According to Marianne Fowler, senior vice president of federal relations for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, southwest Iowa’s pair of trails were exempted from the ruling for different reasons. The 63-mile Wabash Trace, which runs through four counties, is safe because it’s part of the “railbank” system. Becca Castle, president of Southwest Iowa Nature Trails told the paper that since the former Wabash Railroad purchased the land from the government, it wouldn’t have been affected by the ruling. Out-of-service railroad lines are sold, leased or granted to agencies that oversee a trail.

Ownership never changes hands, however, because the rail company reserves the right to one day reopen a railroad line on the land if need be. More than 4,400 miles of railroad corridors in 33 states are operated as part of this system, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. If abandoned, ownership of that land would ordinarily have reverted to neighboring landowners.

Lisa Hein, program and planning director for the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, which oversees the Wabash Trace and much of the state’s converted rail trails, said most Iowa rail trails are railbanked, and those weren’t affected by the ruling because the railroad company could still operate a line on the land.

Renee Hansen of the Shelby County Auditor’s Office, told the NonPareil that the Old Stone Arch trail – a small portion of the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad right-of-way in Pottawattamie and Shelby counties – was privately granted easements in 1867 and 1968, therefore, the four-mile stretch of trail now owned by the city was also not affected by the decision.

As a whole, Iowa – which has nearly 1,000 miles of trails on converted railroad property – looks to see little or no effects by the 8-1 Supreme Court decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter.