Learn How to Advocate for Trails Where You Live Webinar

I'm Elle Segal. I'm our advocacy outreach director. Brandi, do you want to say hello? Hi, I'm Brandi Horton. I am our vice president of communications. Thank you again for being here. We both work for Rails to Trails Conservancy. Thank you for your membership and support. Tonight, we're going to be spending a little less than an hour tonight talking about advocacy and how advocacy impacts trials in your communities and how you can get involved. To support our work as an advocacy organization. Th

en we'll be talking about different types of advocacy, everything from super official meeting with your members of Congress to things that are really everyday focused, going out on the trail and documenting it and bringing your friends. So all of that has a huge impact in the work that we're doing at RTC. So thanks for being a part of it. A couple quick notes and then I'll talk a little bit about some Zoom functionality before we dove in. You're going to see some polls pop up on Zoom. Hopefully

you've been in the Zoom world long enough where you'll see them. Please fill them out. We're curious to hear what you think. If you have issues or questions, feel free to to chat us and let us know. And there will be a survey at the end as well. So we love your feedback. If you're able to participate in that survey at the end as well. So Isabelle, do you want to launch the first poll? Perfect. So real quick, want to see how long you've been a member here at RTC. So go ahead and select what is mo

st relevant for you. So we get a sense of who's who's joining us this evening. And I think, Al, you know, it's so exciting to where I can't see the results. Yeah, I think we'll see them as that gets closed. But I know that we've got folks who shared in their responses that they were members for a really long time. But it looks like there's membership here. A lot of folks in the 0 to 5 range. That's so exciting. Yeah. Energy in this movement, it's really great. Yeah. Well, welcome for for those o

f you that are new, we're so excited to see how interested you are. So So we're going to kick this off with a conversation about, you know, why are we all here and why does this work, you know, matter so much? Why do we have to advocate for trails and, you know, it's really it's hard to say at any time in our day to day lives that there's something that's a universal truth. But over and over again, the data shows us that trails matter to all of our lives in so many ways. We've done some recent o

pinion polling to just get a sense of, you know, where is that support, especially as that, you know, a post-pandemic world where we saw so much surging demand for this space. You know, what does it look like now? And what we found is that one in four people have actually increased their trail use and 61%. So a significant majority of people want to spend more time on the trail. There's lots of reasons. People aren't everything from having enough time in their day to day lives to, you know, mayb

e not having a trail near them or a trail. It's kind of easy to access in their community or a trail that's connected to the places that they want to go. So trying to think about how we make it more convenient and safer for people to use this infrastructure house I think it's really compelling that 90% of people that's almost everyone says that it is important that everyone have access to trails. That is just so significant because when we think about the things in our country that maybe divide

us and we think about the things that bring us together, there is a lot of agreement that people think it's important that this infrastructure exist in our communities and that people have access to it. Another thing that is just, you know, really we've seen this as a trend over time, but I think in 2024, really exciting to see the amount of people who say that tax dollars should be spent on maintaining and improving trails. That's 88% of people. The other thing that's noteworthy about that data

point is it's a shared truth across Republicans, Democrats and independents. So you can kind of universally say that regardless of how you vote, you are likely to support tax dollars being invested in trails. And people agree across the board that trails do really good things for us in our lives. So they help us become more physically active. They help local businesses and generate economic opportunity and they provide transportation. So we highlighted this because, you know, we think about why

we advocate for trails. It's like regular folks. All of us seem to agree on some of these issues. But sometimes when we're trying to secure more support or more investment in trails, that agreement doesn't seem like it's well understood, which is why advocacy matters. So flip that over to you, Al. Perfect. Thank you, Brandi. So yeah, now that Brandi kind of outlined the robust support that exists for trails, I want to talk a little bit about some of the foundational pieces of building trails. S

o what does it take to build more trails? So we all love our local trails, we all use them, we all see the benefits. But building a trail is hard and it takes sometimes decades. So it involves a real art, not not necessarily science of planning, funding, building, collaboration, maint maintenance to make sure that trails remain safe. And so I want to highlight a couple key pieces of that. And we're going to be breaking this down in a little more detail throughout our session tonight. But I want

to talk a little bit about community engagement. So when I say community engagement, I mean working with folks in the community who might have different opinions of trails, who might be impacted in different ways. So a lot of the benefits for trails range from public health to sustainability, mobility options, accessibility, safety. So within that, there's going to be folks who are interested in all of those different types of topics. And the wonderful thing about trails is they bring a lot of p

eople together and doing that at the early stage of anything around building trails is going to help you later down the road when you're applying for funding or doing things with with relevant elected officials. So a community engagement is really key and building it early on with with different nonprofits, with different business businesses in the area, that's going to be really significant. Local, regional and state political support is also really important. A lot of local and regional folks

are really involved in planning our roads, planning our trails, planning everything that that sort of functions in the transportation system. So getting them on board see the value of trails to see the significance of making this right of way safe. All of these things are really, really important as well as connecting some dots for them. You know, in the future, they may be people who write support letters for grants. They may be people who come to events with you. So connecting those dots and d

oing those relationships early is really important. And then lastly, but certainly not least the federal government and members of Congress. So, Brian and I are both in D.C. This is the bread and butter of a lot of our work. But members of Congress are here to serve you at their core, and they fund the vast majority of funds that go to trails. We're going to talk a little bit about the bipartisan infrastructure law and how impactful that has been, as well as other sources of funding like earmark

