrey said it was the residents’ understanding, after meeting with city officials in 2018, that they “would not build” this trail extension at their insistence, which “the city later reneged on.”

“So, this experience provides a warning to St. George residents to be more investigative of the city’s land management development plans going forward,” Southrey said.

Nevertheless, Southrey said that officials have stated they’re committed to mitigating the trail width, restoring the area with reseeding native plants and not extending the trail beyond Sonoran Dr. He said city officials are going to provide signage about the wash being a “nature reserve” after the trail construction is finished.

Other concerns that homeowners shared in HOA meeting notes include a paved pathway that might invite challenges with campers, littering and other issues that the trail section south of the Snow Canyon Tunnel has experienced during the past year.

Allen stated that trash, campers and drug activity are common near Royal Oak Park and surrounding areas with access to the Halfway Wash trail. Allen added that although the city staff has engaged with the neighbors of Halfway Wash, the community, the environment and the wildlife are being negatively impacted.

“This seemed like a great opportunity to work with thecCity to pave a better way to these types of projects, to be more intentional and conscious/sensitive and considerate of our surroundings. But displacing the animals and adding paths for human convenience when there is already a path that didn’t seem to disturb the natural habitat wastes our tax dollars and adds stress to our environment,” Allen said.

Adding black asphalt through the Halfway Wash, which usually experiences slightly lower temperatures, “just seems senseless.”

“I don’t doubt that this may be a beautiful path when finished; however, at what cost to the environment and the wildlife?” Allen said. “The bigger concern is that the city agreed to not touch the northern side of the wash, but will they come back in the future and attempt to blaze yet another heat-conducting asphalt trail, wrecking more soil, plants and wildlife homes and trails?”

Moore told St. George News the Halfway Wash segment was supposed to connect Snow Canyon Parkway to the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

Moore said they worked with the HOA committee of concerned citizens throughout the process. He said that building a trail causes a certain amount of disturbance. Due to the new alignment, the parameters were wider because the city had to do some retainage down into the wash.

“So I feel like we’ve done a really good job of trying to communicate what we’re doing, try to mitigate the concerns as best we can and still get the user experience of the entire city to be able to utilize that halfway wash trail to its fullest ability,” Moore said.

Moore emphasized that the city wanted to find a solution with the HOA and work with the committee started for the project. So the city engineers developed a new alignment that didn’t require any of the HOA’s property.

The new trail alignment travels up the wash more than the original plan. Moore said it also required a bridge to be built, which was more expensive for the city, but he felt they had found a good shared solution with the HOA.

“It’s always hard right during the construction because you have big equipment in there. You have noise, and I think it can be overwhelming, but we are committed to going back in and restoring everything around and up to the trail as very best we can,” Moore said.

St. George News has obtained an email that Moore sent to Allen on June 4, that states, “I am going to tell Paul I want the trail to be 8 feet. We will be working on some sign proofs for you and your community to approve. I will contact you as soon as I have word on the trail width.”

Another homeowner, John Watson, told St. George News that during discussions with the city, officials agreed to work with the Bureau of Land Management to designate the Halfway Wash area as a new nature reserve.

“Going forward, we will be calling this area the Red Cliffs Gateway Nature Preserve in an effort to draw more attention to the diverse wildlife and vegetation that exists in the wash and surrounding area and the need to protect it,” Watson said.

Watson added that a group called “The Friends of Halfway Wash and Red Cliffs Gateway Nature Preserve” will volunteer to monitor the trail system and provide maintenance and protection to the area.

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