Heartland Pathways and Kickapoo Rail Trail Lead Illinois Prairie SAVING Preservation AMERICA’S Efforts PRAIRIES
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to Winter.16 Inspiring Movement Heartland Pathways and Kickapoo Rail Trail Lead Illinois Prairie SAVING Preservation AMERICA’S Efforts PRAIRIES Connecting the Wild West 2015 Rail- Trail Hall of Fame On the Urban Conservation Trail I SUPPORT Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Name: Stuart Jonas Where I live: My wife and I live in Grand Rapids, Mich. Age: 56 What I do: I am an account manager for a biometric firm, although I have been back to work for only a few months because of an illness I’ve had for the past five years. My hobbies are playing my custom-built guitar, and riding a bike when the weather and my body will cooperate. I also like to do as a hobby what I do in my job: work with computers. Most inspiring articles I’ve read recently: I have been most inspired by The Grand Rapids Pressarticles by Sue Schroder about other people’s struggles with cancer, since that hits oh so close to home. Latest or greatest accomplishment: I have at least two of them: learning to take care of myself and walk after brain surgery on a non-malignant tumor; then, six months later, surviving stage 4 Non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I like to think that the thought of riding with my friends was one of the most powerful motivators I had, next to my family. I’d rather be: ME—because others may look appealing, but their lives might have the same ups and downs as mine. And, who knows, theirs could be worse. Besides, I have come to like who I am and what I am. A personal goal: Riding the Dick Allen Lansing to MACkinaw bike ride; it’s about 300 to 400 miles, depending on the route, but the scenery and camaraderie would be great. A person I admire: My wife’s aunt, Mim Schneider. She battled cancer for at least four years. Although she lost the fight, she always smiled at the world and the people she met. She was a great example of living with a disease and not letting it control your entire life. Inspirational quote: “What I do this day is very important because I am trading a day of my life for it.” —author unknown My favorite rail-trail experience: When I completed my final treat- ment, a good friend promised me a “victory lap” on our bikes. Little did I realize it would turn out to be a longer ride than I expected. We spent the better part of the morning and into early afternoon riding. It was a gorgeous day, and riding was a real pleasure, with great scenery and a good friend to share it with. Now I need to “pay it forward” to someone else who has gone through cancer treatment and has come out on the victory end of it. I’ve been a Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) member since: I joined RTC in 2012 and have been a paperless member since 2013. Why I support RTC through a paperless membership: Two reasons: 1) to give to a cause I wholeheartedly support, and 2) to not forget to make my donation to that cause. I kept forgetting to make the donation; I found the paperless membership to be quick to make, and painless for me and the family budget. Add your unique voice to the rail-trail movement by becoming a paperless member of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Learn more at railstotrails.org/support or call 202.331.9696. BRIAN KELLY rails t o trails winter.16 Inspiring Movement features The Outdoor Advocate St.14 Louis-based active lifestyle consultant and trail developer Greg Brumitt discusses why trail use is a powerful driver in urban conservation initiatives. BY AMY KAPP Connecting the Wild West: the16 Greater Yellowstone Trail Passing through three states and a vast collection of parks and federally protected lands, the proposed 180- mile Greater Yellowstone Trail project is creating new links to America’s preservation heritage. BY KATIE HARRIS A View From … The Wild From20 birds to buff alos (and even s ea lions), these wildlife snapshots prove that you never know what nature has in store along America’s rail-trails. BY DANIELLE TAYLOR Saving America’s Prairies Running through some of the last tallgrass prairie in the world, Illinois’ Heartland Pathways and Kickapoo Rail Trail are helping to 8preserve—and create connections to— one of America’s critical ecosystems. DAVID REID DAVID BY ELIZABETH STRIANO CHRIS BUCHER 24 Community Connections departments I Symbolic Legacy: Pennsylvania’s Heritage Rail Trail County Park and CAMRIN DENGEL Point of View Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail (2015 2 Rail-Trail Hall of Fame) I Midwest Masterpiece: Minneapolis’ 3 Members Network Midtown Greenway (2015 Rail-Trail Hall of Fame) Tracks ‘n’ Ties I In Memory of Rail-Trail Champion I4 Eye On: Alabama’s Rotary Trail Deb Hubsmith I Trail Tales: A Lifetime of Biking Comes Full Circle for Philly Railroad Rail-Trail Report 16 Retiree 26 27 Destination: Florida 6 Greetings From … Part of Florida’s award-winning state Connecticut, Wyoming, Missouri park system, Tallahassee’s St. Marks DOUG ALDERSON and Virginia Trail is a scenic and challenging 16-mile 27 ride connecting welcoming towns, river On the cover: Late-blooming prairie Asters and Goldenrods grow along an unused rail bed. The life, historic sites and the 500,000-acre Monarch butterfl y stores food as winter nears. Apalachicola National Forest. Photo by Chris Bucher BY DOUG ALDERSON railstotrails N winter.16 1 point of view rails t o trails Th e magazine of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), A Wonder Drug a nonprofi t organization dedicated to creating a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people. As with many years in the past, I began 2015 with a New Year’s resolution. Despite a relatively active lifestyle, I had gained a couple of pounds per year for the last decade. I PRESIDENT Keith Laughlin discovered that this can happen when your age creeps up while your metabolism slows down. So I resolved that I was going to walk 3 miles a day in 2015. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Guy O. Williams, Chair; M. Katherine Kraft; I stuck with my goal for a couple of months. But, as often happens, my resolve was Gail Lipstein; John P. Rathbone; Chip Angle; Mike Cannon; challenged. Sometimes I was traveling and couldn’t fi nd the time. Or I was staying in Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr.; Matthew Cohen; David Ingemie; Rue Mapp; Frank Mulvey; Charles N. Marshall; a motel on a major arterial road, and there was no safe place to walk. On other days, I Doug Monieson; Tim Noel; T. Rowe Price; Tom Petri just didn’t feel like it. MAGAZINE STAFF Th is went on for months. I didn’t stick to my resolution, but I never abandoned it Editor-in-Chief Amy Kapp either. Director of Communications Elizabeth Striano Staff Writers Laura Stark, Katie Harris Th en in May, it all changed. On a whim, I bought myself a Fitbit—a high-tech Editorial Consultants Wendy Jordan, Sharon Congdon pedometer that I wear on my wrist to track my daily steps and mile- Design/Production Manifest LLC Art Director Jeff rey Kibler Aage. Th e device uploads the data to my smart phone and computer. I set a new goal of walking 10,000 steps and 5 miles a day. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy was incorporated in 1985 as a nonprofi t charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Th is was daunting because I hadn’t been able to consistently meet Internal Revenue Code and is a publicly supported organization my 3-mile-per-day goal. But by eff ortlessly logging my walking, as defi ned in Sections 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1). A copy of the current fi nancial statement, or annual report, and state the device began to change my behavior. Instead of struggling to registration fi led by RTC may be obtained by contacting RTC fi nd time to walk, I built it into my day. I now often walk 4 miles at the address listed below. Donations to RTC are tax-deductible. a day as part of my round-trip commute to the offi ce. I walk a mile RAILS-TO-TRAILS CONSERVANCY every day at lunch. I take a walk after dinner on many nights. It has Headquarters become such an ingrained habit that I always feel like it. 2121 Ward Court, NW, 5th Floor Washington, DC 20037-1213 Since May, I have walked an average of 7 miles per day. I’ve lost Phone 202.331.9696 all of the weight that I gained in the last decade. And I have never Email [email protected] Websites railstotrails.org felt better. I can’t give all the credit to walking, because I engage in TrailLink.com other forms of physical activity and I’m now more careful with my Field and Regional offices: diet. But there is no doubt that regular walking has been the biggest Midwest Yellow Springs, Ohio single factor in my weight loss. 614.837.6782, [email protected] If walking could be encapsulated in a pill, the pharmaceutical Northeast Camp Hill, Pa. industry would market it as a wonder drug in television commercials 717.238.1717, [email protected] BRIAN GERHARDSTEIN featuring a long list of side eff ects that are all positive. Western Oakland, Calif. Th e U.S. Surgeon General recently reaffi rmed the benefi ts of this universal activity 510.992.4662, [email protected] in his Call to Action on Walking, where he encouraged everyone to make it a part of Florida Tallahassee, Fla.