s and just being in touch with your members, whether it be about a specific projects, are about the need for funding for trust in general is really going to have an impact now and down the line. So yeah. Brandi, back to you. So so what is advocacy? What the heck does it take to actually make all those things happen and I think what's so interesting is when you look at the support that exists for trails and the enthusiasm in our communities for trails, and I know that that's shared by everyone on

the call here and certainly by, by Eleni and you look at what it takes to actually build the trails. Sometimes there's a disconnect, right? It's like, well, why isn't this easier? Because there's more of a support. Why isn't it easier? And that is where advocacy comes in. You know, a lot of this is about lifting the visibility of that support, making sure it's really clear that that support exists so that people can argue with it. Right. They can hear your point of view, but they can also see t

hat there is a lot of endorsement for this issue to move forward. And I think when we talk about advocacy and we talk about what we're trying to achieve in advocacy, of course, it's that we want to create, connect and maintain more trails. But a big piece of it is that we want more people to think, move from thinking that this infrastructure is nice to have to thinking that this infrastructure is it need to have. And when you go back to kind of that picture of the support that exists, it's clear

that many Americans think that everyone deserves access to this infrastructure. Many Americans think that trails deserve tax investment. And so the sentiment is on the need to have side. And so in these conversations we have to move from nice to have to need to have and really emphasize that this is essential infrastructure to the well-being of the places where we live and into our lives. So how do you do that? What is advocacy? It can be as easy as taking a position on an issue, and that can h

appen at the dinner table or that can happen at a community meeting. You know, it's advocacy either way. It's really about educating someone on an issue and sharing your point of view. It is about supporting a cause, you know, being members of Rails to Trails Conservancy is an act of advocacy, is a powerful act of advocacy in terms of helping us to our jobs, in terms of the local and state and federal work that we're doing. But it's also, you know, important advocacy because you can tell people,

hey, I'm a member, you know, do you want to be a member? And this is what they're doing and this is why that work is so important. Another act of advocacy can be seen in building community support. So, you know, we know we recently had this talk and someone asked him and why aren't more people like why is it the support that exists more? Well known? And I thought about that for a second and really for me it's like I think I think people just it's like such an everyday activity for so many of us

. We don't even talk about it. It's like we are brushing your teeth, go down for a run on the trail or going for a bike ride. I'm commuting to work, you know, whatever it is. And so you don't think to talk about it. And so building that community support, a lot of that comes from sharing your own enthusiasm, your own excitement about what is happening in your community, about maybe trail connections that are happening, but how active transportation or active recreation is making a difference in

your life? That all helps to build community support. You know, it can be as deep as organizing around a specific trail gap or, you know, doing petitions or things of that nature. But it can also be, as, you know, really part of having those conversations. It's also this is where we do get to know about working with those decision makers and making sure and not being afraid to share. I think what you said about, you know, our members of Congress work for us, our local elected officials work for

us. You know, that's one of the beautiful parts about democracy, right? It's representative government. Everyone is there to do the things that we that we would like them to do. And so knowing that that is your it is your power, you know, you have the ability to go in and sit down and have a conversation with the staff or with the elected officials about the things that you think are important in the community, all of which becomes more successful when there's invisibility for the issue, when th

ere's some growing support for that cause and community support around that issue. So all of these things kind of ladder up a bit to help the end the end game, which for us is connecting more trails and active transportation networks across the country. Thank you, Brandi. So with that framework in mind, we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about our tax advocacy role and then talking about ways that you all can get involved in advocacy. So RTC, as we all know, is an advocacy organiz

ation at our core, but what really does that mean in a practical sense? So our work ranges from federal and state funding and policy changes. So advocating for increased funding, advocating for the limited ability to use that funding on on other things besides trails, if that's the intention of, of what the funding is going towards making changes at the state level as well. So we've been really successful in passing bills to support funding in states ranging from California to Florida to Indiana

. So across we had to we've been really successful working at the state level as well. And again, policy changes come with that. And and by policy changes, I mean ways to make the money maybe more efficient, way to make applying for funding more more efficient, accessible things like that. So those are some of the examples of policy changes. And then similarly at the local level, there's been a lot of policy changes we've seen that have been successful. We work with a lot of the metropolitan pla

nning groups that that focus on sort of where trials can intersect and they kind of work within different towns to make sure everyone's talking to each other and that trials can go between cities and not just within the patterns of one city. And they're really responsible for planning as well. So we're definitely on the ground in a lot of communities. We have field offices across the country and that's a huge part of our work that kind of goes behind the scenes sometimes. But it's really fundame

ntal. As Brandi highlighted a couple of times already, connectivity connecting trails, making trails accessible, and making sure that people can use trails to get to their daily destinations. That is a huge part of what we're advocating for, whether it be to a member of Congress, to a Department of Transportation official, to your local city council person. So across the board as well as access for everyone, we want to make sure that trails are in every community and every person feels like they

're safe using them and they're able to use them in their in their neighborhoods as well as safely. I mean, safety, I think, is a huge problem in this country for for pedestrians and for bicyclists. So safety is something we talk a lot about. And it's something that a lot of elected officials are going to respond to really well, because it's such an important issue that it impacts people's day to day lives. And then last, by golly, sustainability, the ability to commute without without emissions

