Acquisition:

Many trails and greenways are created from land that is already in public ownership; the trail development process is then merely one of convincing the public agency that manages the land that a trail would be a good idea. However, there are many linear corridors that are good candidates for trail development that are not immediately available for use as a greenway or trail. These include rail corridors, utility corridors, and other linear spaces that may be in the ownership of a single company or individual, have multiple owners, or have uncertain ownership status. In each case, there is a variety of tools available to trail advocates to work to make such lands available for public use as trails and/or preserved greenway space.

The key is, of course, determining the current ownership status of the land in question. Once that is clear (or at least as clear as it can be), advocates can come up with a strategy to acquire, or encourage the appropriate public agency to acquire, the right-of-way necessary to create a trail or greenway. The following resources provide further detail about acquisition process. Although many of these resources specifically address rails-to-trails conversions, many of the tools and techniques are the same for any type of linear corridor.

Acquiring Rail Corridors: A How to Manual - Acquiring Rail Corridors delivers a step-by-step explanation of how to successfully acquire a rail corridor.

Secrets of Successful Rail-Trails: An Acquisition and Organizing Manual for Converting Rails into Trails - Secrets of Successful Rail-Trails takes you through the step-by-step process of how to organize citizen support, work with government agencies, get publicity for your project, negotiate with a railroad company, find funds to acquire an abandoned rail corridor, and much more.

Railbanking Fact Sheet

Railbanking and Rail-Trails: A Legacy for the Future

"Who Actually Owns the Right of Way?" Fact Sheet


Sample Trail Easements: Examples of agreements by which a landowner grants a trail easement to …

A nonprofit trail organization

A county government

For additional information about land acquisition tools for conservation, especially by non-governmental organizations, see the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Guidebook.