What are trails and greenways? Well, a trail is a path that can be used for walking, biking, horseback riding, or other forms of recreational transportation. A greenway is often a shared-use walkway that runs along a strip of undeveloped land in an urban or rural area that has been set aside for recreational or environmental purposes. Some greenways have trails, while others do not.
Trails and greenways both help to improve the water quality. Greenways create a natural runoff buffer that helps to protect streams, rivers, and lakes from fertilizer runoff that a lot of people use to keep their yards green. This unhealthy runoff degrades the water quality and can harm the many species that live in the water. According to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, agricultural buffers, if installed properly, could remove up to 50% or more of fertilizers and pesticides and up to 75% or more of sediment that would otherwise be dumped into streams.
Trails and greenways also tend to improve the air quality by protecting the plants that produce oxygen, filter out air pollutants including ozone, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and heavy metal airborne particles. Trails and greenways also tie neighborhoods together, this helps to encourage different forms of transportation that don’t produce carbon dioxide such as, biking, walking, or you could even ride an electric scooter!
Photo Credit: Juliet Studness
Sources Cited
What Are Trails and Greenways? “P – Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. https://www.railstotrails.org/resourcehandler.ashx?id=3062.