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 More Advocacy Resources

• Advocacy
• Benefits of trails
• Health & trails
• Federal legislation
• Motorized trails & recreation

American Trails is focusing on the issue of improving health through outdoor recreation, along with many others in the trails community. As public agencies have "discovered" the problem of an increasingly sedentary and overweight America, it is even more important for trails activists to get involved. Read more...

 

 

• Trails expenditures shown to reduce health-care costs
• Walking as a way of life: benefits to seniors
• Physical fitness may be as good for the brain as it is for the body in old age, a new study says
• Trails for Health: Promoting Healthy LIfestyles & Environments (pdf 100 kb)
• 25 Communities Begin Projects to Promote Active Living
• More news and research on health and trails
• Quotes and resources on health benefits of parks, trails, and open space
• America's trails and wellness:a new partnership opportunities
• Health and Wellness Benefits from Trails and Greenways Clearinghouse (pdf 508 kb)
• How land use and transportation systems impact public health from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is a synthesis of the literature on the relationship between physical activity and community design. (635k pdf)
• How land use and transportation systems impact public health: an annotated bibliography (635k pdf)
• A Step in the Right Direction: The health benefits of hiking and trails (pdf 20 kb), from American Hiking Society

Resources on the relation of physical activity to good health, with an emphasis on trails and outdoor recreation.

• Recent studies evaluate trails and health
• Active Living Research supports research to identify environmental factors and policies with potential to increase levels of physical activity
• The impact of aging populations on outdoor recreation
• Healthy Parks Healthy People: The Health Benefits of Contact with Nature in a Park Context; Parks Victoria (Australia), November 2002: A Review of Current Literature and An Annotated Bibliography
• Use of a Community Trail Among New and Habitual Exercisers: Preliminary Assessment (pdf 348 kb)
• How Land Use and Transportation Systems Impact Public Health: An Annotated Bibliography (pdf 636kb)
• Does the Built Environment Influence Physical Activity? from Transportation Research Board
• Trails, places to exercise, streetlights can boost activity levels: University of North Carolina study
• Development, Reliability and Validity Testing of the Path Environment Audit Tool, presented at Active Living Research Conference, 2005 (pdf 424kb)
• Environmental and Policy Determinants of Physical Activity in the United States
• Promoting physical activity in rural communities: walking trail access, use, and effect
• Awareness and use of community walking trails

• Helping Kids Stay Active: a Community Checklist
• Blue and You Fitness Challenge is a physical activity contest for employees or members of organizations
• Resources, presentations, and tools to help promote trails for fitness and community health
• Planning for Healthy Places with Health Impact Assessments: a guide for conducting health impact assessments

• The Built Environment: Designing Communities to Promote Physical Activity in Children
• Video of Ciclovia ("Streets for Life") in Bogotá, Colombia
• In Mexico City, bicycles rule the Sunday streets
• 2008 Legislative and Policy Priorities from the National Recreation and Park Association
• Congressman Sarbanes Introduces "Foundation for a Fit Nation" Act
• National Park System Advisory Board reports on health and recreation
• Hike for Discovery presented by Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• All about Trails and Health issues
• Trails and Health Programs from Federal and State Agencies
• Healthy Challenges: America's health and fitness crisis creates an opportunity to promote trails and greenways; by Stuart Macdonald

  
  

• Streets as trails for life: “Ciclovia” and “Car Free Sundays” programs; by Gil Penalosa
• YMCA's Community Trailhead project promotes health through trails
• Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation promotes activity on the Schuylkill River Trail
• Logansport Memorial Hospital takes lead in trails for health
• Innovative "Medical Mile" hailed by national trails leaders
• Three articles on communities promoting trails for health
• Step Up to Health: Community examples from NRPA
• Community Health Promotion Handbook: Action Guides to Improve Community Health
• Community Design and Transportation Policies: New Ways to Promote Physical Activity
• Community Efforts, Community Health: Seven tips for creating successful health partnerships
• For the Health Community: what you should know about trail and greenway building
• U. S. Conference of Mayors adopts "Complete Streets"
• Increasing Physical Activity through Community Design
• Planning Healthier Suburbs, Where Cars Sit Idle and People Get Moving, by Jane E. Brody

• CA: Redding, creates Trails for Life! Collaborative to promote trail development
• CA: Parks for Health explores how Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area can address health issues of surrounding African American and Latino communities
• GA: Healthy People Atlanta is promoting trails as a way to improve the health of the citizens in Atlanta
• ME :Healthy Maine Partnerships published a report on community health efforts, with several that include trail activities: October 2003 Healthy Maine Partnerships newsletter (pdf 576 kb)
• ME: Healthy Maine Walks provides a central location for towns and local groups to register walks, which are made available for those interested in locating places to walk.
• NJ: Meeting the Needs of New Jersey: Providing Access to Public Places for Recreation & Health (pdf 432 kb)
• PA: Underground Railroad Bicycle Route provides opportunity for Center for Minority Health
• TX: Texas Department of Health Helping People Find the Trail to Physical Fitness
• Aus:Encouraging Walking in Whitehorse, Australia

 

 

 

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