, the ability to commute in a way that that feels healthy. So all of these things are are really part of our advocacy message. We also do a great job of celebrating leaders nationwide who prioritize trails as essential infrastructure. So as Brandi said, you know, there's a lot of people who who still view trails and sort of nice to have instead of essential. But we've been able to work with local with local and state and federal elected officials who understand the importance of this and emphasi

ze that as as elected officials. So this this wonderful fella in the picture here is actually the governor of Washington, Jay Inslee. So he apparently is quite a quite a good biker as well. I think he was biking with a lot of our staff and they had to they had to have to keep up. But he was our real our champion last year. So he is one of many people that we've honored and works with over the course of the years, recognizing the important work they've done for trails. And then lastly, we really

work to elevate policies that are effective and programs that have impact and really make case studies out of those. So we have key projects we work on across the country, but we're always looking to learn what is this city doing that's effective? What is this state doing that's effective? One thing, again, looking at Jay Inslee there, his Department of Transportation has done some really neat things and we want to find ways to uplift that so that other states can can go back because there's bee

n success there already. And now, while you're switching sides, I'll just chime in for the group to say, you know, sometimes the best examples of that we learn from our members. So if, you know, something really interesting is happening in your community or you think it's really interesting and you want to share it because you're not sure if you if other places have known this, you know, or done this across the country to reach out. We'd love to hear from you and we'd love to know that, you know

, on the ground real kind of inside baseball. Definitely. Definitely. We'd love to hear from you. And if we haven't already as well, please or someone, please put my email and in the advocacy email and the chat so that folks know how to get a hold of us in the future. But so those were sort of high level things that we work on. But I want to talk a little bit more specifically about some of the impactful things we've been able to do that we hope you get even more excited about throughout the ses

sion. So bipartisan trail caucuses. So caucuses are groups of state legislative officials or federal legislative officials, some members of Congress, your state senator, your state assembly member coming together to talk about the importance of trails. And we've been really successful at building and maintaining those in a bipartisan fashion, specifically in Ohio and Indiana. And the results of that have been really prioritizing trails and conversations, bringing funding to trails, bringing refo

rms to the Department of Transportation. So there's been a lot of success in those two states. And I think that it's not a coincidence that we have these really robust, great networks of elected officials working together in such a bipartisan fashion on on support for trails. And again, the support can come from really different motivations for someone they might really enjoy the public health benefits for someone. They might really care about safety. And so, you know, we don't we don't necessar

ily need us all to come there for the same reason, but we all care about trails, and that's what matters. Ballot measures are another great issue that we've been able to work on in states and cities across the country. So for many of you, ballot measures are probably something that you get either an annual biannual basis. They often allocate funding for things in your community and a lot of times trails and parks are very prevalent on the IS. So we've had a lot of great success working on ballot

measures across the country that have brought funding directly to municipalities for trails, had a zooming out to the federal level. Again, the national landscape, the bipartisan infrastructure law, which a lot of folks have heard about, hopefully was something we spent a lot of time doing advocacy on and we were really proud to get increased funding for trails at the state level. So there's a lot of new funding for for states to be able to use for trails as well as applying to the federal gove

rnment directly. There's a lot of new programs where people can apply for trail projects, so that's been hugely successful as well as stopping people from being able to use funding that's that's allocated for trails, for highways or other projects, making sure that that funding that is passed designated for trail stays with trails. So those are two examples of things that we've been really proud to be able to advocate for and focus on ahead of the bike research for July. And now that it's been p

assed again with increasing funding has been a huge part that I just kind of touched on, but also applying for grants. So while we don't provide broad assistance across the country for everyone looking to apply for grants in places where we have significant projects are trail nation projects that we're familiar with, those we can maybe put a link to them in the chat if you're not familiar with them. We work with partners on the ground to apply for grants, which is a huge impact and helping build

trails is having that funding available and then lastly, connectivity again, that's the word of the night, right? So working on new federal grants for connectivity, that's been a huge initiative of ours as is is getting funding for a new grant program focused on connectivity, earmarks as well, which some of you may have heard of, you know, funding for specific projects where you reach out to your member of Congress and ask for that support and then state funds as well. All of this really tying

back to making sure that people can get to where they want to go on trail safely across the country. So that's a little bit of what we've been doing and sort of the specifics of our advocacy portfolio. And then over to Brandi to to kind of connect some dots on what you can do in your community. Yeah, thank you all. And yeah, I'm watching some of the questions coming into the Q&A and looking at the questions that some folks have may have when they register for tonight's webinar. And there's such

a range of folks in terms of, you know, comfort level familiarity. We've got some questions about ballot measures and we've got some questions from folks who are like, I just want to figure out how to get started and how to help. So we're going to take you through that journey on the whole arc. But one thing I will say is, you know, even if we're at the stage of, you know, wanting to be working on direct legislation or things of that issue, don't ever discount the early stages of advocacy and al

l of the elements of advocacy, because it goes back to what we were talking about a little bit ago, that if we're behind closed doors and we're in those meetings and we're in those trenches, you can still lose because you don't have enough public support. You can still lose because even though maybe, you know, face to face, the the elected official says they think it's important, but they're getting pressured somewhere else and there just isn't enough pressure for that issue. So some of what we'

