The abandoned Georgia Railroad trestle along Athens’ North Oconee Greenway

McBrayer runs a lean staff of five. In 23 years they’ve built 200 miles of trail, including the hugely popular Silver Comet Trail that runs for 61.5 miles from Atlanta to the Alabama line, where it continues another 33 miles as the Chief Ladiga Trail to Anniston. By getting trails built, PATH Foundation and the Atlanta BeltLine have succeeded in attracting private sector and foun- dation backing for their vision. Corporate Atlanta leads trail- funding campaigns and populates nonprofit boards. Familiar supporting brands include Coca Cola, Cox Foundation, ING Direct, NIKE, Office Depot, Rollins and Turner Broadcasting. In a current campaign, PATH has successfully raised $14.33 million to build 37 more miles of trail.

A vision for the future Economic development was represented only by state

and regional tourism managers, whose chief interest was marketing trail use to people who stay overnight. Robyn Elliott, who operates Georgia Bicycle Tours, did

report on tourism grants to extend her tours to mid-state’s Antebellum Trail and to Sherman’s trail of ruin. Few others represented trail-based businesses. Yet the clear value of the summit showed in consensus about next moves. John Devine, senior planner at the Northeast Georgia Commission, and a summit host city orga- nizer, led a visioning session that asked three questions: How often should a Georgia Trail Summit happen? What do advocates need to support their trail-building work apart from future summits? If Georgia needs a statewide trail organization, should this be a government agency, a new statewide 501(c)(3) nonprofit, or an already existing nonprofit?

Challenges and opportunities

Challenges and opportunities were summed up this way:  Reconvene annually. Bring Georgia’s entire trail community together in one place to learn from each other.

 Create a statewide strategic plan for expanding resources and citizen support to build trails and connections.

 Educate elected officials on trail benefits through classes and mobile workshops.

Trails advocate Tracie Sanchez, who successfully launched the Georgia Trails Summit idea

8 FALL 2014 AmericanTrails.org

 Move trails from a step-child of government awareness to top priority.