I wanted to take a few minutes to thank my collaborators at American Trails for reviewing Deciding on Trails: 7 Practices of Healthy Trail Towns. While I do have a relationship with American Trails, I’ve never met their independent reviewer and quite enjoyed reading his review.
Jim Schmid has worked in trails long enough to be able to connect some dots in his review. Not only did he write about the book and the Trail Town approach to community development, but he also tied these to other current and historic efforts such as Gateway Communities, Bicycle Friendly America, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s TrailNation project, American Hiking Society’s 1995 Trail Town USA program, and others. It’s a thoughtful review rooted in a deep familiarity with trails and how they impact communities.
As Jim writes, “It’s heartening to see so many programs underway to make our communities better places to live or visit. It doesn’t matter what you name your effort, what is important that you have community involvement and get moving.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Jim also made note of my perspective on trail culture and the trail economy. As many of you know, I think a trail economy without a trail-supportive culture rings hollow and doesn’t last. We’ve got to have both. One great example of such is the Great Allegheny Passage. A trail culture has become embedded in local communities over time and the economic impact has grown as well. Jim makes reference to the GAP Conservancy’s latest economic impact report, something I was glad to see. Speaking of which, here’s my write up about that from last month: In Appreciation of Good Research.
On a personal note, how is winter going for you? We have snow on the ground and single digits temps here in Pittsburgh this week. Are you enjoying this weather (if it’s cold and snowy where you are) or are you counting the days until spring?
I was reminded yesterday of a couple of old photos of my dog, Zeus. These were taken during “Snomaggedon” in 2010. Zeus was a tall dog, but there was no way for him and his beagle friend, Sadie, to wade through two feet of snow without us shoveling a path. Or, as you can see, a place for Zeus to lie down for a rest. The current dogs DO NOT want to be outside in the snow. How about yours?