What are Water Trails?

More than paddling routes with maps and guides, water trails join places and communities of people

From the day Robert Fulton put his radically different boat on the Hudson, North Americans have taken their waterways for granted. Rivers, lakes, and shorelines have been used for development, power, industrial processing, irrigation, drainage, and waste disposal--almost always without concern for their effects on the water. As a consequence, many of our waterways are now unable to meet national needs for health, recreation, and economic well-being. As waterways have declined, so also have the communities that depend on connection to the water for commerce, for recreation, for tourism, and for quality of life declined.

Some citizens, industry executives, and public officials are very concerned about this decline and are responding.  They see their connection to the water. They understand the importance of abundant, clean water to all human, animal, and plant life.  They see the potential for water related activities to educate and contribute to the enhancement of recreation, personal health, and community vitality. Unfortunately, there are too few such people. It is very clear that a broad segment of the public neither sees nor feels a connection to the water.  Large numbers do not understand the fundamental role of healthy and active waterways to the long-term future of their way of life. Whatever the source of their disconnection from awareness and appreciation of water may be, makes no difference.  It cannot continue.

If we, who know, use, and enjoy waterways and are truly committed to their restoration and preservation, then we must act to change this segment of our society. Water indifference must evolve into water consciousness. Our political energies must be redirected and reinforced.  Those who are disconnected from our waterways must be shown how to become connected.

In recent years, action toward water-consciousness is expanding--community groups organize outdoor programs and trips, municipalities sponsor waterfront events, land trusts protect headwater lands and shorelines, recreation groups teach paddling skills, conservationists sponsor educational paddle programs promoting low-impact ethics and stewardship.  But few of these efforts are coordinated. There is no uniting concept, vision, nor organization. The collective clout gained through the synergy of multiple interests is largely unrealized.  The critical mass necessary for powerful action is absent. The disparate interests and visions of the individual players using our waterways fail to come together in a single community with an integrated purpose.  This is where water trails and water trail organizations come in.

Water trail organizations are multi-purpose, multiple benefit entities.  They serve our needs for growth in learning and health, for enjoyment and entertainment, for reflection and inspiration.  Their use develops understanding of our waterways for their own health and vitality. And, we join others in advocating the actions necessary to protect, conserve and preserve them.

Water trails attract all manner of people to the water.  They enable personal trip planning and make access to the water easy.  They guide on-water trip making.  They encourage renting, outfitting and guiding.  They promote on-water activities that teach.  They sponsor on-water celebrations that are fun.  They revitalize the waterway and the communities adjacent to the waterway. Water trails link past and present, people and prosperity, conservation and recreation. By bringing people to the water, they promote knowledge and the concern that nurtures caring, protection and conservation.  Water trails build a stewardship community.

By connecting people to their waterways, water trails provide the vital link necessary to building a caring constituency with the political strength necessary to restore and protect their waterways--even as we grow, enjoy and learn from them.