 
NAOMI SCHIFF
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Trails have captured the national imagination.
They are being built beside waterfronts, old rail tracks, along creeks
and shorelines, over mountain ranges. No sooner is a new trail open than
all kinds of people are on it. Why such interest in footpaths and bike
paths in a country of freeways?
PART OF THE ANSWER LIES in the current obsession with physical fitness,
and part in the fact that funds have been made available, particularly
under the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA),
which provided almost $1 billion for trails and related projects during
the past seven years. (It expires this year unless Congress renews it.)
But that's not all. Trails can serve as an antidote to freeways. They are
congenial, and they allow us to move as we please. We look around, and
smile at people we pass. We feel better on a trail.
Whether we realize it or not, we
need to be in touch with natural surroundings. In our accelerated time,
when so many people work too many hours, then rush to gyms to work out
on treadmills, we take shorter lunches and shorter vacations. But we can
occasionally spare a few hours to stroll on a pleasant trail.
In urban areas trails also offer
opportunities to get a better sense of the place where we live. Walking,
you may notice hills and valleys camouflaged by roadways, streams that
run under streets, shorelines under fill. Another dimension in time and
geography opens up within the urban jumble.
As for trail building, it's a typically
democratic activity, much like stream restoration. They both rely on volunteers,
bring together diverse folks who share a common interest, and grow from
local roots into regional, statewide, and national coalitions.
On California Trail Days, April
26-27, thousands gathered at special events to celebrate, build, and repair
trails. Some were persuaded to urge legislators to support funding for
parks, open spaces, streams, and trails, as well as the Coastal Trail money
in Governor Pete Wilson's budget.
In this issue, we bring you news
about four evolving regional trails, connected to the California Coastal
Trail, all part of a growing web that will span the continent. National
Trail Day is June 7. Something's happening on a trail near you. --RG |
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