Trails, parks, green spaces, and blue spaces are essential for communities to thrive and prosper as they create opportunities for outdoor recreation, improve public health, stimulate economic development, and key components of transportation networks. Ensuring consistent support for trails and parks will continue to make Virginia a great place to live, work, and play.

For too long, trails and parks have been underfunded. Based on a recent presentation from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the agency has a maintenance backlog of over $240 million.¹ We need to invest in our parks and trails so future generations can continue to utilize them instead of letting these assets fall into disrepair.

Access to the outdoors is not shared equitably.

For too many Virginians, parks, green spaces, and bodies of water are inaccessible due to distance, uneven distribution across the Commonwealth, and lack of facilities compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Within communities, race and income play a role in determining the quality and size of parks and green spaces individuals have access to in the United States. More affluent and predominantly White neighborhoods tend to have access to higher quality park systems with more acreage than those with larger low-income and Latinx or Black populations.² We must prioritize addressing inequitable access to parks, green spaces, and bodies of water in Virginia by identifying places where access is poor and making investments in new parks, green spaces, water access, and trails.

Parks and trails have been overwhelmed with an increase of usage over the past year which justifies the need for consistent funding to reach all communities and maintain existing infra-structure.³ Equitable access to outdoor spaces promotes physical activity, which includes many health benefits, including decreases in obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.⁴ Currently, access to the outdoors is not shared equitably; the need to create a statewide outdoor access equity model is the first step in determining where investments in parks and trails are essential.

Investments in trails, public access infrastructure, and associated facilities must be construct-ed to accommodate all ability levels and promote inclusion that connect parks and green spaces to all. A state-wide trail designation should be created, similar to Florida’s Designation System, to ensure an inclusive interconnected trail system and to strengthen public awareness and protection around our trail assets.⁵ Protection of green spaces is linked to protecting air quality, which helps decrease respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.⁶

¹ Stovall, Frank. “Review of Overview of Capital Outlay Budget,” Presentation to Senate Finance Committee and Appropriations -Capital Outlay Subcommittee (2022).

² Alessandro Rigolon et al., “Inequities in the Quality of Urban Park Systems: An Environmental Justice Investigation of Cities in the United States,” Landscape & Urb. Plan. 156 (2018): 178. https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2018/ja_2018_jennings_003.pdf.

³ Lizzie Johnson, “Ruining the Roller Coaster: Can the Appalachian Trail Survive Its Pandemic Popularity?” Washington Post (June 8,2022). https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/22/appalachian-trail-crowds-roller-coaster-hikers.

⁴ “Benefits of Physical Activity,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (November 1, 2021). https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/pa-health/index.htm.

⁶ Kaufman JD et al. “Association between air pollution and coronary artery calcification within six metropolitan areas in the USA (the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution): a longitudinal cohort study.” The Lancet 388 no.10045 (May 2016): 696-704.