Posts by Kelly Pack

As part of the conference program, longtime West Virginia trail advocates Peggy Pings, Ella Belling and Amanda Pitzer celebrate Ella’s recognition as a leader of trail advocacy on the Mon River Rail-Trail System in Morgantown. | Photo courtesy Amanda Pitzer

Inaugural WV TRAIL Conference Energizes Mass Effort for Statewide Trails Movement

Posted 11/23/21 by Kelly Pack in America's Trails | Tagged with Connected Systems, Demand for Trails, IHTC, TrailNation, West Virginia

Exciting happenings in West Virginia last week—as local and national trail advocates gathered virtually for the inaugural WV TRAIL Conference, Nov. 16–18, 2021. Hosted by WV TRAIL, the National Park Service – Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA), Friends of the Cheat (FOC) and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), the conference brought together more than 250 people with the goal of building a broad network of trail planners, managers and advocates from across the Mountain State

Three Rivers Heritage Trail in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Photo by Jake Lynch

New USDOT Report Provides 25 Years of Lessons Learned for Rails-with-Trails

Posted 06/25/21 by Kelly Pack in America's Trails | Tagged with Capital Trails Coalition, Circuit Trails, Federal, Rail-with-Trail, Success Stories, TrailNation, Walkability and Bikeability

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) released Rails-with-Trails: Best Practices and Lessons Learned—a long-awaited update to its first release, published in 2002. Offering in-depth insights on the design, development, operations and benefits of rails-with-trails in America, the report has served as an authoritative resource for trail builders for nearly two decades.

North Bend Rail Trail, part of the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition's Parkersburg to Pittsburgh Corridor in West Virginia | Photo courtesy TrailLink user jiw71

More Than $340,000 Secured for Epic Trail Corridor in West Virginia

Posted 12/11/18 by Kelly Pack in Success Stories, Building Trails | Tagged with Connected Systems, Funding, IHTC, Tourism and Economic Development, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, Trail Businesses, Trail Destinations, Transportation Alternatives, West Virginia

Big news for trails in West Virginia! This Fall, the West Virginia Department of Transportation announced that it had awarded two grants totaling more than $343,000 through the state’s Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) for trail projects in Marion and Wood counties. The TAP awards will specifically help acquire three segments of disused CSX corridor totaling 3.35 miles along a developing 150-mile stretch of rail-trail from Parkersburg to the state’s border with Pennsylvania.

Railroad bridge seen from the Mon River Trail | Photo by Ella Belling

The P2P: World-Class Trail Network to Kick-Start Bike Tourism Boom in West Virginia and Pennsylvania

Posted 05/17/18 by Kelly Pack, Jake Lynch in Building Trails, America's Trails | Tagged with Connected Systems, Corridors and Railbanking, Demand for Trails, IHTC, Local Organizing, Pennsylvania, RTC in Action, Rural Communities, Tourism , Tourism and Economic Development, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, TrailNation, Walkability and Bikeability, West Virginia

The P2P corridor heads east out of the Ohio River port city of Parkersburg, along the North Bend Rail Trail, through small, rural communities like Cairo, West Union and Salem. Seventy-eight percent of the 150-mile West Virginia section is already complete, with a few key gaps in Wood, Harrison and Marion counties.

Great Allegheny Passage | Photo by Traillink user aeljarou

2016 Doppelt Grant Awards to Fund Innovative Trail Projects Around US

Posted 06/04/16 by Kelly Pack in Building Trails | Tagged with Funding

RTC is pleased to announce the winners of our 2016 Doppelt Family Trail Development Fund grant awards. We received an unprecedented 166 applications in 2016, totaling more than $5 million in funding requests. These numbers speak to the incredible demand for rail-trails and trail networks across the country, and we encourage all the communities who applied to reapply this fall. Here are this year's selectees!

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath, part of the September 11th National Memorial Trail corridor | Photo courtesy PA DCNR

CSX Donates 130 Acres to Complete National September 11th Memorial Trail

Posted 12/09/15 by Kelly Pack in Building Trails, America's Trails | Tagged with Corridors and Railbanking, Trail Communities, Trail Destinations

Earlier this Fall, CSX announced their donation of 130 acres to help complete the September 11th National Memorial Trail, a planned 1,300-mile multi-use trail that commemorates those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. The current corridor plan—shaped as a triangle—comprises a series of trail systems connecting the World Trade Center, Flight 93 and Pentagon memorials.

No Bike/Ped Crossing of the Susquehanna in Maryland? It's Time to Change That.

Posted 01/28/14 by Kelly Pack in Building Trails, Taking Action | Tagged with Maryland, Rail-with-Trail

Did you know that in the state of Maryland there is no safe way to cross the Susquehanna River on foot or by bike? That's why Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is supporting the effort of our friends at the East Coast Greenway Alliance to urge the Maryland Department of Transportation to include a bike/ped pathway in an upcoming redesign of the 108-year-old Susquehanna River Bridge currently used by Amtrak.

Grand Tetons Proposal Your Chance to Support Trail Access in America's National Parks

Posted 01/13/14 by Kelly Pack in Taking Action | Tagged with Local Organizing, Wyoming

Right now the National Park Service is considering a proposal for the completion of trail loop in a section of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming known as the Moose-Wilson Road corridor. We believe this project would demonstrate the great value of nonmotorized trail access, and complete trail loops, in America's national parks, and pave the way for trail systems in parks elsewhere.

From Possible Abandonment to Community Ambition - South Carolina Cities To Purchase Rail Corridor

Posted 06/12/13 by Kelly Pack in Success Stories, Building Trails | Tagged with Corridors and Railbanking, South Carolina, Tourism and Economic Stimulus

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Early Warning System is the only service in the United States that scans for the proposed abandonment of railroad corridors in every state, information we then send to relevant local communities and trail advocates to alert them of the potential for a rail-trail.