Immediate Action Needed by All Trail Enthusiasts! Update – Additional Action Now

The Coalition for Recreational Trails (CRT) needs all trail organizations and trail enthusiasts to take action immediately to continue and to expand the Recreational Trails Program (RTP), the national trails assistance program that aids all trail activities nationwide through use of federal non-highway recreational fuel taxes.

We had a huge victory last year when the Congress instructed the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop an estimate of fuel tax generated through non-highway recreational activities and included RTP in the Senate’s next-gen surface transportation program. Now the door is open to including RTP in key legislation likely to be enacted this year.

We need your immediate help. Please take these actions:

• Write letters on your own letterhead to these same Congressional leaders urging inclusion of RTP provisions in the major initiatives now under way – FAST reauthorization, a broad national infrastructure initiative and additional COVID-19 recovery bills. Use the CRT letters as models;
  
• Write to your own U.S. Representative and those Members with strong relations to your organization and ask them to cosponsor HR 5797, the Recreational Trails Full Funding Act. We have 11 champions and we need 50+. Interested Members in the House should contact Alex Piper (Welch) at [email protected] or Jake Bornstein (Curtis) at [email protected];
• Write our Senate champions thanking them for being sponsors of S. 1527 and urging action this Congress.

Since 1991, RTP has provided funding to states to develop and maintain outdoor recreational trails, allowing millions of American families to enjoy activities such as hiking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and 4-wheel driving. 25,000+ projects have been completed in all states and the District of Columbia and benefit not only the recreational trail enthusiasts paying the taxes but all trail activities.

RTP’s successes are visible through CRT’s website (www.rectrails.org) which includes infographics explaining the RTP program and links to key data, including information about completed projects in each state.

And use the next two weeks to meet with your federal elected officials at home on RTP and its importance to your members. Share your actions with us at [email protected]. THANKS!!