Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) and the national trail community put itself on the front lines to protect and defend trails in 2018. Here are five ways we mobilized in communities this year.

Pete Raynor, central author of Railbanking legislation, was named 2018 Rail-Trail Champion. The 1983 Railbanking Act helped make many trails.

Approximately 54 percent complete to date, the Miami LOOP is a 225-mile trail vision to expand transportation options, make biking and walking safer and more equitable.

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System Act and Five rail-trails that weave in and around them.

For Women’s History Month, we honor this visionary woman and others who have made extraordinary impacts in their own communities and for the nation. In some cases, their legacy lives on in the names of trails that are used and loved by communities.

RTC is pleased to name former U.S. Congressman Tom Petri as the 2016 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion in recognition of his decades of support for rail-trails and active transportation infrastructure.

Missouri’s Katy Trail supports small businesses across the state and serves as a model for other rail-trail projects nationwide.

It may be a no-brainer that Seattle-born Bobby Whittaker has always loved the outdoors, having been raised by the first American to summit Mt. Everest.

Here are 10 more game-changing rail-trails (in no particular order) that have had an impact, as destinations, recreation magnets, economic drivers or transportation connectors, in the U.S.

May Theilgaard Watts was a writer, illustrator, naturalist, scientist and teacher. Her determination that Americans stay connected to their natural landscape in a time of increasing urbanization was the catalyst that led to the formation of the Illinois Prairie Path,