HEALTHY TRAILS, HEALTHY PEOPLE

Build a healthier community – get help with starting a trail project

Applications for Parks & Trails New York's Healthy Trails, Healthy People program are now being accepted until November 17, 2006. Through Healthy Trails, Healthy People, Parks & Trails New York staff provide technical and planning assistance, present workshops, and offer organizational support to help communities develop trails. Community organizations and local governments are encouraged to apply. Prior to submitting an application, Parks & Trails New York recommends that applicants contact Fran Gotcsik, Policy and Program Director at (518) 434-1583. Selection for this technical assistance program is based on the level of community interest, partnership possibilities, and opportunities to increase physical activity levels.

Training held on assessing trails for accessibility

Parks & Trails New York launched its Accessible Parks & Trails Program by offering 14 individuals from across the state the opportunity to learn how to assess trails for their level of accessibility using the Universal Trail Assessment Process (UTAP). The goal of UTAP is to provide standardized, objective information on major trail conditions that affect access, grade, cross slope, surface type, obstacles, and trail width so that everyone can decide for themselves whether a trail meets their interests and abilities. The information can be included on trailhead signage, websites, maps or guides.

After spending two days in classroom and field sessions, each participant completed a written exam and now must assess at least one mile of two different types of trails to become a certified UTAP Coordinator. In return for the free training, each participant will assist Parks & Trails New York by conducting UTAP assessments for three miles of trails listed on Parks & Trails New York’s web-based Trail Finder Maps. Parks & Trails New York’s goal is to include UTAP information on trail conditions for each of the multi-use trails listed on its Trail Finder maps. Anyone wishing to learn more about the UTAP process by assisting the new UTAP Coordinators with trail assessment, should contact Parks & Trails New York.

This is the first time that this training has been offered to persons other than state agency personnel in New York State. Funding was provided in part by the Christopher Reeve Foundation and the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund. Participants were selected from more than 50 applications submitted to Parks & Trails New York.

Statewide trail survey underway

Parks & Trails New York is working with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) to seek input for the update of the Statewide Trails Plan and the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP).

Surveys — which will be used to assist with a statewide inventory of trails and an assessment of challenges facing trail maintainers—are being mailed to organizations that maintain multi-use, hiking, bicycling, equestrian, snowmobile or ATV trails for public use. If your organization does not receive a copy of the survey by July 15, 2006, contact Park & Trails New York.

Parks & Trails New York joins effort to restore Riverside Park North-West Harlem

Savona Bailey McClain is a dedicated advocate for improving the lives of West Harlem community residents. As the Executive Director of the West Harlem Arts Fund, she is spearheading a movement to restore the historic, and once beautiful, Riverside Park North between 135th and 155th Streets. Her efforts are focused on improving pedestrian and vehicular access, stabilizing and rebuilding deteriorating structures, and increasing maintenance and cleanup.

To reach these goals, the West Harlem Arts Fund has recruited 150 third grade elementary students from Public School 161, their teachers and parents. As part of its Healthy Trails, Healthy People program, Parks & Trails New York’s Terry Conway worked with children in five different classrooms to familiarize them with the types and components of trails, teach them about the difference between national, state and city parks, and explain what they could expect to see in each kind of park. The Audubon Society and the Soil and Water Conservation Department have also joined in the effort by providing instruction on what birds are present in the park, explaining migratory paths, and discussing what contributes to healthy soil, air, water, and trees.

After a field trip to the park and several weeks of classroom sessions, the children held their own design charrette to organize their ideas and compose a letter (complete with illustrations) to the NYC Parks Department Commissioner and other city officials asking for their help with getting Riverside Park North restored. Parks & Trails New York will continue to provide assistance for trail development and support for the overall park redevelopment.

Bicycle tourism considered at “Bicyclists Bring Business” roundtables

With the Canalway Trail expanding across the state and the renown of the Erie Canal growing, more and more cyclists are choosing to take vacations in Upstate New York. To help local business people discover how to attract and profit from the growing bicycle tourism market, Parks & Trails New York and the New York State Canal Corporation recently presented free roundtables entitled “Bicyclists Bring Business.” More than 60 local business owners, elected officials, Chambers of Commerce and promotion agency officials, and interested citizens attended one of the two sessions held in Palmyra and Lockport to hear what services and amenities make a difference to bicyclists when choosing a touring destination. Participants also offered their ideas on how their communities could take advantage of bicycle tourism.

