HighLight Heading
July 2006
Research Conference Coverage
Making the most of recreational trail systems
During a session on bicycle and pedestrian travel, Center for Changing Landscapes codirector Mary Vogel, a CTS research scholar, outlined several ways to effectively broaden community and government-agency involvement in the design of recreational trail systems, which are considered key to the economic vitality of rural Minnesota. She touted her research project, “Leveraging Value and Resources for Recreational Trail Systems on the North Shore and the Minnesota River Valley,” as a “whole system approach to linking communities to amenities.”
The project aimed to augment the DNR’s state trail master planning and work with communities to integrate state trails into their landscapes as well as link them to other public works projects. The study widened the effectiveness of the Gitchi-Gami (on the North Shore) and Minnesota River state trails as regional amenities by creating designs and graphic information that address recreation, tourism, preservation, and development in trail corridors and the larger trail landscapes. As part of the project, the research/design team redesigned the entire community of Beaver Bay, Minnesota, with a population of 175, to integrate the new Gitchi-Gami State Trail.
“By engaging local citizens and officials from state and local entities in a design process that looks at both the larger picture and several public works projects simultaneously,” Vogel said, “public works resources can be used to support individual projects that enhance each other and use scarce public resources for greater, more effective results.