Trails to You Summer E-Newsletter

It won't come as a surprise to anyone that our economy remains sluggish and that the environment for trail funding has followed suit. Perhaps it would come as a surprise - certainly to our state and federal legislators - just how much public support there is for parks, trails, and open space programs. A recent study for Bikes Belong found over 80% support for walking and biking programs at current or increased levels of funding. The results held true across all ages, geographic regions and political affiliations. Perhaps that explains how communities and trail groups across the state manage to press forward with trail projects despite these adversities.

There are two trends that I have noted. The projects tend to be smaller, focused on connections, extensions, or gap closure on existing trails or networks. The second trend is the convergence of land and water trail projects. This makes sense since many trails follow historic transportation corridors - canals and railroads, for example - which in turn had followed the rivers. Communities like Millersburg and Duncannon hold key positions on the Susquehanna Greenway and the Susquehanna River Water Trail in addition to land trails, positioning them to be local and regional hubs of recreation and tourism.

Recreation Trails Program Federal Funding Continues

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Recreation Trails Program Federal Funding will continue for two years! The new law for surface transportation funding was signed into law July 6, 2012. The MAP 21 - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act - legislation reforms and reauthorizes surface transportation programs through 2014. MAP-21 replaces the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) bill, which was enacted in 2005 and extended nine times since its expiration in 2009.

Under MAP 21, the Recreational Trails Program is continued intact, thanks to the earlier amendment by Senator Amy Kloubuchar of Minnesota. Nationwide, funding is set at $85 million a year for two years and expires at the end of fiscal year 2014 along with MAP 21. DCNR looks forward to working with PennDOT to implement the program and to provide needed trails funding throughout the state. Learn more about Recreational Trails Program funding...

Lebanon Valley Rail Trail riders
along with DCNR Deputy Secretary, Cindy Dunn,
and PennDOT Secretary of Transportation, Barry Schoch

DCNR and PennDOT Officials Tour the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail

On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation (DCNR) Deputy Secretary Cindy Dunn and Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation (PennDOT) Barry Schoch celebrated the interagency coordination that has lead to the success of the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail (LVRT) by taking a bike ride on the trail from the trailhead at South Eighth Street in Lebanon to the iron bridge in Cornwall Borough.

According to LVRT President John Wengert, it has been the partnership between local citizens, county government and state agencies like PennDOT and the DCNR that made the multi-use recreational trail possible. The idea of building a rail trail began in 1996 and the first 5-mile section opened in 2000.

In the years since, the trail has been extended another 10 miles. A recent study determined that the nearly 120,000 people who use the trail each year generate $875,000 in local spending. For more information on this bike ride and impacts of this trail on the community, click here.

Photo Courtesy of
Manor Township

Trails Springing up Around the State

Lancaster County-Lower Susquehanna Riverside Rail Trail

Manor Township-along the Lower Susquehanna River in Lancaster County is developing a 6-mile riverside rail-trail thanks to a great partnership with Norfolk Southern and PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources! Learn more about this project at the Rails to Trails Conservancy Blog.

Photo Courtesy of
Warrior Trail Council

Luzerne County-Susquehanna Warrior Trail Expansion

Cyclists and walkers along the Susquehanna Warrior Trail will soon get to stretch their legs a bit further, as a 3-mile expansion is slated for this scenic trail that follows the former railroad right of way of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Currently, the 18.5 mile trail follows Rt. 11 along the river and through Shickshinny. The Trail Council is hopeful that construction will start later this year. Get the details of the extension and learn about future connections to the levee trail system in Wilkes-Barre here.

Dauphin County-Lykens Valley Rail Trail Expansion and More
Millersburg Ferry Boat

Millersburg representatives celebrated National Trails Day on June 6th with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Riverfront Park Gateway Project. The Riverfront Park: Gateway to the Lykens Valley Rail Trail (LVRT) project focuses on the trail head and the connection to the Susquehanna River. It consists of an asphalt path extending from Moore Street to Keystone Street, a focal gateway area at the intersection of River and North streets, and trees, benches, signage, and new landscaping. A new restroom/concession stand will provide service to Millersburg Ferry Boat patrons as well as park and rail trail users. Elsewhere in Dauphin County, ribbon cuttings were held on the eastern portion of the LVRT and on a new boardwalk trail in Highspire's Reservoir Park. Read More...

