Seed wins award for Gateway Trail, Landwehr takes firm stand
When the Soo Line Railroad abandoned its track by Peter Seed’s home in Grant, he and his family hiked along the tracks in summer and skied on the tracks in winter.
Those excursions led to his groundbreaking legal work that created the Gateway State Trail. Tuesday night, Seed received the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota’s prestigious Reuel Harmon Award for his work. The Parks & Trails Council’s 57th annual dinner was attended by 210 people at the Town & Country Club in St. Paul.
“The problem with all of these,” Seed said of trails during his acceptance speech, “is the abutting people. They are tied not to the railroad but to the privacy and the fear of vandalism and crime if people were allowed to use the tracks.”
So, the adjacent landowners began trying to buy the land, setting up a bidding war with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the local governments and citizen groups who wanted to buy the 10 miles from Oakdale northeast to near Stillwater.
“And you, Senator Durenberger, had a role,” Seed said, pointing to the former Republican U.S. Senator in the audience. “I said we have got to get the Soo Line to stop the bidding war. Dave Durenberger and (Minnesota Attorney General Warren) Spannaus wrote nice letters.”
Ultimately, the state purchased the railroad bed, but the landowners sued, claiming the law required the land to revert back to adjacent landowners when the railroads stop using the easement.
Enlisting the help of his boss, Sam Morgan, at the Briggs and Morgan law firm, Seed developed a theory, which the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed was correct. That is, that the land does not go back to the property owners as long as it continues to be used for public purpose such as a recreational trail. The case and the brief have been cited numerous times nationwide.
“Maybe I was a driving force in the creation of the Gateway Trail, but more, it was the people I got to work with me,” Seed said at his acceptance. “I was able to motivate others to get involved.”
Featured speaker Tom Landwehr, the DNR commissioner, told the packed room that the deep cuts the Legislature is proposing for the parks will mean at least 10 would have to be “mothballed” and others would have their seasons shortened.
“If I’m told to supplant, rather than supplemenent (with Legacy dollars) we will refuse to do that,” Landwehr said to applause.
Landwehr said the “attacks on funding, the mischief around funding, can only be stopped if we all collaborate” and Parks & Trails Council members speak with one voice alongside hunters, fishers and other environmental organizations.
Presenting sponsor of the evening was Briggs and Morgan with supporting sponsors Great River Energy, QBP, Erik’s Bike Shop and Minnesota Trails. In addition, Patagonia of St. Paul and Chianti Grill/Porterhouse provided wonderful prizes for the evening's raffle.
Earlier in the evening, attorneys Ken Rowe, Jeff Benson and Kathy Connelly received volunteers awards for their many hours of free legal work on behalf of Parks & Trails Council in various land acquisitions.
New board members elected were Kathy Bonnifield, Keith Fester, Julie Gugin, Verónica Jaralambides, Mary Merrill Anderson and Tom Stoa.