re going to talk about is how we build that groundswell of support, how do we make it hard for the decision makers that have to make choices about where the funds are invested or, you know, how they're going to prioritize infrastructure projects and make it hard for them to argue with this. How do we show them, you know, that 88% of Americans think we should be investing tax dollars here? We've got to show that to them. We've got to prove that to them. So that's the very first step here in terms

of your role is something that we're kind of calling every day advocacy. So that's the simple act of getting out on the trail if people are not out there using the trails. Lots of people are out there using the trails. It's really easy for elected officials and other decision makers to say, well, see, we don't need more. It's not a problem we have too often. But in some parts of the country it is a problem that happens and we really need to work on making sure we're activating those spaces. We

also want to make sure we're activating those spaces with people who represent the community. All different types of people, all different age groups, all different types of trail participants. I love your photo with the woman there on the I believe that's the oak leaf trail in Wisconsin. Yeah. And she you know, that was a day we had a big event there and we had a photographer. And you have to capture this woman who's out there, you know, training in her wheelchair. So we want to be able to show

and demonstrate the breadth of support that exists for this infrastructure. Another way you do that, you know, whether you like it or not, social media is a really powerful tool in our public discourse in the year 2024. So if you're out on the trail, snap a picture. So these are some folks from Massachusetts. We were running a big campaign getting people to share their trail moments and they did this on social media to just kind of participate in that. And that matters because it's not it's it'

s organic. It's real people. It's not real. Trails Conservancy sharing your picture. It's you sharing your picture and saying, hey, this is something I know. I use this route to get to work. This lets me safely get out there with my kids. I had an injury and recovering from that. This is a place where I can feel safe, you know, doing that work. So share your story on social media. Don't be afraid of it. Get to know the handles of your local elected officials. Tag them so they see it. Tag your ci

ty government, tag your your state, dot. You know, depending on what it is you're doing, you know, they get into their feed, they pay attention. I once heard a statistic that it's like having mice in your house and for every one nice mouse you have, you might have hundreds more for every one email that an elected official gets. They know that there are hundreds more people who didn't have the courage to send in the email or take the time. So those little messages on social media matter and tell.

Your story. About why trails matter. This is an example of that trail moments campaign is still ongoing. We had over 2000 people submit their personal testimonials about why trails make a difference in their lives and the whole point of this is to lift up that everyday person to make sure it's clear it's not just, you know, the advocates in Washington or the advocates in the state capitals, but it's regular folks where trails are really changing their lives every single day. So you have Chelsea

murphy there with her daughters talking about how getting in nature is so important. And it's a it's an art and a practice of her family. And having those spaces is critical to teaching her daughters what it means to be somebody who values the outdoors and who is physically active on a day to day basis. In the middle there we have Victoria who destroy car and she commutes by bike. Now 100%. She got an e-bike and found the trail system and she is never looking back and she was not somebody who f

elt safe doing that on road. So the connected trail system in Washington, D.C. really made all the difference. And then on the right, you have a really good friend of ours, Ian McKay, in Washington State who recover is, you know, is a lifelong paraplegic after a significant mountain biking accident many, many years ago. And the trails are a place where he has found freedom and a place where he now advocates very directly to increase more access to the outdoors for people with disabilities. So th

e next element in your role in advocacy is community advocacy. So now you're out there, you're doing it, you're sharing your story, it's part of your everyday life. It's it's a practice and a habit that you are celebrating. You are on X and you are telling your members of Congress with all your great trail pictures. But how do we get the community involved and what does that mean? This is a picture here from the Celebrate Trails Day event that took place last year in Camden, New Jersey, in the M

iddle of that photo frame is the mayor of Camden. They're working on a lot of support to build a lot of support around connectivity and having somebody like the mayor who's got a big decision making role out, an event like that, seeing all of the people from the community who are there, who are showing up, who are saying, gosh, I really want to see this happen. I support this project. I want you to support this project that makes a big difference. So participating in those events and activities

aren't there aren't events and activities happening organizing your own super easy to do. Get some folks out for a bike ride on a Saturday morning. I'm a big fan these days of the stories around the walking school busses. You know, a lot of bus routes have changed and it's a way that intergenerational connections are happening and communities kind of trail organize a walking bus route, get some visibility of a lot of people coming together in those spaces. It's a really great way to build commun

ity around trails, and you can also do some direct organizing, you know, start to get petitions together. You're working on a ballot initiative. That's great. Let's get some people signing a petition in support of that ballot initiative so that, you know, depending on where it goes, you you can prove that there is broader community support. Go to community meetings, go to the neighborhood association meetings, go to the different events where people in your community are talking about what's imp

ortant and share the story of trails. You know, you might have people there who are on board with you. You may have people there who haven't thought about it. You may have people there who aren't on board. But it's that conversation that really helps move the needle. Let's talk a little bit about Celebrate Trails Day, which is coming up. It's a really great opportunity kind of built in. We do it once a year as an opportunity to give everyone in the country a chance to participate in community ad

vocacy. That is really its intention. We want as many people in the U.S. standing up on a trail that day saying this this infrastructure matters to me. It is a day that centers on joy. You know, we want it to be fun. We do not direct the activities people can have. You see this one here? It's an X in Pennsylvania. And I look at oh, is it was ready to rock and roll. That was an adapted event. We had a lot of folks out on the trail who were new to using adapted equipment. We had different organiza