Lackawanna County-Lackawanna River Heritage Trail Expansion

On May 14th, the Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area (LHVA) broke ground on the newest section of the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail. The two-mile trail section will use an abandoned rail bed from West Elm Street in Scranton to Keyser Creek in Taylor Borough. The groundbreaking ceremony was held at the trailhead on West Elm Street. Click here for an information sheet about the new Scranton to Taylor trail section.

Elsewhere in Trails

National Water Trails System Unveiled

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, "signed a Secretarial Order that establishes national water trails as a class of national recreational trails under the National Trails System Act of 1968." The Department of Interior's ultimate goal is to "help facilitate outdoor recreation on waterways in and around urban areas, and provide national recognition and resources to existing, local water trails." Click here to read the full article. Learn more about the designation program, including how to become a nationally designated water trail, by clicking here.

Ken Salazar,
U.S. Secretary of the Interior,
at the designation ceremony
Susquehanna River Designated Historic Connecting Trail

Annapolis, Maryland

Joined by National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis and other leaders in a ceremony on May 16 at Sandy Point State Park, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar designated four water trails as new historic connecting components of the existing Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. The designation recognizes the significance of four connecting rivers -- the Susquehanna, Chester, Upper Nanticoke and Upper James Rivers -- to the history, cultural heritage, and natural resources of the 3,000-mile-long national historic trail in the Chesapeake Bay. The new river connecting trails are found in Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Read more...

75th Anniversary of the Completion of the Appalachian Trail

Seventy-five years ago in August, the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) was completed. This task of building the original trail took more than 15 years and involved a few hundred volunteers, state and federal agency partners, local Trail-maintaining clubs, workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The A.T. is the longest hiking-only footpath in the world, measuring roughly 2,180 miles in length. The Trail goes through fourteen states along the crests and valleys of the Appalachian mountain range from the southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia, to the Trail's northern terminus at Katahdin, Maine.

Photo by Steve Fehr

Duncannon Receives Special Designation

By Kim McKee, Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Hikers and Duncannon area residents turned out in droves on June 2nd, National Trails Day, to celebrate Duncannon's Appalachian Trail Community celebration.The day included hikes up to Hawk Rock overlook, a climb up Peters Mountain, and a trip across Haldeman Island to learn about wildlife. The A.T. Community program is sponsored by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and recognizes communities that act as good neighbors to hikers, and promote and protect the A.T. Read more and see photos here.

Trail Maintenance Column-Addressing Motor Vehicle Trespass

By Tim Poole, Trails to You Editor

According to a Patriot News report, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) has initiated a process to give its Wildlife Conservation Officers (WCOs) more authority to enforce the state's all-terrain vehicles (ATV) laws. This is an acknowledgement that "unauthorized ATV operation on state game lands ...continues to be one of the top ten violations each year" and that relying on other authorities for enforcement has yielded "mixed results." The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) "has described illegal ATV use on [its] lands as its number one enforcement problem." The PA Farm Bureau, which represents thousands of agricultural and private landowners notes that "the frequency of defiant trespass...is growing." While the report doesn't specifically mention trails, trail managers across the state are no doubt nodding in strenuous agreement. This provides a good opportunity to review some techniques that may be employed to deter illegal ATV access. Review these techniques by clicking here.

Trail Champion

Patricia Tomes is the Program Manager at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Northeast Regional Field Office. She provides technical assistance to state and local governments and advocacy organizations on the planning, design, development and management of rail trails and greenways. Her work includes trail user surveys, public workshops, feasibility studies and community planning. Pat was the ride coordinator for eight years of the Pennsylvania Greenway Sojourn, a multiple day, heritage bike tour involving three to five hundred people.

Pat Tomes

Her current work involves completing a Trail User Survey of the 160 mile Delaware & Lehigh Trail in eastern Pennsylvania, managing a feasibility study for an extension of the Liberty-Water Gap Trail in Pennsylvania and providing technical assistance to projects throughout the Northeast United States. Pat serves on the Erie-Pittsburgh Trail Alliance Advisory Board, DCNR Trails Advisory Committee, and PennDOT's Pedalcycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pa, and worked for 14 years as curator of the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pa. In her spare time she enjoys cycling, gardening, and the occasional art project.

