Greenways and multiuse trails create paths for people
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Greenways used to be the realm of parks and rec departments or other municipal agencies. But nationwide, land trusts are becoming more and more involved in greenways and multiuse trails. And not just as amenities for the few, but as essential infrastructure for connecting communities.
This article is the first in a series that explores the role of land trusts in developing greenways and multiuse trails around the country. Look for more stories in future issues of Saving Land.
Tom Springer has served in several roles for the accredited Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, including board member, volunteer and writer.
© 2024 Land Trust Alliance, Inc. All rights reserved.
Greenways used to be the realm of parks and rec departments or other municipal agencies. But nationwide, land trusts are becoming more and more involved in greenways and multiuse trails. And not just as amenities for the few, but as essential infrastructure for connecting communities.
A greenway is a linear belt of land preserved for recreation and conservation. Within the greenway, there’s a trail with nodes that connect to schools, shopping, housing, hospitals, parking, metro stops or other trails. Greenways can be urban or rural, providing multiuse paths for people to recreate and offering conservation benefits, such as trees for shade that reduce the urban heat island effect and plantings to absorb storm runoff and improve climate resiliency.
Whether they’re 3 miles long or 3,000, greenways tend to be complex and expensive. They can take years, even decades to complete. Yet they also engage the public in groundbreaking ways — both in the process of visioning and developing them, and in their completed state as spaces that connect communities to each other and to the benefits of being outdoors.
From rural to urban adventure
The accredited Prickly Pear Land Trust spent decades protecting open lands and building trails in the foothills of Helena, Montana. Then in 2011, it responded to community demand for urban parks and trails.
“We do great work in the mountains,” says Mary Hollow, executive director for PPLT. “But we will be totally irrelevant in 50 years if we don’t make nature more accessible to people who don’t trail run, spend $10,000 on mountain bikes or build houses near our preserves.”
PPLT has done two projects in Helena and nearby East Helena that did the opposite of protecting pristine lands for high-altitude adventurers. Both projects restored marginal lands that bore deep scars of industrial abuse. They now flourish as all-access trails and parks for residents with few recreation options. Trail users include adults of all ability levels, kids who bike to school and veterans who use the trails as part of a VA hospital’s nature therapy program to treat PTSD. The new trails lead through a beloved cottonwood gallery and along the rippled currents of Prickly Pear and Tenmile creeks. Where “No Trespass” signs once prevailed, PPLT has brought rare public access to the music of flowing waters.
“These parks and trails were born from the need to work with new human communities,” Hollow says. “It was time for us to cross the diversity and socioeconomic divide. We’d built single-track trails in the mountains, but these are flat, 10-foot-wide crushed gravel trails for all ages and abilities. The community had never seen trails like that.”
While many land trusts might have had a head-for-the-hills mindset — conserving wild lands and leaving urban greenspaces in someone else’s hands — PPLT did the opposite. The community, and the land trust, is thrilled with the result.
Coalitions rally support
On paper, greenway projects can look byzantine. The maze of cities and counties, the phalanx of government agencies, the rosters of advisory boards and nonprofits. It can all look daunting to an overtaxed land trust leery of more time commitments.
That’s where coalitions such as the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust in Seattle come in. They coordinate and track details so that partners won’t have to. “Our small nonprofit sets the vision,” says Amy Brockhaus, deputy director. “We act as trail corridor champions, participate in public planning processes, write support letters for funding and testify at council meetings.”
The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail traverses one of the nation’s most geographically stunning greenway projects. The 1.5-million-acre Mountains to Sound Greenway Natural Heritage Area was awarded this designation due to its rich mix of historic, cultural and natural resources. Greenway partners include the Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy and the Washington Association of Land Trusts. The trail route parallels Interstate 90 and will run 100 miles from the Seattle waterfront up and over the Cascade Mountains through Snoqualmie Pass. So far, the trail has been partially built in Seattle, Bellevue and Issaquah with connections to trails through the mountains.
Brockhaus, a consummate convener, began with the Greenway Trust in 1995. From the start, she says the organization sought to be congenial rather than controversial. “In 1991, [co-founder] Jim Ellis and our board gathered government agencies, volunteer advocates and timber company execs,” Brockhaus says. “It was unusual then for timber companies to meet with environmentalists outside of the courtroom!”
The Greenway Trust keeps its vision alive through volunteer projects such as trail maintenance and tree planting. It’s this kind of shovel-blister work that fosters a shared, visceral commitment to the trail’s progress. “We’re lucky to be in an amazing, beautiful place where positive, pragmatic people want to work together,” Brockhaus says. “It’s what the world needs.
From blueberry pie to key lime pie
“If Dwight Eisenhower knew about climate change when we built our freeway system in the 1950s, he would’ve made more greenways,” says Dennis Markatos-Soriano, director of the East Coast Greenway. At 3,000 miles long, the ECG stretches from Maine to Key West, Florida. When complete, the ECG will connect 15 states and 450 cities. Or as Markatos-Soriano terms it, “from blueberry pie to key lime pie.”
