RiverWise is a newly-launched initiative in Beaver County focused on using rivers and surrounding communities as wisely as possible. At the heart of this work is a concerted effort to organize stakeholders to dream, learn, and collaborate about the future of the rivers. Executive Director Daniel Rossi-Keen, PhD., writes about the initiative and their current work.

Since the middle of September, RiverWise, along with the Ohio River Trail Council, has been conducting a 30-day campaign aimed at saving bike and walking trails through the heart of Beaver County.

To make such trails possible, we are asking the Beaver County Board of Commissioners to take ownership of the Black’s Run Bridge, a structure that passes over Route 51, between Monaca and West Aliquippa. To learn more about this campaign, you can go to beavercountytrails.com, where you will find a petition that we have created as well as links to extensive additional information about the project.

During the first week of the campaign, we worked to explain the details of the project. What is the history of this initiative? What and where will the proposed 15-mile loop of trail be located? How does this segment relate to other trail-focused activities both locally and regionally? And, most important of all, why is acquiring the Black’s Run Bridge vital to this plan? These questions and more were addressed from numerous vantage points during the first week of the campaign.

In week two of our campaign, we began demonstrating the many benefits that trail development holds for our region. We explained how building trails through the heart of Beaver County will help to connect us to Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Cleveland and beyond. We dug into the financial benefits of trails for the region, providing seven different studies that investigate the economic benefits of building local trails. We demonstrated how trail building has a positive impact on tourism and directed readers to the testimonials of other communities who have experienced such benefits. And we examined how this project would bolster and benefit from development projects along the path of the trail.

Weeks three and four of the campaign focus on interconnectivity. As a member of any government entity knows, what happens in one community has considerable impact on a broader region. Particularly for a topic like trail development, numerous stakeholders from many different sectors and municipalities must come together to create an interconnected network of trails. In the case of Beaver County, the trail segment in question has implications for the Pittsburgh to Ashtabula Corridor of the Industrial Heartlands Trail, the Great American Rail Trail and the Lewis and Clark Trail. Whether or not Beaver County builds trails implicates each of these projects in longstanding and profound ways.

Although our campaign is clearly focused on Beaver County, the results of these efforts matter to municipalities all around western Pennsylvania and beyond. It is for this reason that we are asking trail advocates far and wide to go to beavercountytrails.com and sign the petition to let the Beaver County Board of Commissioners know how our region feels about the importance of trails.

We would also ask you to check out the blog we have created. It’s updated daily and can be found at getriverwise.com/blog. Once there, you will discover links to all kinds of information that may be helpful to your own efforts at supporting regional trail development.

Saving trails through the heart of Beaver County is about way more than creating a bike or walking path. As our campaign has clearly and repeatedly demonstrated, a community’s willingness to take on a project like trails is a clear test of its leadership, its vision and its commitment to the quality of life of its residents.

We hope that you will consider following our campaign, signing our petition, and adding your voice to the chorus of many who want to see an interconnected network of trails throughout western Pennsylvania and beyond.

Daniel Rossi-Keen, PhD
Executive Director, RiverWise
[email protected]