Love Creek County Park to expand next summer

BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. -- New trails for cross-country skiing and hiking will be coming to Love Creek County Park in the summer of 2018.

Kip Miller, manager of the park, said with a $56,000 grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, 12 acres of land will be purchased for expansion.

“Well, it means we’ll make the park a little bit bigger yet. A few years ago we acquired 25 acres that’s directly adjacent to this 12 acres so that gives us more room to expand our trails," said Miller.

He said especially during the winter people rant and rave about the trails for cross-country skiing, only another reason to expand.

“In winter, in particular, its very popular. We have cross country skiing, fatbiking, snowshoeing. We groom trails for the cross-country skiing and the fatbiking. We offer some of the closest groomed trails to Chicago. In addition to just folks who live here in Berrien County coming out, we get a lot of people traveling on winter weekends from northern Illinois, northern Indiana. Sometimes even as far away as Wisconsin," he said.

Not only does the addition of new land provide the opportunity for new trails, but it will also act as a barrier between the park and residential areas. 

“It also adds what we call a "buffer" of park land between developed land and where our existing trails are. That we we don’t have trails right next to houses," said Miller. 

He added, “It's just important. Just looking down the road, right now we look back at the people who acquired and preserved park land 25, 50 and 100 years ago and we think that was a really smart thing to do. If they hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have it now. By doing this sort of thing now, in 25, 50 or 100 years from now, people will look back and think that was a good thing because that land is now here for all of us to enjoy.”