Studies consistently show that bicycle and other outdoor tourists come from high-income households, typically spend between $100 and $300 per day, and will travel significant distances to regions offering a good mix of cycling, attractions, and services.

“The Erie Canal Corridor has all the right ingredients to become an international bicycle touring destination: a premier off-road trail, peaceful country roads with wide shoulders, picturesque villages, impressive historic sites and museums, charming B&B's and inns, ample campgrounds, and country stores and farm stands,” says Parks & Trails New York Executive Director Robin Dropkin.

A second series of workshops will be held in the eastern Erie Canalway Trail region in the fall.

TRAIL SPOTLIGHT

Bronx River Greenway – reconnecting communities and revitalizing the river

The Bronx River is the only true river within New York City. Despite this natural resource’s uniqueness, its history includes extensive industrialization, pollution, and channel alterations. In 1925, the Bronx River Parkway was constructed, preserving a section of the 23-mile river as a ribbon of parkland in Westchester County and the northern Bronx. The river’s banks in the south Bronx remained unprotected and lined with highways, brownfields, and active industry.

In 1998, community organizations adopted the restoration of the river within the Bronx as an element of a broad environmental justice agenda. In 2001, these groups and others from throughout the Bronx formed the Bronx River Alliance. The Alliance is a unique partnership of 80 community-based organizations, local businesses, public agencies, schools, and institutions, all with a common vision: to develop a continuous, paved, 8-mile bicycle and pedestrian path and greenway that will link to greenway sections within Westchester County, spur more community support for and involvement in the Bronx River and its parks, and create opportunities for local entrepreneurship and living-wage jobs.

The Bronx River Alliance is responsible for the New York City portion of the Bronx River Greenway’s planning, design and implementation in tandem with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. To date, more than $120 million in City, State, and Federal funding has been secured for the Greenway and the river restoration. Pathways are being upgraded within existing parks and abandoned roadways, industrial sites, and underutilized riverfront land are being converted to new trails, parks, and open space as part of New York City's park system. The Alliance has developed Guidelines for ecological performance, which outline a holistic framework for greenway design, construction, and maintenance that furthers the ecological restoration of the river. Presently, four of the eventual eight miles of continuous Greenway path are in place. Completion of the Greenway within the Bronx is scheduled for 2010.

According to the Bronx River Alliance’s Executive Director, Linda Cox, "The greenway is the product of an extraordinary community-led effort to reclaim the Bronx River as a natural resource in the heart of the Bronx. It's wonderful to see people using the greenway now—whether they're pedaling down the path on a bike, paddling down the river in a canoe, or performing in a festival. There's a great sense of pride and ownership."

Parks & Trails New York recognized the Bronx River Alliance for its multiple and unique partnerships, creative programming, and the significant resources that it has assembled to develop and promote the Bronx River Greenway by presenting it the “Outside the Box” Greenway and Community Trails Award in 2005.

LEGISLATION

Expanded NYS Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) approved

At the 11th hour on Friday, June 23, the NYS Legislature passed an historic $225 million Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), thanks to advocacy on the part of more than 200 environmental and conservation organizations, amongst them Parks & Trails New York. This represents $100 million more than last year for the EPF, which is funded through Real Estate Transfer Fees. Clean water, open space, working farms, parks, and land stewardship are amongst the big winners in the expanded EPF. The Municipal Parks Program, administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, received $20,470 million, an increase of $6 million over last year. Funds for stewardship of state lands, including state parks, more than doubled, from last year's $6.5 million to $15 million this year.

NYS Legislature passes Conservation Easement Tax Credit – first in the nation!

Beginning next year, New York State landowners whose land is protected by a conservation easement will be able to receive an annual, state income tax credit equal to 25% of the school, county, and town taxes paid on the land, up to $5,000 per year. All owners with lands under a conservation easement are eligible, regardless of when the easement was created, provided that the easement was wholly or partially donated to a land trust or a governmental agency. As it is an income tax credit, the refund comes from the state so there is no reduction of local property tax revenues, and thus no negative impact on town and county budgets.

Federal legislation promotes healthy living

The Healthy Places Act of 2006 (S.2506 /H.R.5088 ) has been introduced in both houses of Congress. It focuses on the built environment and improvements that can be made in community planning and design to promote healthier living. The legislation creates a grant program to assist states and local communities in addressing environmental health hazards and provides additional support for research on the relationship between the built environment and health status of residents.