Show your love for parks! First-ever I Love My Park Day May 5  

Online volunteer registration for the first-ever I Love My Park Day is now open! 

I Love My Park Day is an exciting new statewide event to bring visibility to the entire state park system and its needs.

On Saturday, May 5, you can join with volunteers across the state to help celebrate and improve park lands and beaches, plant trees and gardens, restore trails and wildlife habitat and carry out site-improvement projects at state parks and historic sites.

Parks & Trails New York, in collaboration with the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, is coordinating the event at the statewide level, with cleanup, improvement and beautification projects organized by friends groups and park staff.

Visit the I Love My Park Day website to find an event near you and register to be a part of this exciting day!

New federal transportation bill delayed again

Funding for trails and bike/ped facilities still in limbo

House members are key to the future of funding for trails.  As the March 31 deadline loomed, the House wasn't able to pass a new federal transportation bill so Congress agreed to a 90-day extension of SAFETEA-LU. This is the ninth extension since the act expired in 2009. It is unclear what will happen as the House majority doesn't appear interested in passing the two-year $109 billion transportation bill approved by the Senate.  While not perfect, this bill at least preserves some funding for infrastructure that supports bicycling and walking.

We can't take our eye off the prize now! Your Representatives need to hear from you!  Invite them to a trail event and keep reminding them of how important Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails programs are to the local economy, community revitalization, quality of life, healthy physical activity, and alternative transportation.  Urge them to ensure these programs are included in the next transportation legislation.

Federal LWCF funding update

As we reported last month, President Obama's proposed FY 2013 budget shows his continued commitment to robust funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The President is requesting $450 million for the LWCF, a 30 percent increase over FY 12 funding levels. This includes $60 million for the stateside program which funds matching grants to local governments for public outdoor recreation areas and facilities, including many local park and trail projects.

The House and Senate have not yet drafted their appropriations bills, but PTNY has been working with its partners in the LWCF Coalition to ensure that significant funding for LWCF is included in their respective budget proposals.

• In the House, a "Dear Colleague" letter was completed requesting $450 million and was signed by 152 Members of Congress, including 17 representatives from New York (Bishop, Israel, King, McCarthy, Ackerman, Nadler, Towns, Velazquez, Grimm, Maloney, Rangel, Engel, Hayworth, Tonko, Owens, Hanna, Slaughter).
• Senators Schumer and Gillibrand supported the Senate's version of the transportation bill which included reauthorization of LWCF at $700M per year for the next two years. Along with 44 other Senators, they also signed a "Dear Colleague" letter to the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee noting the Senate's funding level of $700M and urging the House to also support "strong and consistent funding."

What you can do: Thank Senators Gillibrand and Schumer for their continued support for funding for parks and trails. If your  representative is among the 17 listed above, thank them for showing their support by signing the "Dear Colleague" letter.

PTNY capacity grant helps Ulster County trail organization plan for future

As members of Ulster County's Wallkill Valley Rail Trail Association (WVRTA) contemplated the planned doubling of the length of their trail, they realized the need to grow their organization and attract additional members and volunteers. Using a Growing the Grassroots capacity building grant from PTNY, the WVRTA engaged a consultant to assist them in completing a strategic plan that expanded the all-volunteer group's horizon beyond the limits of current capabilities and helped them plan for the future via incremental, organized steps.

"The WVRTA Board extends appreciation to Parks & Trails New York for providing the grant for our planning process, without which the strategic plan would not have been developed. Our Board has grown through this process and we believe we are better prepared for the next few years," said WVRTA president Ruth Elwell.

First Niagara teams up with PTNY on Cycling the Erie Canal bike tour

PTNY welcomes First Niagara as the official bank sponsor of  

Cycling the Erie Canal 2012.

"The First Niagara Bank Foundation is thrilled to sponsor Cycling the Erie Canal. We look forward to cheering on the riders from our more than 200 branch locations across the state," said Elizabeth Gurney, Executive Director of the First Niagara Bank Foundation.

"This exciting event covers our upstate New York footprint from Buffalo to Albany, an area where we recently expanded with our acquisition of HSBC branches. Cycling the Erie Canal is the perfect venue to welcome our new associates and customers," added Gurney. 

Thank you, First Niagara, for your support!

Got Ideas? Your input on State Park plans sought 

The public currently has two opportunities to contribute to state park master plans. The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (ORPHP) is engaged in an ongoing effort to create and update management plans for its parks and historic sites. The master plan lays out a vision for the park and guides natural resource protection and public recreation. It also reviews the current conditions at the park and makes recommendations for improvements to existing facilities as well as new facilities to meet visitor needs.

Read PTNY's statement in a recent article that the park master planning process engages the public and reminds them that they essentially own the parks.

Montezuma trail system connects hamlet to its history

Montezuma's history is inextricably linked to that of the Erie Canal.  In 1820, the Cayuga County hamlet was at the western terminus of Clinton's Ditch. For nearly 100 years Montezuma was a port of call for traffic on Clinton's Ditch, the Expanded Erie, and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals. Today evidence of the three canals can still be found within the 140-acre Montezuma Heritage Park.  Aside from the prisms of each canal, notable features include the ruins of a lock tender's cottage, the incredibly well-preserved Lock 11 of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal and the remains of the Richmond Aqueduct, once the second-longest aqueduct on the expanded Erie.

While the Town of Montezuma has owned the park since the 1960s, the effort to connect the hamlet and the historic resources via a trail system began several years ago.  Utilizing the former canal towpath and ATV trails, the Heritage Park Design Committee has established the foundation of a trail system through the park. 

Recently PTNY's Elijah Yearick met with local committee members to walk the trails and learn more about the abundance of historic resources in the Park.  The Montezuma Trail system is receiving technical assistance as part of PTNY's Healthy Trails Healthy People program.