Federal Roadways & Trails Funding at Risk

Please let your Senator and Representatives in Washington know today that transportation enhancement funding is important because you value trails, planting trees and prairies along roadsides and improved entranceways! You can find your Senators contact information here and your Representatives contact information here.

If your community or county has benefitted from funding or assistance through our popular Iowa’s Living Roadways Projects or Trails Visioning programs or general enhancement funding, we want you to know that these programs are at risk of being severely reduced or eliminated entirely from the federal budget!  Enhancements provide more than aesthetic improvements; they perform important functions like filtering stormwater runoff and reducing the costs of mowing turf or spraying invasive plants with pesticides. They have also helped improve local economies through tourism and improved quality of life.

Iowa’s own Congressman Tom Latham is the Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. You can let Congressman Latham know that Transportation Enhancements funding is important to you and your community by e-mailing him here or calling his Iowa office at 515-232-2885. In these trying economic times, our federal and state legislators are looking for any and all ways to trim their respective budgets. The opinions and desires of the constituents they serve can be critical in how they view–and vote on–any particular issue or appropriation. It’s a classic case of the squeaky wheels getting the oil –or in this case, the dollars!