Inaugural Western PA Trails Summit Hits Clarion County – Technologist

Blog originally published by Pennsylvania Environmental Council, September 16.  Republished with permission of the author. Photos courtesy of the author.  

Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) staff were fortunate to be among a large group of people learning from one another and forging new connections at the inaugural Western Pennsylvania Trails and Greenways Summit in Clarion on Thursday, Sep. 5.

The purpose of this event was to convene stakeholders who develop, maintain, or promote greenways and trails, and to discuss creative solutions to shared challenges. It comes at an exciting moment in which support for the outdoors is widely recognized.

DCNR Secretary Cindy Dunn addresses the crowd at the inaugural Western Pennsylvania Trails and Greenways Summit in Clarion.

Cindy Dunn, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), gave the keynote address at the Summit. In her speech, she emphasized the crucial role that robust outdoor recreation infrastructure plays in creating places where people want to live, work, and play.

“Trails are what will bring people and keep people in Pennsylvania,” Dunn said.

A day before the Summit, some attendees enjoyed a group bike ride on the Route 66 Country Trail or an ADA-accessible sensory hike in Cook Forest. Those outings were followed by a casual reception at Lost in the Wilds Brewing, where we heard from representatives of the PA Wilds Conservation Landscape to educate us about the landscape and how communities have embraced outdoor recreation as a way to diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment, retain population, and improve quality of life. The region features more than 2 million acres of public land, the largest wild elk herd in the northeast, Pennsylvania’s only national forest and internationally certified Dark Sky park, as well as two nationally recognized Wild and Scenic Rivers.

On Thursday morning, about 120 attendees gathered at Clarion University and fueled up on coffee and baked goods before settling in for a packed roster of panel discussions and educational sessions. PEC Program Manager Chris Corbran kicked off the day with introductory remarks about why it’s so important to convene at events like the Trails and Greenways Summit.

Nathan Reigner, Director of DCNR’s Office of Outdoor Recreation, discusses the various types of trails in the state.

“Partnerships require cultivation to thrive, and we need opportunities to be able to bring people together and build those relationships. That’s what we’re doing here today,” Corbran said.

The crowd then heard from Nathan Reigner, Director of the Pennsylvania Office of Outdoor Recreation at DCNR. He has spent the last year working with stakeholders from across the Commonwealth to inform a strategy to grow the state’s outdoor industry and better promote existing assets. Reigner talked about that work and some of the major takeaways.

“What we are well-suited for in Pennsylvania is trails,” he said.

In the last decade, much of the focus has been on greenways and rail trails, and going forward Reigner emphasized the need to develop more natural surface trails, which are made from native rock and soils without surfacing materials like pavement or asphalt. This kind of trail, he explained, require less maintenance and often take less time to create, helping to meet the demand of the millions of people who recreate on Pennsylvania trails.

“We sense a lot of need and a lot of interest in focusing on these trails,” Reigner said.

Discussions at the Summit also reflected the shifting mindset around trails: no longer are they seen only as recreation amenities, but also as transportation infrastructure. Trails provide access to work, to school, for running errands and other necessities of daily life.

As Brett Hollern, PEC’s Vice President for Western Pennsylvania, said, “Trails aren’t just nice to have. They are essential.”

In a recent op-ed, PEC Executive Vice President Patrick Starr discussed how southeastern Pennsylvania was able to leverage transportation funding earlier this year to invest $200 million in the Circuit Trails network, which envisions 800 miles of safe, non-motorized trails.

The 2024 Western Pennsylvania Trails and Greenways Summit took place just before the Trail of the Year Ceremony, celebrating Trails at Jake’s Rocks in the Allegheny National Forest.

The Summit took place a day before the Trail of the Year celebration at the Trails at Jake’s Rocks. PEC staff headed to Warren County to show our support.

Secretary Dunn called the mountain biking trails “a gem in our system.” DCNR looks to the stacked loop format at Jake’s Rocks as a model for how to design trail systems that bring people back again and again.

The trails, located off the Longhouse National Scenic Byway in the Allegheny National Forest, attract visitors from all over the country. Riders and hikers can choose from more than 35 miles of rugged trails, color coded based on difficulty like at a ski resort, with overlooks that offer sweeping views of the Allegheny Reservoir. Officials have plans to add 11 miles of trail in the coming years.

U.S. Representative Glenn Thompson, whose district includes western and central Pennsylvania, spoke about the sweeping benefits of the 2024 Trail of the Year.

“The Trails at Jake’s Rocks is a beacon,” Thompson said, “fostering healthy lifestyles and preserving the natural beauty that makes the Commonwealth truly special.”

The Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) protects and restores the natural and built environments through innovation, collaboration, education and advocacy. PEC believes in the value of partnerships with the private sector, government, communities and individuals to improve the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians.