Celebrate Hiking Trails On Saturday Day Will Focus On Need To Build, Maintain Pathways For Recreation
Americans use hundreds of thousands of miles of U.S. hiking trails for many purposes, from finding themselves to finding adventures.
On Saturday, National Trails Day will focus attention on the need to build, maintain and protect places for hikers - both to get to work and to get away from it all.
There are an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 miles of trails in the United States, said David Lillard, president of the Washington-based American Hiking Society. About half of those miles are in national forests. The rest are a combination of state and federal lands, rail-trails and urban greenways.
“It’s a tough number to capture,” he said. “We’re creating new trails all the time, but we still lose trails to development or neglect. Nature takes it back.”
The first goal for National Trails Day is “we want to build a stronger awareness of where trails come from and how people can be sure we always have them,” Lillard said by telephone from his Washington office. “The majority of trails in the United States are built and cared for by volunteers.
“If it weren’t for those folks, that trail would not be there. Every trail needs a constituency.”
Trails are no longer entirely for those who want to walk through miles of wilderness, such as the Appalachian Trail or the Continental Divide Trail. Trails such as the Spokane River Centennial Trail, which runs from Riverside State Park to Coeur d’Alene, are becoming part of the urban scene.
“They play different roles,” Lillard said. “They contribute to health, get out and walk, ride a bike. They’re part of the transportation system, walk or take a bike to work. You spend less time in a car, less time polluting the air.”
At the same time, they bring an economic benefit.
“Trails create a focus for commerce in the area,” Lillard said. “If it goes through a town, stores nearby know they can begin to cater to the weekenders that are using the trail.”
There’s trouble afoot for some of what used to be wilderness trails. Due to a gap in the National Trails System Act, the government doesn’t have the power to buy land surrounding nine of the 19 national and historic scenic trails. Developers are rapidly pressing in on the trails and private groups don’t have the cash to buy the land which can cost up to $20,000 an acre.
About 4,000 National Trails Day events are expected, all of them organized locally.
The events range from guided walks for a few dozen people to day-long events featuring exhibits, instructions on outdoor cooking and first aid, classes on navigation and activites geared towards children.
“We really view trails as community resources, so it’s neat when the whole community can get together and celebrate,” Lillard said.
xxxx TRAILS DAY Events set for Saturday include: * Mount Spokane trail clearing. Info: 466-3693. * Centennial Trail cycling, running, equestrian, paddling events. Info: 624-7188.