Feature Trail-Buffalo Valley Rail Trail

By Tim Poole, Trails to You Editor
Travel 50 miles east along PA-45 from State College and you'll come to the town of Mifflinburg in the heart of the bucolic Buffalo Valley. Eighteenth-century European settlers found bison grazing in an open valley, suggesting that Native Americans had been keeping the area cleared for game in what otherwise would have been expected to be woodland. By the 1850s the town had become a center of commerce and transportation. The town was nicknamed Buggytown due to the high concentration of buggy manufacturers, and the area was serviced by the Lewisburg, Centre, and Spruce Creek Railroad.

Over the next century, cars and highways eventually supplanted buggies and railroads. The local railroad, by then the West Shore Railroad Company, fared better than many, serving local industry and excursion riders well into the 1990s. By the time the railroad fell into disuse in 1997, the rail trail movement was well underway, and a trail conversion seemed the obvious next phase in the life of this line. A 9-mile trail was proposed to link Mifflinburg with the larger town of Lewisburg, which lies directly on the Susquehanna River. As always, the project met with both enthusiasm and skepticism, support and opposition. Thanks to the perseverance of trail advocates, the Lewisburg Area Recreation Authority (LARA) took the lead in the project. LARA secured the rail corridor in 2008, followed by state and federal funding for trail development. The trail opened in November 2011 and according to an automated counting device set up by Bucknell University students, it draws approximately 400 users per day!

The Valley is no longer home to its namesake bison (unless you count the Bucknell University mascot) but it does retain much of its pastoral character. It is an excellent area for scenic, rural cycling, both on the trail and surrounding roads. Reports also indicate that the trail is getting heavy use for local transportation to homes, schools, shopping and other community destinations that were previously only accessible by car.

Grants

Regional Trail Workshop Grants are still available!

Grants will be awarded for 80% of the costs associated with each regional trail workshop, to a maximum of $5,000 per workshop. Grantees are responsible for all remaining workshop costs. Applications can be submitted throughout 2012, but no awards will be approved after December 31, 2012. For more information and a Regional Trail Workshop Grant application contact Emily Gates at 814-234-4272 or egates@prps.org.

Safe Routes to School Non-infrastructure Grants

Grants for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) activities in the 2012-13 school year are available. These activities involve the development, implementation, or expansion of programs that address the first four E's of SRTS: education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. Schools are able to apply for noninfrastructure grant money beginning on Walk or Roll to School Day (October 3, 2012). The deadline for submitting applications is November 15, 2012.

DCNR C2P2 Applications Under Review

Applications are currently under review for the Community Conservation Partnerships Program (C2P2) (application deadline was April 4, 2012). This program combines funding from several sources including the Keystone Recreation, Park, and Conservation Fund, Environmental Stewardship Fund, federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the federal Recreational Trails Program. Under this year's Commonwealth budget that was passed on July 1st, the program will be able to continue to help build sustainable communities by providing grants and technical assistance for local conservation and recreation projects; landscape conservation partnerships; regional heritage areas; trails and greenways, and rivers conservation. Grant announcements are anticipated in Fall 2012.

Technical Assistance Resources

Safe Routes to School

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a state and federal program that has provided another source of funding and technical assistance as well as another means of promoting walking and biking in our communities. Upcoming events in PA include Bike safety "train the trainer" sessions in September and October and International Walk to School Day on October 3rd. For more information on these programs, visit the SRTS website. Be sure to read the case study from the walkability audit conducted for Dubois Area Middle School.

TrailBook Now Available

Trail users are excited for another season of riding and another edition of TrailBook! Hot off of the presses earlier this month, TrailBook, published by Allegheny Trail Alliance, offers information every trail user needs: mileage, services, new changes to the trail, trip planning, town maps, trail history, and much much more! This year's cover features the City of Pittsburgh and its beautiful skyline. TrailBook is just $10.00 and available online ($5 online shipping), various trail businesses, and visitor's centers. TrailBook is the perfect companion for the Great Allegheny Passage and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath. Order your copy of the TrailBook today!

