American Trails Symposium by John Dersham

Last week I attended the 20th bi-annual American Trails Symposium. This year it was held in Chattanooga. There were 600 hundred attendees from all across the US and Canada. Chattanooga was chosen this year, much in part, due to its progressive implementation of various types of trail systems throughout the city and on Lookout Mountain, Raccoon and Signal Mountains. Chattanooga in conjunction with its Parks and Recreation Department has been aggressively pursuing various forms of alternative transportation for residents and tourists, including an electric bus system that runs through downtown. If you have been to the Chattanooga riverfront area lately you will see the great walking and bike trails along the Tennessee River. You will also find the historic Walnut Street Bridge (1890) that was saved from the wrecking ball by volunteer groups whom raised money to restore it to a fantastic walking bridge across the Tennessee River. This bridge leads you to the great parks, shopping and entertainment on the west side of the river. On the east side is downtown Chattanooga and The Aquarium, The Hunter Museum and all the river attractions, food, shopping and entertainment. Chattanooga is currently in the process of developing a rental bicycle system for downtown and electric car recharge stations. These are progressive systems of which there are only a few already in operation in the US. All of this helped capture the City of Chattanooga this very exciting and very lucrative conference at the Marriott/Chattanooga Civic Center.

Many of the attendees of this conference work for our National Park System, National Forest Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management.. There were many people representing private environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy, etc. There were educators, Parks and Recreation and tourism people there. Everyone was interested in learning the process of planning, developing and executing the construction and maintenance of a trail or trail system. The conference began on Sunday and concluded on Wednesday. There were multiple classes being held at the same time. Each attendee selected the classes that best fit their needs at the time. I choose the seminars that dealt with the development and marketing of trail systems that would have a tourism faction to them. In these times of concern about our overweight population and lack of exercise, outdoor exercise and entertainment has become an increased area of focus in the United States. I represented North Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association which includes our northern 16 counties of which DeKalb is a part of. As you may have seen Alabama Mountain Lakes has a fall promotion called “Go Take a Hike” which is intended to help get people out on trails and get some exercise and enjoy all the beauty of North Alabama. It is of interest to tourism to encourage tourists to make part of their travel plans, hiking. In DeKalb County we are blessed with many trails of which can be used to help market the total tourist experience in DeKalb County. There is currently a Lookout Mountain Trail being developed that will begin in the new Moccasin Bend National Historic Park in Chattanooga and go all the way to Gadsden on Lookout Mountain. It will take about seven years to complete.