Yet he sees greenways as more than dessert. They increase property values and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through people-powered commutes. They promote exercise to fight the U.S. epidemic of obesity, diabetes and hypertension. And, no less crucial, they create a rare public cause that people can rally around for the common good.
“This is a moment of urgency,” Markatos-Soriano says. “We’re competing with video games and social media algorithms that divide us based on how we look or talk. But everyone can connect with trails in different ways. And unlike driving 70 mph on a highway, trails connect us with nature so that we can be good stewards. We need that strong connection to fight climate change.”
Launched in 1991, the ECG is now 36% complete. Each mile of trail costs around $2 million to build. To finish the trail — from “moose to manatee, from palms to pines” — will cost $4 billion. Building the existing 1,100 miles of trails has been a monumental feat, and there’s help on the way. In 2023, Congress awarded a record $22.4 million to build 10 ECG trails and “trailadjacent projects.”
Markatos-Soriano says that most of ECG’s budget goes to land acquisition. “To make land public, it’s important that we preserve it in urban corridors,” he says. “Land trusts play an important role by acquiring lands before they’re broken up by macro development. We want everyone to experience even a small woods, prairie or meadow.”
Dozens of land trusts, from small local ones to larger national ones, have engaged in creating trail segments along the ECG corridor already. Markatos-Soriano highlights the “historic federal infrastructure moment” happening right now as the perfect opportunity to scale-up these partnerships.
“With the expertise of local, state and national land trusts, we can move key portions of the greenway from private lands to accessible public spaces. That’s essential for providing access to nature and key destinations in the region,” says Markatos-Soriano.
“Land trusts play an important role by acquiring lands before they’re broken up by macro development. We want everyone to experience even a small woods, prairie or meadow.”
A fjord runs through it
Greenways and multiuse trails offer many benefits, the biggest of which might be providing better access for more people to nature, fitness and social opportunities. But their support is not always guaranteed. Community members may have questions and concerns about the whole project or certain aspects of it. In New York, the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail (or the Fjord Trail) has faced its share of local debate.
The Fjord Trail was proposed to help alleviate overcrowding and traffic at popular hiking trailheads in Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve, an 8,000-acre park visited by a half-million people each year. Most visitors come to climb Breakneck Ridge, whose selfiemagnet outcrop makes it one of America’s most visited hiking trails. The park is 1.5 hours from New York City via the MetroNorth Hudson Line, making it an easy day trip. However, the two-lane state highway that serves the park has narrow shoulders where drivers tend to pull off and park at haphazard angles.
Meanwhile, throngs of hikers, bikers and dog walkers wander about in busy traffic. It’s an accident waiting to happen — and they do happen.
“The road was built for cars, not people,” says MJ Martin, director of development and community engagement for Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, Inc., an independent subsidiary nonprofit of Scenic Hudson, Inc. “Right now, it’s a state park with no trailhead infrastructure, and visitation has only increased. We have to find a balance between quality of life for local residents and equitable access to public parkland.”
The solution is a 7.5-mile full-access trail that is planned to run along the east bank of the Hudson River, between the village of Cold Spring to the south and the city of Beacon to the north.
It features a stunning pedestrian bridge that will stretch from the multiuse main trail parallel to the state road over the railway to the riverfront portion of the trail. Six trail entry points will connect to existing trailheads along the route and diffuse crowds, offering spaces for everyone from experienced hikers to people using wheelchairs, parents pushing baby strollers and kids on bikes. The improved Breakneck Ridge Metro-North station is a central part of the reimagined Breakneck Connector trailhead area. It should reduce trailbound visitation at the Cold Spring Metro-North stop, which on peak weekends can cause significant congestion and inconvenience for local residents. Along the road, organized parking areas will replace chaotic pull-offs and the speed limit will drop from 55 to 40 mph. Shuttle vans will ferry hikers back to their cars or trains.
As an overdue solution to unsafe conditions along the state highway, the trail initially enjoyed wide support. Then as plans for the trail were refined to meet evolving challenges, so did the number of locals who worry that the planned improvements will only attract larger crowds. Public opinion has spilled over into long chains of lively comments — both pro and con — on local news sites. Despite debate on specifics, surveys show that most area residents agree the Fjord Trail will help with existing issues and provide a great recreational asset for the community.
“Yes, more people will come,” Martin says. “But because of better visitation management and added infrastructure, we think it will feel like less. There will be restrooms, parking, a visitor center and amenities folks need that didn’t exist before and staffing to manage it all.”
The HHFT team of conservationists and designers has been listening to local feedback, hosting discussion sessions and adapting plans. The first phase of construction is underway, and the entire trail should be complete in 2031, pending an environmental review process this year.
This article is the first in a series that explores the role of land trusts in developing greenways and multiuse trails around the country. Look for more stories in future issues of Saving Land.
Tom Springer has served in several roles for the accredited Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, including board member, volunteer and writer.