tions there teaching folks how to use adaptive equipment, and then we had this really great group ride on the trail and we had the county commissioners out there to again see just the diversity of support, the way the trails can meet all different kinds of needs for their constituents. So since 2013, this event has supported tens of thousands of participants across the country, and 2023 alone is 13,000 people took place in 50 states and Washington, D.C.. The other thing we look at there is how d

oes how do the trails and how does this activation on the trails on that day help to inspire people to be physically active? That's a big motivator. We've talked a little bit about, you know, some of the benefits of trails, knowing that physical activity it can support. That is huge. But proving that it's really making a difference is another another thing. This is an example of a place where it's a really informal survey, self-reported, but something you could do to you could say, hey, let's th

ink about what are some metrics that matter to, you know, our local elected officials at an event like this, capture those and share them. This is the difference that the trails are making. The date isn't on the slide, but I will share. It is April 27th this year and you can go to rails trails dot org slash celebrate trails to learn more find an event near you. Those will be up soon and find some ways to get involved. But it's a great opportunity and I. Think there should be a link in the chat h

opefully for that as well. If you're interested. And then the final and maybe the most intensive or kind of deep dove into advocacy that you can take part in is direct advocacy. So this is where we're talking about really getting in with your elected officials attending those meetings, city council meetings, agency discussions. You know, when when your county department of Transportation or your State Department of Transportation shares, you know, there's a planning initiative coming up showing

up at those things, asking the questions about trails. You know, those can be a little bit more they can be a little bit more daunting to folks because there's a lot of experts in the room. But remember, everyone there works for you. You are their constituent, so you are 100% welcome and expected to be in those spaces and then engaging with your elected officials directly. So that is emails that is, you know, different types of, you know, if they're having a town hall showing up at those things,

asking them directly for what you want. And then in that category, too, is lifting your voice more formally in your press network. So that everyday advocacy that's, you know, you hit a social media post, you put your story out, there are different ways, direct advocacy, thinking about how you're responding to current events, how you're responding to priorities in your community by sharing what you are in favor of publicly and in writing. That's another way to really lift the visibility of the a

dvocacy and the support that exists. It's also a way to encourage public discourse on an issue. You know, public discourse matters. And we want to make sure that both sides of the story are getting out there. So letters to the editor, op ed, direct press outreach are really, really powerful tools here. And we have an example here again of something that really I think anyone could institute. This is from the circuit trails, which is in the greater Philadelphia region. And there that is a vision

to connect over 800 miles of trails across nine counties. It connects urban, suburban and some rural parts of the state, and it connects across state lines and across the river between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And it is a big vision. It's one of the first big trail networks to really kind of get solidified and get up and off the ground. It is part of our Ptcs Trail Nation initiative, which is where we're really doubling down on trail networks, investing in, you know, the work to build the ca

pacity of people doing this work, to build the support, to build the investment. It is one of those model projects and there's a big goal 500 miles, I want to go 500 miles done by 2025. And we want and need a lot of support from the county commissioners in that part of the country. The county commissioners have a lot of power on a decision making power all the way up to the regional MPO, which I'll mention the metropolitan planning organizations. So how funding gets spent, there needs to be some

agreement among the county commissioners and they have a lot of decision making authority. And so one of the things that we did to try to both bring more people into that grassroots conversation, make it kind of easy for them, but also maybe wave a carrot instead of a stick with the county commissioners was to encourage people to share their support for the trails in a thank you campaign. So we had messages that were, you know, really about sharing their love for trails, sending a thank you mes

sage to the county commissioners to say, we just appreciate the work you have done to date. We know there's more to be done, but we so appreciate what you have done to date and that received a such positive response from the county commissioners because they're used to being told that things aren't great. They're used to being told that, you know, things things need to be fixed. Things are being prioritized. So taking a minute to say thank you, even if it might be a little bit of an egregious th

ank you, they haven't done exactly what you want. Goes a long way in building that relationship. And what else need you know, when we want something done, you can just walk in and do it. You got to build that relationship. So for those who are really active, I think it was a good endorsement. And for those who were not maybe as active as we wanted, it was a way for them to see I go visit. This might be a not so bad group to to work with. The other thing we did was we offered to kind of advocacy

paths for the grassroots. So when you think about community organizing, you think about community advocacy, consider, you know, are there ways for people to get involved? It's that light touch, that everyday action that was the become a circuit citizen where we, you know, encourage them to do simple acts to raise the visibility of the trail network. Or they could get in deep and join like an action team where they're really working on the organizing around different around different issues. Than

k you, Brandi. So that was a lot of great information. So I with all of that context in mind, we want to talk a little bit about how to talk about trails. So this could be to your friend down the street who you're bringing on the trail on social media. This could be to something more formal to the press. It could be an organizing event. So really, in all of the different ways that Brandi highlighted, these are going to be kind of relevant ways to think about this as far as the the way that we wa

nt to be growing trails across the country. So again, focusing on everyday destinations and connecting people to those is something that we really emphasize in every conversation that we're having, emphasizing the impact that trails have on making our communities healthier, safer and greener. So the public health element that Brandi spoke to is really significant and really speaks to people in surprising places across the country. And again, safety is something that that I think a lot of people

