Maintenance and Volunteers

View of Lake Mead along the River Mountains Loop Trail | Photo by John Holman

Nevada’s River Mountains Loop Trail

Posted 05/05/23 by Stephanie Forté in America's Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Best Of, Connected Systems, Local Organizing, Maintenance and Volunteers, Nevada, Tourism and Economic Development, Trail Communities, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

A few miles into the 12-foot-wide trail, towering snowcapped Spring Mountains to the northwest dwarf the Vegas Strip’s cityscape. Since 2012, it’s been a destination for locals and visitors—cyclists, runners, inline skaters and walkers. There’s even a 15-mile parallel equestrian trail.

Community Painting Day with artist Jay Coreano along Pennsylvania's Tacony Creek Trail | Photo courtesy Tookany-Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, Inc

Six Ways to Be a Good Steward on Celebrate Trails Day (and Every Day)

Posted 04/10/23 by Amy Kapp in Trail Use | Tagged with CelebrateTrailsDay, Ecology and Environment, Encouraging Trail Use, Maintenance and Volunteers, Trail Use Tips

Below are just a few ways you can participate on Celebrate Trails Day while showing a little love to your community and the planet.

The B2B's Old Eastern Marsh Trail at Lion’s Park in Salisbury, Massachusetts | Photo by Chris Roop

Trail Moments | BRB—I'm Enjoying the B2B (Border to Boston Trail)!

Posted 12/21/22 by Chris Roop in America's Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Hall of Fame, Local Organizing, Maintenance and Volunteers, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Trail Moments

When complete, the Border to Boston (B2B) Trail will span 70 miles from the New Hampshire state line to Massachusetts’ capital and largest city. It’s the north-south backbone of a growing trail network in the northeastern region of the Bay State offering both local and long-distance connections.

Idaho's Weiser River Trail | Photo by Mike Beavers

Idaho’s Weiser River National Recreation Trail

Posted 06/13/22 by Amy Grisak in America's Trails | Tagged with Best Of, Idaho, Local Organizing, Maintenance and Volunteers, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

When someone says “Idaho,” most people think of potatoes, but the Weiser River National Recreation Trail demonstrates there is so much more to the landscape and the people. Traveling 84 miles—from forested terrain through canyons and onto the high prairie in the west-central part of the state—there is an ever-changing beauty that evokes an appreciation of the region and the forward-thinking individuals who sought to preserve the corridor.

Vermilion River Regional Greenway in Minnesota | Photo by TrailLink user travistschepen

Tom Petri Awards Honor 13 Outstanding Trail Projects and Programs in 2021

Posted 11/11/21 by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in Policy, Success Stories | Tagged with Champions, Federal, Funding, Maintenance and Volunteers, Motorized Use, Recreational Trails Program, State and Federal Programs, Success Stories, Transportation Alternatives

This week, the Coalition for Recreational Trails (CRT) honored this year’s recipients of the Tom Petri Recreational Trails Program Annual Achievement Awards, including twelve projects and a state recreational trails program. The awards—honoring former U.S. Representative Tom Petri (WI)—specifically recognize outstanding use of Recreational Trails Program (RTP) funds, which have historically supported states in developing and maintaining recreational trails and trail-related facilities around the country.

Gurney Street Trail pilot project along the planned Richmond Industrial Trail | Photo by Anya Saretzky, courtesy RTC

Richmond Industrial Trail Will Transform Neighborhoods and Lives in North Philadelphia

Posted 04/19/21 by Paola Tejada Lalinde in America's Trails, Building Trails | Tagged with Art, Circuit Trails, Local Organizing, Maintenance and Volunteers, Pennsylvania, TrailNation

A vision for a 1.9-mile walking and biking greenway is taking shape along the Richmond Industrial Track—a railroad corridor in North Philadelphia that has seen decline in recent decades, but is undergoing renewal. The developing multiuse path—aptly named the Richmond Industrial Trail—is a first-of-its-kind project in the area that will connect five communities and serve more than 40,000 residents living within a half-mile of the corridor.

