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Re: RC: rails to trails



David Freed wrote:
> 
> Goodmorning.    Connie and anyone else knowledgeable about trails...is
> "Rails to Trails" a good cause for horse trails?   TIA  jan freed
> 

They are a two-edged sword.  Very often, what happens is that horse people
have been using an abandoned railroad bed for years as a trail.  Then,
the "rails to trails" people discover the trail and want to renovate it.
One of the main piles of federal money, allocated through states, for
doing trail development requires that a certain percentage of the money
be allocated for rights of way that *could* be used as a road.  (All
of this money is coming from the US Dept. of Transportation's budget
and often ends up passing through the hands of state highway departments.)
Also, various interest groups like road bicyclists and rollerbladers
and handicapped access types frequently become involved.  The "rail
trail" irresistably metamorphizes into a paved bike path.

This just happened recently in Massachusetts where an old rail bed that
runs all the way from inside route 128 all the way out to Acton and
route 495 that has been heavily used by horse people is going to be
paved.  The only town that refused permission for the trail to pass
through it (the trail is still there, it is just unpaved and not part
of the official trail) was the wealthy and horsey community of Weston.

There is another rail bed that extends down from Bellingham, through Douglas,
all the way through Rhode Island and into Connecticut.  That one, so
far, has stayed unpaved even though it is an officially designated
rail trail.

The federal law has been changed this past year to decrease the pressure
to pave everything just to get the money, but the blacktop-it mentality
remains strong.

I think it is something that horse people need to be involved in, because
it will probably happen whether you want it to or not, and better to
be there for the fight than to let it go by default.  There are potential
allies--hikers, mountain bikers, snowmobilers--who will agree with the
"no pave" position.

Of course, even if it stays unpaved, there's no guarantee they'll still
let the horses use it.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA


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