A 2017 survey by the Montana Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research shows 63,000 hikers, runners, and bikers recreated on Helena’s South Trails in 2017. The report, released through Prickly Pear Land Trust last week, also shows users of the trails spent over $4 million in the local area in the summer of 2017. “PPLT strives for bettering quality of life benchmarks and this real-time data provides important information to assist in our planning and understanding of the economic and social impacts of our South Hills land acquisition and trails work,“ said PPLT executive director Mary Hollow. “It was wonderful to see the high values placed on our work in building the South Hills land estate and establishing and maintaining the trails system with the city of Helena and U.S. Forest Service over the years.”