have concerns about. There is, unfortunately, a huge increase in fatalities and injuries for bicyclists and pedestrians, and that trend is not going down. So having safe places for people to walk and bike is really impactful and something that's really worth highlighting and emphasizing in conversations. In addition, making sure that people understand that the trails make our communities greener, whether that be along the side of a trail or thinking about your commute and sort of lowering your y

our carbon footprint, getting rid of your your car. So all of those things matter. And talking about trails again, I said it earlier, but everyone should be able to have access to trails. So making sure that that people, no matter whether they live in a rural community and inner city, have access to this because, again, this is not a nice to have. This is an essential amenity. And we we think about other transportation features as essential. And we want people to make sure that they think about

trails that way as well. Something that's really helpful, you know, show me the money trails really help our economy. A staff I think is really helpful to think about trails contribute 30. I'm looking at my notes to make sure I get this number right. $34 billion in annual economic impact across the country, billion with a B. So that's a lot of money that comes out of jobs that come. But maybe for tourism or, you know, that brewery that opens up across the trail, there's a lot of significant impa

cts to our economy that come with creating and building trails. And then again, I've said it multiple times, but trials are essential infrastructure for our country. So this is not something that is just a nice to have side project. This is something that that needs consistent funding, that needs to be maintained that the people want. And people are asking their elected officials to to fund and prioritize. Similarly, I want to talk a little bit about why this matters now. So you're elected offic

ials there. They're busy people. Some of them. This is their full time job, like members of Congress or sometimes state elected officials. Sometimes they they're balancing a job as well. If they're there are mayors, city council members. So hearing from you, make sure that they understand this is important to their constituents. Again, they work for us. So when they're thinking about what types of projects to fund, what types of things to support, what maybe vote they want to they want to emphas

ize or what they want to talk to the press about hearing from you is going to elevate this and in their variety of things that they're constantly balancing and juggling. They're hearing on about so many issues from so many different communities. And so hearing the positive associations we have with trials, the impact that trials have, the that all of the features that we talked about, the safety, the public health, the economic impact, all of that really matters in decision making and and hearin

g from you is going to help help them think about that potentially differently than they might otherwise. We need to keep this top of mind to all the decision makers, not just as there are election cycles coming up, but across across the year. Across the year is really, as Randi said, relationship really matters and building those relationships early and often and reinforcing those relationships with things like thank you notes and, you know, conversations, checking in is really what can make th

e difference at the end of the day. And it's important, again, to use the language we talked about a second ago that reinforces the connectivity, the networks, the essential elements to community. So they understand that the real need for consistent, dedicated funding and resources. So what is next? So next in this immediate presentation, we'll do some questions and a section. So look forward to those we we've got some I assume some great questions for you to go through together. But what is nex

t in your journey with us? So some ways to take action today. This is going to be some of those everyday advocacy pieces using social media. So as Brandi mentioned, social media, for better or worse, is a very powerful tool when you're out on the trail, whether it be on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, tag us. We'd love to see what you're up to. Also, consider tagging your elected officials. So on most of their websites, you should be able to see their Twitter handles, their Instagram handles, th

ings like that. Or you can simply Google, you know, Representative So-and-so is Twitter and you can find that it's pretty, pretty easy to do. Letters to the editor. Again, what Brandi outlined earlier, really great formal way to contact the press, get something in the paper. Similarly, an op ed as well, attending community meetings. Those are going to be often facilitated through your city, through your metropolitan planning organization. We can provide more information if you're interested abou

t those your Department of Transportation in your city or your state as well. Sometimes they're even on Zoom, so they're really accessible. And hearing from people like you in the community is really what they're designed for, organizing events and on the trail, you know similarly and we'll get to this in a second attending celebrate Charles day really really significant stuff. And then lastly meeting with your elected officials and leaders is going to be something that we're excited to work wit

h you hand in hand for and excited to provide some resources for that in the future as well. So in this change maker for trails sort of work that we're doing, again, celebrate Charles Day is going to be something that we really encourage you to participate in if you're not already planning. So I think it should be in the chat hopefully, but you can search to see what events are happening in your community and if you're planning to go or even if you're already organizing one, I'd really encourage

you to consider inviting some local elected officials to come. Or, you know, if you're a member of Congress, your state senator considering inviting someone from their district office so you can easily find their contact information on their websites, give them a call, shoot them an email and invite them, because this is a really great hands on opportunity to see the impact that Charles have. We will be having some additional webinars on related topics in the future is I'll look forward to some

hands on guidance and and tools on how to meet with your elected officials. Had a book meetings talking about ballot measures. These are all things we have planned in store over the coming months for you and then some case studies documenting success and the impact that this can have. So, you know, we're sitting here telling you all about this, but but what's what what proof do you have that it works? So we're going to be showing you showing you the evidence, if you will, and then some addition

al resources on our website. So webinars and blogs, the blogs, hopefully a lot of you have seen we also a lot of really robust webinars which are on our website free that you can watch them on YouTube. And then there's an advocating for trial section of our website as well as well as a really new, exciting advocacy How to Guide. So a lot of the stuff that we talked about, if you want more information and you can't wait for an additional webinar to come up, it's going to be a really great resourc

