‘Adoption’ Plan Would Fund Trails : Parks: Supervisor Mike Antonovich says corporate donations would end the need for $23 individual passes.

Stung by complaints over the county’s controversial new program for charging hikers, bicyclists and equestrians who use its trails, Supervisor Mike Antonovich today will propose an alternate plan calling for corporations and other sponsors to donate funds to maintain the trails.

Antonovich said the goal of the “adopt-a-trail” program would be to raise $450,000 in annual revenue and allow the county to stop requiring trail users to pay $23 a year for a trail pass.

But Tony Yakimowich, budget director for the county Parks and Recreation Department, was doubtful that such a program could raise all the funds needed for maintenance, and said he still wants to “give the trail pass a chance.”

If the adopt-a-trail program is implemented, Yakimowich said, it might be difficult because of the weak economy to raise all the money needed to maintain the trails. “There might be room for a dual role with our pass and the adopt-a-trail program,” he said.

The pass program, which began Jan. 1 and is due to become mandatory on Monday, was approved last September in the hope of helping the cash-strapped county offset the cost of maintaining its 330 miles of trails.

The Parks and Recreation Department originally requested $590,000 to maintain the trails during the current fiscal year, but only $450,000 was appropriated. Of that, $300,000 came from a one-time-only transfer of funds from the Public Works Department and $150,000 was expected to be raised through the sale of passes.

So far, however, only 470 of the passes have been sold, for a total of about $10,800.

Dawson Oppenheimer, Antonovich’s press deputy, said the adopt-a-trail idea came about after Antonovich and other county supervisors received many calls from people objecting to the pass fee. “I’m not sure the trail fee was given enough serious consideration,” he said. “It was thought out in the crunch of a very serious budget problem.”

But many of the callers also offered to help collect donations, Oppenheimer said. This prompted Antonovich to consider a trails program similar to the successful statewide adopt-a-highway program, through which businesses, organizations and individuals pay to clean up stretches of California highways.

Manufacturers of hiking equipment and off-road vehicles, hiking groups and nature organizations are considered likely trail sponsors. Like the adopt-a-highway program, which posts signs alongside freeways with the names of sponsors, portions of trails would be marked with signs naming the donor who helped pay for the trail’s maintenance.

Antonovich plans to ask the Parks and Recreation Department to report back to the Board of Supervisors in two weeks with an initial plan for implementing the adopt-a-trail program.