Proyecto piloto de Gurney Street Trail a lo largo del planificado Richmond Industrial Trail | Foto de Anya Saretzky, cortesía de RTC

Richmond Industrial Trail transformará vecindarios y vidas en el norte de Filadelfia

Posted 04/19/21 by Paola Tejada Lalinde in America's Trails, Building Trails | Tagged with Art, Circuit Trails, Local Organizing, Maintenance and Volunteers

La visión de una vía verde de 1,9 millas para caminar y andar en bicicleta está tomando forma a lo largo de Richmond Industrial Track, un corredor ferroviario en el norte de Filadelfia que ha experimentado un declive en las últimas décadas, pero está siendo renovado. El sendero multiusos en desarrollo, acertadamente llamado Richmond Industrial Trail, es un proyecto único en su tipo en el área que conectará cinco comunidades, incluidas Kensington, East Kensington, Fairhill, Olde Richmond y Port Richmond, y servirá a más de 40 000 residentes que viven a media milla del corredor. Los esfuerzos centrados en la comunidad para construir el sendero mejorarán la economía local y beneficiarán la salud y la seguridad públicas, al tiempo que conectarán a los residentes con espacios verdes, opciones de transporte público, instituciones ancla, arterias principales del sendero y múltiples proyectos emergentes de desarrollo comunitario.

Along the Manchester Rail Trail in Vermont | Photo by Robin Verner

A Vermont Rail-Trail Leads to the New York Public Library

Posted 12/17/20 by Monica Cardoza in America's Trails | Tagged with History Happened Here, Maintenance and Volunteers, Vermont

In 2000, the town of Manchester commissioned a feasibility study to convert the MD&G railbed into a recreation trail. “The project just needed someone to step up to the challenge and make it happen,” said Robin Verner, who with his wife, Amy, and friends Bill Drunsic and Jim Hand, formed Old Railroad Bed LLC in 2009 to purchase the last remaining section of the original line. In March, Manchester voters will vote on town acquisition of the privately held trail.

Doll’s Head Trail in DeKalb County’s Constitution Lakes Park, Atlanta, Georgia | Photo by Marcus O. Bst | CC BY 2.0 GENERIC

Atlanta’s Doll’s Head Trail Is an Eerily Cool Trailside Attraction—With a Great Cause

Posted 10/27/20 by Amy Kapp in America's Trails | Tagged with Georgia, Maintenance and Volunteers, Trail Destinations

It began as kind of a dark joke, all told, but the Doll’s Head Trail—a name that doesn’t quite sum up the 2.5-mile whimsical (and sometimes creepy) trail-turned-art exhibit tucked away in DeKalb, County’s Constitution Lakes Park in Atlanta, Georgia—has evolved into a regional and national attraction since its inception a decade ago.

Northern Rail Trail | Photo by TrailLink user sc302

Five Top Trails That Make the Case for America’s Recreational Trails Program

Posted 09/21/20 by Laura Stark in America's Trails, Policy | Tagged with Federal, Funding, Idaho, Maintenance and Volunteers, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Recreational Trails Program, TrailsTransform, Transportation Alternatives, Vermont

Nearly three decades after its inception, the need for the RTP has only intensified as trail development accelerates nationally. Looking at the rail-trail niche alone, the country has increased its number of rail-trails from around 500 to more than 2,200. And, in many places, individual trails are now coalescing into expansive networks of interconnected trails spanning hundreds of miles. Awareness and use of trails has grown in tandem—but with more footfalls, hoofbeats and wheel revolutions than ever, funding for trail maintenance is not keeping pace with demand.

Tacony Creek Trail | Photo by Thom Carroll

Pennsylvania’s Tacony Creek Trail

Posted 06/09/20 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Best Of, Circuit Trails, Connected Systems, Delaware, Ecology and Environment, Equity, Maintenance and Volunteers, Pennsylvania, Trail of the Month, TrailNation

Philadelphia is tucked between two major rivers, the Delaware to the east and the Schuylkill to the west; between them, Tacony Creek—a tributary of the Delaware—runs its course through the city’s northeast neighborhoods. In this densely populated pocket, the 3.2-mile Tacony Creek Trail, paved and smooth as a river stone, flows along the waterway under the hush of tall old-growth trees.

Wissahickon Trail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Photo by Patrick Wittwer | CC by 2.0

Taking Care of Our Trails and Parks in the Midst of COVID-19

Posted 05/22/20 by Amy Kapp, Eric Oberg in America's Trails | Tagged with COVID-19, Maintenance and Volunteers, Trail Etiquette, Trail Moments, Trail Use Tips

As trails remain on the front lines in providing outdoor opportunities and mobility for Americans, managers continue to explore new ways to work with their communities to ensure positive experiences for record numbers of users in the face of limited maintenance resources, reduced staffing and curtailed volunteer activities.