Sign on as a Supporter of the Recreational Trails Program!

Download and sign the sign-on form to be listed as a member of the Recreational Trails Council of Advisors

As a member of the Coalition for Recreational Trails (CRT), American Trails urges organizations of every size and interest to become a Supporter of the Recreational Trails Program (RTP). Every state and every trail activity benefits from the Recreational Trails Program, and we need your support!

It is urgent to expand the voices supporting trails and greenways. What will happen in your state if RTP disappears? It is essential to get the thousands of trail advocates and project sponsors to think about that very real possibility.

To that effect, CRT has created a Recreational Trails Council of Advisors comprised of organizations that support the continuation and expansion of the RTP in the next national surface transportation program. The responsibility of Advisors is to lend their name to support letters to Congress members, to the Administration, and to others. In addition, Advisors will be asked to reach out to other organizations to ask them to sign-on and to help in a variety of ways. View the 269 organizations that have signed on as Supporters to date.

One thing we are learning as we meet with key staffers is that they are very impressed at the number and the diversity of trail user groups that support the program. Please help us continue to add more groups to the list!

Here are six crucial ways you can help secure the future of RTP funding for trails:

1. Sign on as a member of the Recreational Trails Council of Advisors.

2. Ask any organization you know to sign on as a member of the RTP Council of Advisors.

3. Tell your Congressmembers! Invite them to an RTP-funded trail ground-breaking, to a volunteer work day, or to an opening celebration. Tell the media, and send news clips to your Congressional offices. Tell them about your success stories and about the myriad of people of all ages and abilities that love and use these trails!

4. Ask other friends of trails to contact their Members of Congress about the importance of the RTP. Encourage them to stay up to date by visiting this site often.

5. We need RTP champions in the Senate and the House -- but critically in the Senate. Please let us know if you have a good connection with a Member of Congress and are willing to make contacts-- especially on these key Committees:

• the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee...
• and its Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
• the House Transportation & Infrastructure...
• and its Subcommittee on Highways and Transit

6. CRT would like to have over 500 organizations sign-on as supporters. Please pass the word on through your networks!

Thank you for your ongoing support for the Recreational Trails Program. This is the most important year ever to get Members of Congress to understand why RTP is important to the health and well-being of our citizens, as well as to the nation’s campaign to attack inactivity and obesity.

The Recreational Trails Program has been extended through the end of 2010

On March 22, 2010, the Highway Trust Fund was extended through the end of 2010 as part of the new jobs bill. US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood stated that "we need lawmakers and experts to think creatively about how we're going to fund our transportation infrastructure in the 21st century." With the health care bill in the hands of the lawyers for now, transportation funding should be one of the next priorities for Congress.