Millennium Trails Program will "honor the past and imagine the future"

IMBA Trail News
Volume 11, Number 5
November 1998

First Lady unveils multi-year publicity effort

By Tim Blumenthal

The setting was a grassy, suburban field adjacent to the 13-mile Baltimore-Annapolis Rail Trail in eastern Maryland. The occasion was an announcement of the Millennium Trails Program, an ambitious, multi-year, trails promotion project funded by the Federal Highway Administration. But perhaps the most noteworthy element of this October 5 ceremony was the group of government leaders in attendance: heavy hitters by any standard. And equally important was their across-the-board support for bicycling and the wisdom of supporting alternative transportation projects.

The ceremony started - naturally - with a press photo opportunity, as First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and a group of about a dozen dignitaries came walking up the paved trail that was, until recently, a railroad line. There must have been 30 or 40 TV crews on hand plus an equal number of press photographers, 150 VIPs (including leaders of trail groups like IMBA and the American Hiking Society), and nearly 1,000 Maryland residents. The place was swarming with Secret Service agents. The timing of the event - the same day as the House Judiciary Committee's first impeachment procedure meeting - added drama.

Mrs. Clinton delivered a passionate keynote speech. She heads the White House Millennium Council, a multi-year initiative designed to recognize the accomplishments of this century and carry them into the next. The Millennium Trails Program will "celebrate, recognize and be a catalyst for creating trails to honor the past and imagine the future as part of America's legacy for the year 2000."

"You give a gift to the future [by being involved in trails]," Mrs. Clinton said. "This Baltimore to Annapolis trail is only here because people imagined it and made it a reality."

Other speakers included Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, National Park Service Director Robert Stanton, Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, and David Burwell, president of the Rails to Trails Conservancy. Rails To Trails, a key player in the Bikes Belong Coalition that successfully prodded Congress into passing a bike-friendly transportation bill, coordinated this event with the White House Millennium Council staff and support from American Trails.

All of the speakers emphasized themes that helped drive the Bikes Belong Coalition: connecting communities, tracing our heritage, families, physical fitness and alternative transportation. Every speaker including Mrs. Clinton mentioned bicycles in a positive light. The Rails to Trails Conservancy received special credit for recently reaching 10,000 total miles of rail trails and 1,000 rail trails.

While the Millennium Trails Program is still being defined, it will have at least three components. Twelve flagship National Millennium Trails will be designated by the year 2000 and will be recognized, one per month, in public celebrations. Fifty-two State Millennium Trails - one per state plus D.C. and Puerto Rico - will be designated. An additional 2,000 local trails will be identified for Community Trails 2000. The first-year budget for this project - some of it TEA-21 transportation money - was announced as $5 million, with $4 million to be distributed as grants.

This program will be coordinated by the Federal Highway Administration, which is likely to hire the Rails To Trails Conservancy and other trails groups to coordinate special events. FHWA Millennium Trails program director Jeff Olson used to be involved in bicycle planning and alternative transportation issues in New York. For more information, contact Olson by phone (202) 366-4045 or email: .