The 44-page guide covers the key topics: Getting organized, Going public, Trail planning, Integrating natural values and recreational use, and Landowner issues and concerns. This is a joint publication of Parks & Trails New York and Hudson River Valley Greenway to encourage successful trail projects at the local level.
The purpose of this guide is to foster the vision of a network of trails across New York State — with the Hudson River Greenway Trail, the Canalway Trail, and several long-distance hiking trails — as backbones of the system. The best way to foster this vision is by helping you get started with trail planning in your community. The most successful trail projects are usually initiated at the local level. By developing a trail in your community, the goal of establishing a statewide network of trails across the Empire State is one step closer.
Parks & Trails New York is New York's leading statewide advocate for parks and trails, dedicated since 1985 to improving our health, economy, and quality of life through the use and enjoyment of green space.
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Recorded webinars that you might like
A Guide to Adaptive Mountain Bike Trailbuilding
Oct 30, 2025
This webinar will walk through the latest guidance for planning, designing, building, and retrofitting adaptive mountain bike trails, with a specific focus on nonmotorized, natural-surface trails. The speakers represent the critical stakeholders that should be involved in any aMTB trail project— trail manager, aMTB users, aMTB programs, and trail builder.
Trail Design in an Animate World
Oct 16, 2025
This webinar invites trail designers, planners, and stewards into a radical reimagining of their role—not as prescribers of sustainability, but as participants in a living, animate world. Drawing inspiration from deep ecological traditions, Indigenous teachings, and the spiritual dimensions of place-based work, it offers a reframing of trail design as a reciprocal act rooted in humility, listening, and respect.
Equine Land Advocacy – A Best Practice for Equine Access
posted Nov 1, 2025
Advocating for what your equine community needs, and how to do it.
The Horse Owners Guide to Water Quality Protection
posted Nov 1, 2025
The Horse Owners Guide to Water Quality Protection is an excellent resource document from the Council of Bay Area Resource Conservation Districts
Horses & Invasive Plants: The Western USA Study
posted Nov 1, 2025
Dr. Gower’s studies indicate that horses and pack stock are unlikely, if at all, to spread invasive weeds along trails under the conditions he studied in both the eastern and western United States
Horses and Pack Stock Are Not Likely Sources of Harmful Pathogens in Waterways
posted Nov 1, 2025
Dr. Atwill’s work is the strongest evidence yet that stock use in the Sierra high country is unlikely to result in introduction into waterways of pathogens that cause human illness (giardia, E-coli, etc.).