e. So similarly, I think that will be in the chat as well and I hope you'll consider taking a look at all of these things. So with that. Let's hear your. Questions. Well, well, we pull up our first question. I want to reinforce two things. One is the relationships piece and the long game here. For those of you who were following along in the bipartisan infrastructure law, that law, a version of it will be decided again in a couple of years. And so building stronger grassroots support, grassroots

advocacy, grassroots enthusiasm is a real priority for us because we want to make sure we're not the only one saying that this matters, not to D.C. We need your voices saying it matters now so that that groundswell really builds up as we look ahead to 2026. The other thing that we would love to see is, you know, more kind of shared messaging or story lines coming out, right. So you heard us say a lot that this is essential infrastructure that's really important because it's what the decision ma

kers are thinking about when they're deciding priorities, what's essential and what's not. And I think a lot of us here can agree that this is essential. So we need to be using that language. We need to be using some of our kind of shared words to build that support. And one question we had, and I'm going to lead off with here is about getting support, maybe not from an elected official, but from a railroad that has come up in a few different questions. You know, where I've got the local electio

ns on board, I've got community support, I've got funding. And what I don't have is the railroad. And I will say that all of the same advocacy strategies apply to decision makers just a little bit different. You know, sometimes it's a stick, sometimes it's behind the scenes, sometimes it's closed doors, sometimes it's direct advocacy. And you're getting letters of support from from your elected officials who care about this, from, you know, different local businesses, you know, maybe the MPO or

the equivalent, where you live, etc.. Sometimes it takes massive community support. There is an example from Missouri, the Rock Island trail there that will kind of complete the loop with the Katy Trail to create just kind of an incredible 450 miles around the state, Kansas City and Saint Louis. Just just incredible. And for a long time, the advocacy was with the owner of the of the corridor to say it needs to be rail banks. They wanted to just sell it and kind of working through the processes t

o do that. And we were able to get a national petition with just tens of thousands of signatures to say, we are going to come if this is done, we're going to come to the state. We're and spend our money in the state. We want this trail so badly you have to protect this trail. And it took that some direct advocacy, including, you know, threats to buy the corridor ourselves and still turned into a trail. And they perked right up, you know. Well, the pressure, the public and the pressure kind of in

ternally did the job. And very similar to working with elected officials. It can be a long game with railroads. It is not ever the same. Twice, I think is a really fair way to talk about it. Even within the same railroad organization, talking to two different staff could yield to a different conversations. Maybe not so different from talking to members of Congress, but I think that that public support, that public, public think about public accountability. Think about that public support as a wa

y to really kind of hold the conversation in the daylight versus things that happen behind the scenes that may or may not need to be acted upon. So I wanted to make sure I got a lot of questions about that. So I wanted to make sure that I called that out. And another one similar a couple of questions about how much Rails Trails Conservancy is now involved in kind of general trail development versus focusing on converting non-US rail lines into trails. And so I think it's really about both. And w

hat we will say is, you know, there are the rail trail corridors have they are the spines of the trail and active transportation networks that we are talking about so much here. They make it possible to create the connectivity that we're talking about here. There are 41,000 miles of multi-use trails across the country which are really part of that universe that Rails to Trails Conservancy represents. And the vast majority of those are rail trails. So that is what makes this future of connectivit

y possible. That is what's what makes it all kind of possible in terms of making trail use part of our everyday lives. We can't put a railroad corridor right where we want it. So sometimes we have to be looking at, you know, a different right public rights of way and what are the opportunities to apply what we know from the rail trail conversion and that adaptive reuse to other public rights of way which really important to maximizing the opportunity. And we are actively working on several rail

trail conversions, big ones across the country and many that are part of different trail network projects or people call in looking for that technical assistance and support. So I don't know that there's a perfect percentage of how much of our time is spent there or elsewhere. I would argue it's really a continuum of all that we learn and all that we do every every day. Now, this is one I'm going to flip over to you now, just maybe when state laws aren't quite going your way and maybe you have a

n idea and you want to pursue that idea and the state law say, yeah, we don't think that we want to use that funding for this. You know, we're going to prohibit the funding for these kinds of projects. Do you have any tips for overcoming kind of barriers, big advocate advocacy barriers or even smaller advocacy barriers that might be related to how states engage? Yeah, that's a great question. And similar to members of Congress and railroads, there's a very different interest in this right now at

a state level and support. A couple of things come to mind. I would say first, see if we have a stack on the ground in that state. If we do, we'd love to chat with you about about this. If we don't, we probably have partners on the ground, so we'd be happy to to see who's on the ground or or if you want to take a look and kind of Google around and see what coalitions exist that work on trail. So I would say, again, the community engagement piece, the strength and numbers piece, that's going to

be a huge part of figuring out who's doing this work right now and who you can kind of bring in coalition and their strength in numbers after you've done that. Or if you are if you're really sophisticated, interested in and want to, you know, pursue this potentially solo, I would take a look at your state legislature, see who your members are and what committees they are on. So committees often run the show. As far as, you know, transportation Committee is usually a good place to look to see who

