Trails & the


Article by Rita Hennessy, Corita Waters, and Bob Ratcliffe


taking place across the country. Begin- ning with the NPS being featured in the Rose Bowl Parade, and thousands of people venturing out on First Day Hikes, the NPS and its many partners  parks.” The Find Your Park campaign is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only connect people to National Parks, but to promote and provide connections for everyone to all public lands, and, of course trails. It is also a time to help shift the public paradigm and traditional view of parks being far  and celebrating close to home parks— and trails— of all kinds and the mean- ing they have for all of us. As the director of the National Park Service, Jon Jarvis, has said many - tional Park Service was about bring- ing people to the parks, the second will be about bringing the parks to the people,” and trails are absolutely  trails, and especially National Rec-


T 10 SPRING 2016 AmericanTrails.org


his year marks the centennial of the National Park Service (NPS), and celebrations and events are


National Park Service Centennial Crater Lake National Park from the Rim Route (photo by Mike Bullington)


reation Trails— like new national water trails— epitomize some of the best ways to connect people to parks and promote healthy active lifestyles through close to home recreational activities and direct access to the out- doors. Trails do much more than just con- nect people to parks. Trails provide society a broad range of economic,  and values. Especially important is the connection of trails to health. The centennial is a wonderful opportunity for American Trails and its partners to form new partnerships with health providers and pro- mote connections to public lands through programs like Park RX and Healthy Parks, Healthy People initiatives. It is also an opportunity to help engage the next gen- eration through pro- viding and promoting youth programs like those generated by the Department of Interior’s Play, Learn, Serve, Work strate-


gies and the president’s Every Kid in a Park campaign. Both of these national  as we can outdoors, especially those that have not had much opportunity to do so.


Park RX encourages health care


providers to “prescribe” exercise routines using their local parks and trails, while Every Kid in a Park (or on a trail!) provides 4th graders and their families with free passes for them, their schools, and families to access Federal lands and outdoor opportuni- ties. Whether you are a volunteer for a local trail club, or the executive direc-


The Coastal Trail at Golden Gate National Recreation Area (photo by Stuart Macdonald)


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