Knowing Better, Doing Better
Setting the record straight with an update to Deciding on Trails
Hello, friends.
My professional purpose is deeply tied to helping communities prosper through trails. I’ve been specializing in the Trail Town model since 2007 and spend a lot of time on this topic. And yet, I’m always learning and sometimes even have to reconsider what I thought I knew about Trail Towns. One of these moments occurred in 2023 when I learned that the Florida Trail Gateway Communities program was the first functioning Trail Town initiative. In that very moment, I realized I needed to update my book, Deciding on Trails.
I’m happy to announce that the book has now been updated with a new preface that explains this in more detail. I’ve also corrected some references to the earliest Trail Town initiatives throughout the book. This is not a second edition. The book is very much a reflection of its time with the exception of this new understanding. I invite you to pick up an updated copy if you wish to have this version in your personal library. Or you can simply keep reading right now in this moment. The preface in its entirety is copied below.
For new and returning readers, we recently created a discussion guide to help stimulate group conversations about the value of embracing trails. Find it here! By the way, did you know that you can also read an excerpt from the book? Find Chapter 1, “You Lose the Magic When It’s All About the Money,” here.
Deciding on Trails 2025 Preface
“If you know better, do better.”
Often attributed to Maya Angelou, it’s a phrase that’s led me to write this preface nearly five years after publishing Deciding on Trails. When I wrote the book – and in the years leading up to it – I understood the Trail Town Program® along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) to be the first regional Trail Town initiative. I was part of the staff that launched the program in 2007. We based our program on a 2005 manual titled Trail Towns: Capturing Trail-Based Tourism (published by the Allegheny Trail Alliance, now the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy).
The manual was meant to be a guide for Pennsylvania trail communities, and the program along the GAP was the first to implement the approach. As other programs were established in subsequent years, we began to refer to ours as “first in the nation” and were proud of the role that we had played in initiating the Trail Town movement.
Skip forward to November 2023 in Orlando, Florida. I was leading a session on Trail Town and Gateway Community programs at the National Trails Workshop when my collaborators from the Florida National Scenic Trail spoke about the 2006 launch of their Gateway Community program. I had a moment of realization. The Trail Town Program® was not, in fact, the first program, though it did bring a more robust community and economic development focus to the new model. I realized in Orlando that afternoon that I had both the opportunity and responsibility to set the record straight.
The Florida Trail Association (FTA) started its Gateway Community program as a marketing initiative in 2006 and designated White Springs, Florida as the trail’s first gateway community in February 2007. The staff at the FTA told me that their program went dormant for some time not long after that designation, but that does not negate their place in Trail Town history.
Another organization that was leading the way in the early days of Trail Towns was the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC). I have long applauded their Gateway Community program as one of the first and most influential. In 2008, I spoke about Trail Towns at a workshop the ATC had organized in southwest Virginia. For years, I thought that our program – and my talk – had informed theirs. Certainly, our fully operating program informed theirs in certain respects, but I now realize that they were already on the path, so to speak, when I met with them in Virginia. In fact, they first piloted the Appalachian Trail CommunityTM Program in 2005 in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania and Hot Springs, North Carolina. The pilot (as well as some 2009 organizing efforts in Great Barrington, Massachusetts) helped to set the stage for ATC’s designation program, which launched in 2010.
If we view Trail Town and Gateway Community initiatives as two peas from the same pod (the difference being in name only), we were all planning, testing, and launching over the same few years. We could quibble over what counts as “first” (planning for the program along the GAP began as early as 2003, for example), but why would we? Those of us who do this work are a collaborative bunch and see value in working with and learning from each other.
This brings up something else that’s new since Deciding on Trails was first published. In 2023, I partnered with Julie Judkins of Just-Trails (and the former manager of ATC’s program) to survey program managers around the U.S. and Canada. We heard back from nearly all of the managers and have been working to build a community of practice among them. The survey examined the efficacy of the programs. You can find the corresponding report on my website, www.cycleforward.org/trailtowns.
In a few words, I’m pleased to share that most managers say that their organization plans to run their program indefinitely, and all of them reported improved economic health among communities that have been involved in their programs for at least two years. The Trail Town approach makes a difference!
Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea.” This feels true of the Trail Town approach. We were all creating, layering, adapting, and learning from one another in those early years and still today. We continue to learn and discover.
As you read Deciding on Trails, know that you are reading the first edition. I have not made any substantive changes to the chapters but did want to provide context through this preface. I made minor changes in places where I previously had referred to the Trail Town Program® as being “first,” but the chapters, map, and appendices remain essentially the same as with the original printing. Nor did I update the book to reflect all that’s changed in trails and communities over the last few years. As tempting as it was, those would constitute changes more appropriate for a future edition.
This preface is meant to provide my latest understanding of the early Trail Town initiatives without taking away from the vision and foresight of those who envisioned and planned the program along the GAP. I do believe that was groundbreaking work and it was the first program that approached Trail Towns as a regional economic development initiative. We were doing something special at the time. But then again, so were the others.
Sincerely,
Amy
P.S. – I started the All About Trail Towns Facebook group in 2022. It’s a space for those who believe trails contribute to more vibrant communities to connect with advocates from other places. If you would like to be part of a broader community of Trail Town advocates, please join us in the group!
In Case You Missed It
Here are a few of my latest posts:
Will You Be Our Next Nebraska? (about the August Trail Towns 101 virtual course - please join us!)
Sweetness in Four Parts (about the sweetness of community building, marathons, libraries, and Annie Dillard’s Pittsburgh)
First Time Study on Trail Community Programs (about a Cycle Forward/Just-Trails collaboration to better understand the effectiveness of the Trail Town approach)
Questions People Ask Me About Trail Towns (including some common questions I’ve fielded over the years)