© Creative Commons
Hudson River domestic landscape from Andrew Jackson Downing’s” A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening,” 1841.
"People seem to have a greater interest in healthy activity," said Bill Rudge, veteran New Paltz-based supervisor of natural resources for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. "Many people seem to want to take a simple, easy route that makes the decisions they don't want to make." That's part of the explanation, Rudge said, for the increased interest in recent years - particularly by urban folks - in various recreational trails, both urban and rural.
Last week, a national group, the Rails to Trails Conservancy, announced plans for a trail between Washington, D.C. and Seattle. It may take a decade or two to complete the Great American Rail-Trail, but the group had detected substantial unmet demand from people itching to walk across America on railbeds from sea to shining sea.
New York State isn't waiting that long. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Empire State Trail from New York City to the Canadian border and from Albany to Buffalo, is scheduled for completion next year. To judge by the widespread support for these activities from politicians at every level of New York government, investment in trails has been widespread and continuing.
In Ulster County, several former railbeds have been or will be converted into trails. Since 19th-century railroad engines couldn't climb steep grades, those on Ulster County's trailbeds are gentle and sometimes meandering, allowing for the physically less challenging routes many people may prefer.
Comment: Press freedom is under assault around the world, with the persecution of Julian Assange the leading example: