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rail-trail report
PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
RTC’s AkramAbed, a native of Camden, N.J., is helping promote our CYCLE program—
Camden Youth Cycling, Learning and Exercising
—through a series
of “pop-up”bike shops. Abed conducted the first workshop in Camden on Saturday,May
19, to do easy repairs for local youth cyclists. After six hours, the four mechanics ran out
of parts and time, but 41 bikes received 70 repairs. Abed helped organize a second pop-
up bike shop on National Trails Day.
In addition to teaching bicycle safety and repair, CYCLE is helping cultivate supporters,
users and ambassadors for the emerging trail network throughout the Camden area.
Contact:TomSexton, tom@railstotrails.org.
RTC Celebrates
National Trails Day
in West Virginia
On June 2, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
(RTC) named the 78-mile Greenbrier
River Trail in West Virginia as the newest
member of the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame.
Several RTC staff members took part in a
community celebration honoring the rail-
trail in the town of Marlinton, roughly at
the halfway point of the trail. The event
included an unveiling of the first Hall of
Fame sign, a barbecue lunch, and also a
guided ride and walk along the trail.
RTC began recognizing exemplary
rail-trails as part of the Hall of Fame in
2007, and we plan to name one new rail-
trail each year on National Trails Day.
RTC was pleased to join the
Greenbrier River Trail Association, West
Virginia State Parks and Forests, and
the Pocahontas and Greenbrier County
Convention & Visitors Bureaus in orga-
nizing the celebration.
For more information about the event,
contact Jake Lynch at jake@railstotrails.
org. To learn more about the Hall of
Fame program, contact Karl Wirsing at
karl@railstotrails.org.
RTC Highlights
n
RTC is proud to announce that long-
time RTC General Counsel Andrea
Ferster was elected president-elect of
the D.C. Bar,
the second-largest unified
bar association in the United States. At
the end of her one-year term as president-
elect, she will be sworn in as the 42nd
president of the D.C. Bar. Contact:
Andrea Ferster, aferster@railstotralis.org.
n
In May,
RTC President Keith
Laughlin was the keynote speaker at
the Active Community Conference
in Portland, Maine.
Contact: Keith
Laughlin, keith@railstotrails.org.
n
From May 19 to 23, nearly 200
cyclists pedaled from New York City to
Washington, D.C., as part of Climate
Ride.
RTC has been a partner and
beneficiary of Climate Ride since the
first event in 2008.
RTC’s Kyle Lukacs
led Team RTC, and RTC President
Keith Laughlin spoke at the final rally
on the U.S. Capitol lawn. Contact: Karl
Wirsing, karl@railstotrails.org.
n
RTC’s Pat Tomes is conducting a
trail user survey of the 160-mile D&L
Trail, the backbone of the Delaware
& Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
in eastern Pennsylvania.
The survey
covers the area from White Haven
south through Jim Thorpe, Allentown
and Easton, then continues along the
Delaware River to Bristol, Pa., just out-
side Philadelphia. Contact: Pat Tomes,
pat@railstotrails.org.
n
In May,
RTC’s Kelly Pack and
Lindsay Martin joined forces with
Bike Maryland and community
groups in northeast Baltimore to lead
a unique after-school program for
local students.
Pedal in the Parks, an
earn-a-bike program and community
service initiative, gave a group of 14
students the opportunity to experience
the joys of two-wheeled transportation,
and also taught them vital lessons about
their local environment and what they
could do to preserve it. This program is
generously supported by The Coca-Cola
Foundation. Contact: Kelly Pack,
kellyp@railstotrails.org.
n
RTC hosted the 10th annual
Greenway Sojourn bicycle tour, June
17 to 24.
More than 200 Sojourners
pedaled from Washington, D.C., to
Pittsburgh, riding end to end on the
C&O Canal towpath and Great Allegheny
Passage. Contact: Tom Sexton, tom@
railstotrails.org.
n
In July, Carl Knoch, manager of trail
development for the Northeast Regional
Office, wrapped up a trail development
study of the rail corridor between Lake
Placid and Tupper Lake in the Adirondack
region of New York.
He also completed
a survey of trail users and economic
impact on the Henry Hudson Trail in
New Jersey (available for download at
www.railstotrails.org)
. Contact: Carl
Knoch, carl@railstotrails.org.
n
In June, RTC’s Western Regional Office
published a new report,
Community Built
,
which
spotlights inspiring volunteer
groups that have succeeded in develop-
ing and maintaining trails despite limit-
ed resources.
Contact: Steve Schweigerdt,
steve@railstotrails.org.
n
RTC’s Northeast Regional Office
is working on a feasibility study for a
multi-modal pathway connecting the
Pennsylvania towns of Portland and
Delaware Water Gap—
the western end
and destination point for the Liberty-
Water Gap Trail, which will eventually
cover 130 miles through the state of
New Jersey,
beginning just across the
river from Manhattan in Jersey City. RTC
has provided technical assistance to the
Liberty-Water Gap Trail for the past 15
years. Contact: Pat Tomes, pat@railsto
trails.org.