As planners work to prioritize the next steps in the completion of the Jordan River Parkway trail, at least one person who used to be involved in the trail's creation says the next step should be to slow down.

Jeff Salt, who heads the Great Salt Lakekeeper organization and was formerly the executive director of the Salt Lake County Audubon Society, worries the trail has gotten out of hand and environmental concerns are not being taken into account.

"We should say, 'Hold on folks,' " Salt said. "We've got one trail we should be working on for the Jordan River. Why are we promoting all these redundant trails? We don't need these."

The "redundant trails," he said, include offshoots and branches of the trail that often pop up because "someone wants a trail from their back porch." Instead of an entangled trail system, he said, there should be a "smart, comprehensive trail."

The Jordan River Natural Areas Forum, a major player in planning the Great Salt Lake-to-Utah Lake trail system, hosted three public hearings recently on how to proceed. Nine incomplete sections of the trail remain, and JRNAF is working to develop a plan to present to the Salt Lake County Council of Governments in January.

"We always try to maintain a balance" between environmental concerns and the trail's expansion, JRNAF trails project chairman Jeff Williams said. He said JRNAF addresses all environmental concerns as they come up. "We definitely want to get input about what those (issues) might be."

Salt said a major contributor to the environmental impact of redundant trails is putting trails on both sides of the river. That, he said, requires the building of bridges, whose footings constrict the river's path instead of allowing it to adapt and erode naturally. They also accelerate the river and increase undesirable erosion.

And then there's the aesthetics: "All we end up looking at is the butt end of concrete or iron bridges."

And they create more "vectors for pollution" — more places for people to go to dump garbage into the river. In Salt Lake City's Glendale neighborhood, for example, the existence of several trails and bridges around the river has been met directly by an increase in shopping carts dumped into the river. Salt said he personally fishes those carts and other garbage out, so he has seen it first-hand.

And the increased traffic — especially as cities begin to install nighttime lighting — harms bird habitat, he said, adding that bird-watching is one of the major draws of the river.

"Pretty soon we're not going to have a river corridor," Salt said. "We're just going to have a glorified alleyway."

In addition to the public open houses, JRNAF is collecting input on the trail at www.planning.utah.gov/jrnafTrail.htm.

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com