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By: Robert Janis
Rails-to-Trails
Conservancy Adds More to Nation’s Trail System
In the late 19th and 20th centuries the
railroad was a major way to transport people and
goods around the United States. Railroad tracks
crisscrossed the countryside and even existed
along the outskirts of big cities. However,
today the railroad is being used less, and many
tracks are no longer used at all. So what
happens to these old, unused rail corridors?
Many of them are being turned into trails for
all sorts of recreation from hiking to
horseback, bicycling, and ATV riding and more.
The conversion of a rail corridor to a trail is
known as Rail-Trail, and it has been happening
since the mid-1960s. In the early days many of
these conversions were taking place in the
Midwest. However, through the years the
rail-trail movement has grown to more than
15,000 miles of open trail and more than 8,000
miles in the works all across the country. How a
trail is used is determined by the local trail
manager and user groups.
One group that has been a national leader in the
advocacy and development of these multi-purpose
trails is the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Based
in Washington, D.C., the non-profit organization
was started in 1986 by David Burwell, a lawyer
with the National Wildlife Federation, and David
Harnick, a renowned environmental advocate. The
mission is to create a nationwide network of
trails from former rail lines and connecting
corridors to build healthier places for
healthier people.
According to Jeffrey Ciabotti, vice president of
trail development for the Rails-to-Trails
Conservancy, the organization is now focusing on
developing trail systems that link all facets of
a community together through what they’re
calling an “active transportation network.” In
order to make those networks come together RTC
is working at the national level to encourage
increased federal investment on bicycle,
pedestrian, and trail infrastructure; working
with many urban communities to facilitate
involvement and use of nearby trails for healthy
activity; and enhance their web site services
for finding trails and accessing a multitude of
trail-building resources. Visit
www.railstotrails.org and
www.traillink.com for more
information on what RTC is doing and where the
trails are near you.
RTC is focusing on three major programs:
- The
Campaign for Active Transportation, which is
related to an upcoming transportation bill in
Congress. The concern is to make certain that
there is funding for trails and trail-friendly
policy incorporated in the legislation.
- Urban
Pathways. This is an initiative that works with
urban communities to encourage involvement and
use of nearby trails. The goal of the initiative
is to get more people using more trails to get
healthy.
- Developing the groups electronic platform or
websites to make them as state-of-the-art as
possible for free and easy access to
information.
The transportation bill referred to is the
Transportation Re-authorization Bill,
legislation that is re-authorized by Congress
every six to seven years. Ciabotti noted that
the bill includes a provision called
“Transportation and Enhancement,” which has been
a major source of funds for planning and
acquisition of trails including rail-trails
across the country since 1991. “We are working
to protect it in the new bill,” explained
Ciabotti. “We are also trying to grow interest
in a program we call ‘Active Transportation,’
which is a call to develop a system of trails
and greenways that connect into a larger
transportation system in a community to make it
possible for people to commute to and from work,
to take short trips to pick up groceries, to
walk to visit friends, and more.”
As to the Urban Pathways, Ciabotti said that
Rails-to-Trails is targeting population centers
to develop trails and connecting them with
corridors. The group wants these pathways to be
as close to as many people as possible. “Our
goal is by 2020 to have 90 percent of the
nation’s population living within 3 miles of a
trail system,” said Ciabotti.
Developing an electronics platform or websites
is a major tool through which the organization
promotes its agenda and educates and informs the
public. The website (www.railstotrails.org)
includes forums, blogs, and all the latest
electronic ways to get the word out. Also,
Rails-to-Trails also has a website (www.traillink.com)
which assists people in finding trails. It lists
all the open trails and the status of trail
projects throughout the United States. “You can
look up where a trail is in proximity to where
you are and where you want to go. It includes
maps and provides information about points of
interest along the trails as well as other
information. It is one of the nation’s best
trail websites, and it is a great way to build
your next trail journey,” said Ciabotti.
