Trails with a Difference

by James M. Grasso
Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service

What do Cincinnati's Buttercup Valley Trail, Duluth's Lester Park Nature Trail, Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail, Detroit's Belle Isle Bicycle Trail, and Indiana's Adventure Trail have in common? Although each is adapted to a particular activity, location, theme, or terrain, all are National Recreation Trails designated under the National Trails System Act. In the eleven years since the passage of the Act, over 400 trails across the nation have been designated part of the system by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture.

What types of trails qualify? National Recreation Trails provide for foot, bicycle, horse, wheelchair, ski, snowshoe, snowmobile, and motorcycle activity, or a combination of these uses. The length of National Recreation Trails varies from the 102.5-mile Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin to several trails which are just one-quarter mile long. The typical trail in the system is about four miles in length.

National Recreation Trails must be within two hours' driving time of an urban area or within existing federal or state parks, forests, or other recreation areas. They may bring the recreationist into contact with our historic legacy or they may provide access to unusual natural features.

Several trails utilize abandoned railroad rights-of-way, notably the Illinois Prairie Path and the Elroy-Sparta and Sugar River State Trails in Wisconsin. California's 67-mile long Aqueduct Bikeway is located on the levee of an aqueduct, while Colrado's Highline Canal Trails are on the tree-lined maintenance road of a canal winding through metropolitan Denver. Indiana's Calumet Trail is located on an electric powerline corridor adjacent to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

While National Recreation Trails must be open to the public, they can be privately owned. The administering agency or organization must certify that the trail will be available for public use for at least ten consecutive years after designation. The application, which typically is about three pages in length, must include a trail management plan and documentation as to ownership or control of the right-of-way. Maps and photographs are also required.

Designation of a trail as an NRT doesn't put any dollars directly into a local agency's hard-pressed maintenance or capital improvement budget, but then it doesn't cost anything, either! What the agency gets is a colorful certificate-of-designation signed by the Secretary of the Interior, a free set of distinctive trail signs and markers, and the satisfaction that goes with the recognition that the trail is another segment in the growing National Trails System. The resultant favorable publicity can bring attention to a local recreation program, help further outdoor recreation opportunities in the area, and protect the trail itself from incompatible land use.

The publication, "National Recreation Trails: Information and Application Procedure," is available from the Lake Central Regional Office of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, Federal Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107. A free listing of National Recreation Trails, as of January 1980, also is available. The application procedure is painless; the national recognition for high-quality trails is deserved; and HCRS personnel are ready to assist local agencies in obtaining that recognition.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 36 May/June, 1980