's working on what. So I would I would contact them and try to get some background on on, you know, the context for what for what they're what how long the funding would band or how, you know, kind of the background there. So I would say a combination of working within coalition with other groups, taking a look at who's who's relevant both in your district as well as on the relevant committees. Those are going to be some helpful. And then again, understanding sort of the perspective they're havi

ng but then bringing forward that language, we talked a lot about if someone is banning funding for this, one thing that would be really appealing to to bring right back as well. Do you know the money we're missing out on by not building these trails? You know, the tourism we're losing, the jobs we're losing the impacts of accidents and safety hazards that come from not protecting by cyclists and pedestrians. So those are things I would I would be excited and prepared and excited about, prepared

to talk about with with any decision maker. So those are some initial ideas to brainstorm and we will have some case studies on this as well about sort of how we've overcome some of these barriers. And one thing I'll flag and I think we will have it in our how to guide is North Carolina, which does, I think, have some some issues around this. But they just passed some some funding for trails. They had a year of the trail. So this is long term work. This is work that we've done in coalition over

many years. So it doesn't happen overnight. But even when obstacles are in place, there's still a possibility of doing really impactful things. That's fantastic. I'm going to answer here a question I think has universal applicability. And this is just which social media outlet have you found to be the most effective for reaching potential trail users? And I think the best answer to that question is really about, you know, who you're trying to reach and with what message. And we'll say when it c

omes to elected officials, which is not exactly the answer, but Twitter is slash X is really the most powerful. They care a lot about responses and engagement and that space. So that is still very, very relevant, especially with elected officials, depending on the age demographics of the groups you're trying to engage or what you want them to do. You know, Instagram can be really great for that visibility for really kind of quick interactions. Facebook can be really powerful for building communi

ty. It can be a really powerful advocacy organizing tool. Facebook groups are a place where it is just really great to get people together and start to build that community. I think it's one of the things that social media, when you look at kind of where there's power and what it does well, Facebook is a really great tool for kind of breaking down some of the divides, like how do we stay in touch with people? And so that that kind of group function, there can be a great way. I know in my persona

l life and in my professional life, there's a lot of Facebook groups, right? Both learn a lot in terms of advocacy and participate in advocacy. Myself and then, you know, thinking about the message you want to send, whether we're really trying to kind of push joy and engagement and the value there, that personal emotional value ticktalk can be a really fun place to do that, too. It has to be really, you know, authentic and kind of created from you and from the heart. It's not a place necessarily

for like really produced content, but it is a space where folks are engaging and they're having conversations and they're learning. So, you know, thinking about the how tos, thinking about the hate is, you know, we're trying to build a trail in our community, get involved. That kind of content does really well. On Tik-Tok. So not a perfect answer in terms of like there's one silver bullet, but I think a little bit of it is about understanding who you're trying to reach and what you're trying to

do there. I think this is we have time for one more question here, and this one's for you, Elle. How do you kick start the conversation with elected officials when the path forward is unclear? That's a great question. I mean, similar to Brandi, I don't think there's a one stop shop answer. I think if the path is, I think I would understand why the path is unclear. First, I think you got to understand where where the decision maker is coming from or the even if it's not the decision maker, sort

of the historical context, the environment, listening is key and kind of understanding where they're coming from. And then lucky for us, trials have so many benefits. So I would again kind of respond or be prepared to, you know, once you understand the background of that person and sort of the historical context they're coming from with a response for why trials are a great investment for the community. The impact trials can have on the A y on them. Those would be the kind of things I would thin

k about. I would also consider looking at the voting record of someone that that you're meeting with there or chat it or, you know, informally chatting with. And then I think, you know, this isn't going to solve everything. Like, again, you know, the railroad abandoned piece, you know, the brand. The brand is that is a much more long term thing. But but bring bring the decision makers on the trail, you know, the joy they're going to see, the impact they're going to see folks commuting, folks fee

ling the the mental health benefits the public health benefits of using the trials, having them them hear directly from people in their community is going to be really impactful. So the path is often unclear in a lot of situations because this takes years. Again, if we're thinking about kind of at the beginning the community engagement, the planning, the funding and maintenance like these are inherently multiyear projects that we're working on, sometimes multi-decade projects from start to finis

h. So, so don't be afraid of sort of the, the winding path. I mean, we're that's our logo now, right? So we need to have that is whether you're out. So but but that's that's very normal. And I would say I the the guidelines I gave I think could hopefully be helpful. So that's great. And I want to call out one, one comment in the chat that I think is a wonderful call to action for folks. And going back to just how do we make this visible, how do we get more people engaged, excited about the futur

e? And this individual says Strata attracts riders and it's heavily use. We need to engage every strata forum. I couldn't agree more in every Strava forum, Reddit forum, every Facebook group we can. And that's where the power of the grassroots and our membership really comes into play. You know, we can't do that all by ourselves and that the value, I think in political discourse in 2024, in pushing an issue forward in 2024 and beyond, is authenticity. People want to see real people talking about

why this stuff matters. You know, our work is so important in terms of the education and the direct advocacy that's happening in statehouses and in on Capitol Hill. But when it comes to building that groundswell of support, nothing's more powerful than the personal story. Well, thank you all so much for joining us. Please take our survey at the end and look out for an email in the coming days with resources and more information. But for now, thank you so much for your time and for being a chang

e maker for trails. And we look forward to chatting with you again soon. Yeah. Welcome to the club. Yeah. Have a great night. Have a good night, everyone. Bye.