Urban Pathways to Healthy Neighborhoods Report

A growing body of research emphasizes that urban neighborhoods with more African-American, Hispanic, and lower-income residents generally lack key walkability features, and that these populations have limited access to high-quality parks and recreational space. At the same time, lower-income and racial and ethnic minority youth are more likely to be overweight or obese. Urban pathways are a potent tool for addressing this inequality. The report, by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, was funded by The Kresge Foundation.

Read more and see photos...

Training

Trail Workshops

Kings Gap Environmental Education Center

Kings Gap, PA

September 14th and September 15th

Learn contemporary planning, design and construction skills for creating quality natural surface trails. These workshops provide both classroom and hands-on instruction, led by Professional Trail Builders Association experts, to provide participants with both the conceptual knowledge, as well as, practical skills. The following workshops are being offered 1) Contemporary Trail Planning & Management Fundamentals Workshop 2) Planning & Building Accessible Trails Workshop 3) GIS and GPS: Theory, Tools & Techniques for Trails Workshop and 4) Building Trails with Rock Workshop. For more information click here! FYI: Seats are no longer available for the GIS and GPS: Theory, Tools & Techniques workshop.

Go Local for Health

Gettysburg Hotel

Gettysburg, PA

September 18th

Go Local for Health is a regional summit that will unite community leaders, stakeholders and the general public on the issues of affordable and accessible healthy eating and recreation opportunities in south central Pennsylvania. You will engage with experts on 1) improving access to healthy, affordable, and local food 2) innovative community healthy eating and recreation initiatives 3) media's impact on health and wellness 4) physicians as leaders in community health-by leading local community projects. Visit the Go Local for Health Blog Spot for more information.

Eastern PA Greenways & Trails Summit

DeSales University

Center Valley, PA

September 19th and September 20th

Join Eastern Pennsylvania's trail and greenway community for a two-day summit highlighting regional trail initiatives, real-world solutions to trail issues, best practices and innovative case studies from across the region, need-to-know information for your trail, and a half-day of hands-on field experiences. Visit the Eastern PA Greenways and Trails Summit webpage for more information. The registration deadline is Wednesday, September 12th!

Events

Gear & Beer Tri-state Fallfest

Bradys run Park Lodge

Beaver County, PA

October 14th

The Ohio River Trail Council Fall Festival is comprised of heritage, environmental, educational, and trail groups primarily from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia but also Maryland and New York. Fallfest activities include a mountain bike ride, 35-mile or 50-mile road bike ride, 5K run/walk, kayaking and canoeing, Calland Arboretum Trail Tour, auctions, raffles, children's bike rodeo, music, food, drink and free craft beer tasting with proper registration!

Keystone Trails Association Fall Hiking Weekend

Pennsylvania Wilds

Clearfield County, PA

October 12th-14th

Volunteer hike leaders from the Quehanna Area Trails Club will guide both new and experienced hikers through some of the most beautiful parts of the Pennsylvania Wilds. Clearfield County is close to the center of PA, and is brimming with beautiful scenery, bustling and historic towns, and lots of things to do! It's not too late to register -- for more information about how you can join us for this fantastic weekend, click here.

Member News

In Memoriam:

David C. Bachman, 61, of Dillsburg, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, July 7, 2012. Dave worked for PennDOT for 22 years, first as an archaeologist, then for 16 years as the PennDOT's Statewide Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator and, most recently, as the Manager of the Local Safety Programs. He was a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals and a member of the Transportation Research Board. Dave had many friends and colleagues in the trails community. His expertise and dedication will be missed. His obituary can be viewed here.

This E-newsletter is published quarterly as a service to PRPS members and other interested persons. Opinions expressed are those of the listed authors. The editors encourage submissions reflecting on educational information for trails. You are encouraged to submit your article for review on disc or by email to: PRPS, Attn: Emily Gates, 2131 Sandy Drive, State College, PA 16803 or email egates@prps.org or the editor at info@greendiamondtrails.com

Edited by:

Tim Poole, Trails to You Content Specialist and Editor, and

Emily Gates, Special Projects Coordinator, PA Recreation and Park Society