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of the land trust. “The overwhelming
response has motivated elected officials
to make greenways and trails a priority.”
The impetus for the effort comes
from a desire to make Birmingham a
more livable city along with concerns
about the health of its residents. The
rates of obesity and mortality from heart
disease and diabetes are far higher in the
Birmingham area—and Alabama as a
whole—than in most of the nation.
To counter these trends, the federal
Department of Health and Human
Services awarded the city a $13.3-mil-
lion grant to encourage people to
lead healthier lifestyles. Of that total,
$500,000 was dedicated to compiling a
plan for greenways.
“From a cost-benefit analysis perspec-
tive, it is easy to see that walkable com-
munities are a cost-effective prescription
to better health,” says Jackson.
The land trust and other groups
involved in the project have compiled
the information from Our One Mile in a
master plan for greenways in and around
Birmingham, released in February. The
next step will be to encourage govern-
ment officials to implement the plan.
Active-transportation advocates say
the impacts could be profound. “This
project will transform Birmingham,”
says David Dionne, recently honored
with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s
Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions
Award, who serves as director of Red
Mountain Park in Birmingham. “It
could take 20 years, but in 20 years we’ll
have a great system. If you want things
to change, you have to do it one mile at
a time.”
For more information, visit
www.
freshwaterlandtrust.org/our-one-mile
.
MICHIGAN
Chasing Their Trail
There’s a reason it’s known as the
Wolverine State—Michiganders are
tenacious fighters. Take the rail-trail
advocates in Oakland County, about 35
miles northeast of Detroit. For several
years now, they’ve been trying to acquire
a 5.3-mile unused railroad corridor to
create a multi-use pathway.
They approached the Michigan
Natural Resources Trust Fund twice for
money to buy the rail segment, but they
were turned down by the state agency
both times. Did they let that discourage
them? No. These trail advocates—known
officially as the Commerce, Walled
Lake and Wixom Trailway Management
Council for the three townships the rail
line passes through—went back to the
agency yet again last year.
In December, these Wolverines were
rewarded for their tenacity when the
trust fund recommended a $3.8 million
grant to help the trailway group acquire
the section of the former Coe Rail Inc.
corridor. Part of the money will also be
used to purchase and restore a historical
train depot in Walled Lake.
“We’re very pleased and proud,” says
Kathleen Jackson, Commerce township
planner and administrator of the trailway
group. “We put in a lot of work and had
a lot of grassroots help and support.”
“It took awhile, but the third time was
the charm,” adds Nancy Krupiarz, direc-
tor of Michigan Trails and Greenways
Alliance, a statewide group that has been
helping the trailway council.
The underlying rail corridor is part of
the former Michigan Air Line Railroad
(later renamed the Grand Trunk
Western Railway), a Canadian-owned
line that linked Port Huron, Mich.,
with Chicago. An 8.7-mile segment
of this line between Wixom and West
Bloomfield was purchased in 1983 by
Coe Rail Inc., which ran both a popular
dinner train and freight service in the
area for more than 20 years.
Part of the former Coe line was pur-
chased and transformed into the West
Bloomfield Trail a few years ago. The
remaining 5.3-mile-segment would con-
nect with this existing rail-trail to the
east, and with the Huron Valley Rail-
Trail to the west.
By linking these two trails, the new
(and still unnamed) rail-trail would fill
in one of the gaps of a planned 260-
mile pathway across southern Michigan,
from Port Huron to South Haven. This
larger trail system, known as Route 1
of the Great Lake-to-Lake Trails, incor-
porates 15 existing trails totaling 158
miles—many of them on parts of the old
Michigan Air Line. When completed,
the trail system will enable cyclists to ride
from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan.
“This is a critical piece of the cross-
state trail,” Krupiarz says. “We want it to
be as seamless as possible.”
The grant recommendation must
be approved by the state legislature and
the governor, which should happen this
summer. Then the trailway council needs
to secure additional state transportation
funding to come up with the balance of
the purchase price, which Jackson esti-
mates will total about $5 million. After
that, the group must raise money and put
in the hours to turn the former rail line
into a trail—so there’s plenty of work left
for the Wolverines to sink their teeth into.
Visit
www.michigantrails.org
for
more information.
Ted Tucker
Kristen Wiltfang/Oakland County
This unused railroad corridor in
southern Michigan is one step closer
to becoming part of an ambitious
cross-state trail network thanks to
some tenacious trail supporters.
A new day is dawning in Birmingham,
Ala., where trail and health advocates
are seeking to create more than 100
miles of new greenways.