WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seven trail projects have been chosen by the Coalition for Recreational Trails (CRT) as recipients of its eighth Annual Achievement Awards in recognition of their outstanding use of Recreational Trails Program (RTP) funds. These national awards will be presented at a special Capitol Hill ceremony in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 2007 as part of the celebration of Great Outdoors Week 2007.
The trail projects honored by the CRT and their award categories are:
•Continental Divide Trail Alliance Youth Corps (Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming) -Youth Conservation/Service Corps
•Penny Lake Trail (Maine) – Accessibility Enhancement
•Camp DREAM/Vermont Youth Conservation Corps Collaboration (Vermont) - Environment and Wildlife Compatibility
•"Trail Planning, Design & Development Guidelines" (Minnesota) - Education and Communication
•Potato Knob Trail/Holly River State Park (West Virginia) - Construction and Design
•Wild Rivers State Trail (Wisconsin) – Multiple-Use Management and Corridor Sharing
•Cary Bayou Trail Phase I and Phase II (Texas) - Maintenance and Rehabilitation
For details on the winning trails projects, follow this link.
The Recreational Trails Program was first created in 1991 as part of the ground-breaking legislation known as ISTEA, and was recently expanded and reauthorized through the 2005 “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users'' (SAFETEA-LU). The RTP returns a portion of federal gasoline taxes generated by non-highway motorized recreation to the states for trail-related purposes. Under current legislation, the program is scheduled to receive $75,000,000 for FY ‘07; $80,000,000 for FY ‘08; and $85,000,000 for FY ’09. To date over 8,000 projects have been funded, creating and enhancing recreational trails for millions of trail enthusiasts across the country. Information on the program can be found at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/rectrails/index.htm.
A searchable database of projects funded by the RTP is available online at http://www.funoutdoors.info/rtphome.html.
The Coalition for Recreational Trails, a national organization representing the nation’s major trail interests, has been working since 1992 to build awareness and understanding of the RTP, to support its implementation and to help ensure that it receives adequate funding. For more information about CRT and its members, go to http://www.funoutdoors.com/coalitions/crt.
