Acquiring Rail Corridors:
Acknowledgements

Acquiring Rail Corridors is the product of a cooperative effort involving many of the leading experts involved in creating rail-trails, including railroad executives, trail professionals and government agency representatives. As with RTC's previous "how-to" manuals, this publication would not have been possible without the support and assistance of the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service. In addition, The Trust for Public Land played a key role in ensuring that this book addressed the needs of would-be rail-trail buyers.

Acquiring Rail Corridors resulted from a symposium hosted by RTC and the National Park Service, and the vast majority of the information presented in this publication can be credited to the insights and contributions of the symposium participants: Sarah Whitley of Burlington Northern Railroad, Michael Tosh of Commercial Metals Railroad Salvage Company, Jim Jennings, Ed Dressler of Greene County (Ohio) Recreation and Parks, Mac Wilkerson of Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Dan King of the Surface Transportation Board, Tom Neenan of Iowa Trails Council, Bobbie League of CSX Transportation, Jim Spalding of Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Mark Ackelson of Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Jay Ostrow of R.L. Banks and Associates, Les Town of Consolidated Rail Corporation, Stuart Gassner of Chicago & North Western Transportation Company, Chuck Montange, Doug Golden of Mainline Management Services, Kathleen Blaha of The Trust for Public Land, Montey Sneed and Tom Ross and Alan Turnbull of the National Park Service.

Robert Farnsworth of E.P. Hamilton & Associates, Doug Golden, Mark Ackelson, RTC Past President David Burwell and especially Kathleen Blaha deserve special recognition for their assistance in writing portions of this manual. Thanks to Mark King of the Albany County (New York) Planning Department and Grieg Asher of the Placer County (California) Transportation Commission for their helpful comments during the review process. Thanks also to Simon Sidamon-Eristoff, Andrea Ferster, Marsha Wallen, Sharon Benjamin, Karen-Lee Ryan and Philippe Crist of RTC for their participation, comments and support for this project. Special thanks to April Moore for her wonderful job of editing and improving the initial version of the text. Nelly Ambrose of RTC deserves a great deal of credit for turning the dog-eared computer print-outs into the beautifully designed book you have in front of you.

Finally thanks to all of the staff of the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy who provided such valuable feedback as they read through drafts of this document.