Sam England put 2,000 miles on his vehicle before he wrote a word. Ten in-person conferences, electronic surveys, focus groups, stakeholder interviews — the whole process of renewing West Virginia’s statewide trail plan framework started with a simple question: what do people actually want? The answer, across more than 1,000 data points, was consistent across user groups. More trails. Better connectivity. The ability to walk out your door and reach somewhere meaningful on a trail. Bikers and hikers and equestrians and the off-road community all said roughly the same thing.
The trickier part is the 20 percent they don’t agree on. Sam’s job has been making sure that 20 percent doesn’t swallow the 80. What WV Trails is building is a framework — not a mandate, but a clear, organized picture of what West Virginians want that advocates, legislators, and land managers can actually act on. Connectivity, he says, goes beyond physical trail links. It means organizations talking to each other, land managers and trail groups working across ownership boundaries, pulling the wagon in the same direction. The inaugural WV Outdoor Economy Summit felt like evidence that people are starting to do that.
Learn more about: WV Trail
About the Author