The organization also has educational workshops
as well as conferences that develop resource
materials available online. “We provide
background information to help communities
develop their own trails as best as possible,”
added Ciabotti. “We can’t physically be in the
1200+ communities that are currently developing
a project. So we try to provide them with as
much professional information, assistance and
support as possible.” The organization works
hard to provide training/education, research,
and support materials through their web site,
public workshops and presentations.
Still, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy does get
directly involved in projects providing in-depth
technical and planning assistance. “We are able
to work in select communities on priority
projects especially in densely populated urban
areas. These projects offer a whole different
set of issues concerning the development of
urban trails that are unique in and of
themselves and present challenges that require
our direct assistance,” said Ciabotti.
Although the organization can’t lobby per se, it
is a 501P3 non-profit organization or public
charity, it does have a general counsel who
provides technical assistance and strategic
guidance for local communities trying to acquire
a rail corridor. “In some cases, there are some
situations where there are legal issues that
arise as to the ownership of a corridor, when a
particular corridor is reverting back to
adjacent land ownership or whether it stays as
part of the national rail system. Often times
our general counsel is asked to weigh in on this
and to get involved in local cases that could
have a national impact on the body of law that
regulates rail trail development,” said Ciabotti.
This can involve the concept of railbanking,
which is a voluntary agreement between a
railroad company and a trail agency. It enables
the use of a corridor as a rail-trail when it is
out-of-service of the railroad until the
railroad again needs the corridor for rail
service. Because a railbanked corridor is not
considered abandoned, it can be sold, leased, or
donated to a trail manager without reverting to
adjacent ownership. RTC also defends and
promotes an important federal law called the
railbanking statute which has been an integral
tool in preserving our nation’s rail system.
Railbanking is a voluntary agreement between a
railroad company and a trail agency that
preserves an unused rail line for future
transportation use while in the interim being
used as a public trail. According to
Rails-to-Trails, railbanking has preserved more
than 4,000 miles of rail corridor in 33 states.
Moreover, there are more than 100 railbanked
trails in the United States.
Rails-to-Trails also deals with the Bureau of
Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
“There are times when the BLM or the Forest
Service will have an active or an unused rail
corridor on their property, and they call us for
assistance when they want to get a track into a
trail,” said Ciabotti. “Luckily there is a lot
of internal staff knowledge now at the BLM and
the Forest Service and they are familiar enough
with development of trails. They are both
getting quite savvy about converting rails to
trails.”
The BLM and Forest Service often have many miles
of corridor within their boundaries and they
consult with us to determine how best to use
those resources for public trails. Some of the
country’s most beautiful trails are on our
national lands.
Our success is very dependent upon having solid
partnerships at the national and local level.
RTC participates on the board of American Trails
and other like minded organizations that promote
trails, biking, and walking,” said Ciabotti.
Also, Rails-to-Trails’ staff participate in
other related organizations and coalitions. “We
have a staff member who is on the board of
American Trails and usually that is how we tie
ourselves to other various groups, motorized and
non-motorized,” said Ciabotti.
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has about 100,000
members and supporters. Benefits of being a
member include the group’s quarterly magazine,
access to special merchandise through their
website, and more.
Members can help the trails movement by
assisting the organization financially, becoming
advocates for trails, biking and walking,
volunteering to maintain existing trails or
joining a local “Friends of the Trail” group,
and especially by getting out on the trails.
Anyone can become a member. “We have folks who
are old railroad buffs who like to see the
recycling of the nation’s railroad
infrastructure into public use trails; we have
people who are tourists who plan rail-trail
trips and we have urban residents who use the
trails to get to and from work and school kids
to use the trails to get to and from school,”
concluded Ciabotti. Members of RTC use trails
for a wide variety of reasons. Some members are
railroad buffs that want to see the corridors
preserved, some use them as destinations for
their family vacations, some for regular
exercise to get healthier, some for commuting to
work and school. What’s nice about rail-trails
is that they can be different things to
different people and all of those things are
good.
For more information visit the organization’s
website:
www.railstotrails.org.
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