It’s always great to hear about things happening in Crookston, especially when different community groups are teaming up to make Crookston better. We sat down with Crookston Community Development Director Karie Kirschbaum, Professor of Marketing at the University of Minnesota Crookston Al Fattal Anas, and Associate Professor Eric Castle to hear about a project they are working on to highlight the trail system in Crookston.
“We just want to highlight some of the partnerships that the City and the Economic Development Department has been working on with the University of Minnesota,” says Kirschbaum. “Al and I have been working for almost three years now. We have had five semesters under our belt for working with marketing with the EDA and also with the City and developing marketing strategies. It’s been a lot of exciting things that help me to get my rebrand or reignite the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Department, to help get our name out there and our mission.”
Kirschbaum says she has known Eric Castle and worked with him even before taking her position in Crookston, and it has been great working together again on their current project. “Now we are working on what we have discovered, through marketing, that our trails, we don’t have everything really documented,” says Kirschbaum. “What is available, what is assessable, so now the three of us are partnering on the next adventure with Parks and Rec and other people to highlight that.”
It had come to Kirschbaum’s attention that there are residents of Crookston who are not even sure what the trail system consists of after discussions at Jolt and Jive meetings. So, with that knowledge, she knew there was a partnership she could count on to do some research and develop the trail systems. “Crookston has a lot of great trails that are available throughout the city. The network of trails is located all around the city, so most neighborhoods have access or close access to trails,” says Castle. “I partnered with Al; he and I connected a previous semester when I was talking about surveying. I do a little bit of surveying in my classes, and he does some in his, so we connected a little bit on that. I knew Al and Karie had worked together as well on various projects, so when Al and I sat down to try and figure out a project to work on together between our two classes to generate ideas, we came to Karie, and she pointed us towards this trail connection project.”
Two different classes are working on the trail project: the Natural Resources Class/Land Use Planning, taught by Castle, and the Marketing Strategies Class, which Fattal teaches. “I believe this is a great opportunity for the students to help the community and have some impact,” says Fattal. “Actually, this is a great opportunity for the students. They have this kind of hands-on experience so they can apply what they are learning, and at the same time, it feels good for them to be helping the community.”
What was the assignment that was given to the students? “Eric and I got together and discussed an objective, of course, by meeting with Karie, and the idea was to improve usage for the trails,” says Fallal. “This is a very interesting project in the way that it is interdisciplinary between two areas, the Marketing, and the Natural Resources/Land Planning classes. We identified two areas in the trails. The first one is the trails themselves, which need some improvements, and of course, Eric and his students, that’s their specialty, are looking after that. At the same time, there is awareness and promotion for the trails, and my students from the Marketing Strategies can look after that.”
Fattal and Castle believe that together, the Marketing Strategies and Natural Resources/Land Planning classes can bring more relevant and practical recommendations and ideas to the city about the trail system. “Al’s class is focusing on the marketing part of it, telling the story of where the trails are, how people can figure out where they are cause there are a variety of trails in town, not everybody knows where they are,” says Castle. “We did a survey, and one of those findings reinforced that idea, that knowing where trails are is kind of a word-of-mouth thing, and if you are new to town or a student who is also new to town, it’s hard to figure out where those are and benefit from those trails.”
Castle says the students in his Land Use Planning class are learning how to work with communities, create plans, and engage with communities to help them achieve goals that align with their values. “Specific things my class is focusing on is documenting where the trails are. There has been a lot of work done previously that they have been able to draw from where those trails are and build on it even more,” says Castle. “They are also taking a look at the best practices for trails based on the trail usage, the intended uses for the trail and then look at best practices for those kinds of trails and then writing that all up and eventually giving a presentation about that as well as a document that outlines all of these ideas.”
The work put in by the students on a project like this is quite intensive. Fattal explained that some of the toughest things for students are going out in the community, asking people to fill out surveys, borrowing cameras, and figuring out how to assemble the presentation for multiple attendees and get them seated and comfortable. The students have been and still are working hard to finalize all the details for this project and will share their ideas with the community soon, says Kirschbaum. “The community is definitely invited out to Valley Tech Park on Wednesday, April 30, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. to see the trail presentation between the two departments and myself.”
The students and professors working on the trail project were involved in the 2025 U of M Public Engagement Conference in Minneapolis on March 18, 2025. The team will also be featured in the May newsletter for Project Based Learning at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the project will be featured in the Minnesota Daily.
Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 30, at 4:00 p.m. and come out to Valley Technology Park at 510 County Rd. 71, in Crookston, to listen to the presentation on the trail system in Crookston and support the students who have been working hard to put it together.
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