Citizen's
Greenways Guide
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Citizen's |
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Creating a successful greenway requires you to step back and take a hard look at what exists in terms of natural, cultural, financial, and human resources in the context of the social and environmental needs of the area. This comprehensive assessment will help you define realistic goals tailored to your particular greenway effort, and help ensure that recreation and conservation occur in the most appropriate areas.
A variety of methods can be used to create greenways. One approach involves securing a corridor based on a particular resource or important area. For example, many greenways grow out of the desire to protect and to provide access to an important stretch of river. Another basic approach is to conduct a broad-based inventory to determine the most appropriate location for a greenway network. This kind of activity usually follows or works hand-in-hand with town or regional open space planning initiatives.
Whichever route you choose, it is essential to develop a strategy articulating what you want to accomplish and why. A well-formulated strategy will guide your efforts, keep your initiative focused, and illustrate that your greenway proposal is the result of a rational planning process. Based on these goals and objectives, your strategy should also define and eventually map the nature and location of your proposed greenway. Putting your ideas in writing is a good way to clarify them and to get feedback in refining this essential piece. In addition, the written component of your greenway strategy can be used as a publicity tool to engender support and to solicit funds. It is important to keep in mind however, that while the actual document is important, a greenway strategy isn't simply a report but rather the synthesis of extensive research and public participation. It should be a working document, continuously evolving to accommodate new information, opportunities, and political and financial realities.
The remainder of this guidebook details the process for planning and establishing a greenway. It begins with a chapter on initiating your greenway project, continues with a chapter on initiating your greenway project, continues with a step-by-step description of project planning and implementation, and concludes with suggestions for maintaining your newly established greenway. Although many of these steps actually occur simultaneously, this process is described in a linear fashion, beginning with defining your project and ending with maintaining your greenway.
The information presented in the remaining chapters is general and should be adapted to your needs, which will vary depending on the type and scope of your project, the experience level of those involved, and the current stage of your greenway planning efforts. As you read the remainder of this guidebook, feel free to focus on those ideas and suggestions that will be most helpful to your greenway project. Spend some time looking at the profiles and examples scattered throughout the text as sources of information and inspiration. And most importantly, never hesitate to ask questions or to seek advice- we can all learn from the challenges and successes of other greenway efforts.
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To determine your community's needs, take a good look around your town. One way to do this is to organize an outing or series of outings to evaluate your town's assets and needs. Because landscape changes are often incremental, it is sometimes difficult to notice the cumulative impacts of what is occurring around us. Several informal field trips can help to identify existing environmental conditions, changes in land use, and issues that need to be addressed, ultimately generating ideas and opportunities for potential greenway projects.
It is helpful to supplement data gathered in the field with historical information about your community and region. Looking at the events that gave rise to current land-use patterns and practices can provide insight into the problems and issues that exist today. Historical information about your community can usually be obtained from the local library or from nearby college or university libraries, from local newspaper archives, or from annual town reports. The Massachusetts Historical Commission is another potential source for this type of data. Some communities have a local historian and/or a local historical museum with papers, books, and photographs documenting the town's past. Your local Conservation Commission or Planning Board may also be able to provide insights into issues related specifically to land use.
Along with research on your town, start to educate yourself and your colleagues about greenways and greenway planning (see Appendix A for useful reference materials). One of the most effective ways to learn about the various types of greenways is to visit them. This will give you a real sense of the kinds of opportunities greenways provide and it will help you visualize what you want to work toward. You may also wish to contact other greenway groups for advice, encouragement, and technical assistance. A great deal can be learned from informal conversations with fellow greenway advocates, not only about their accomplishments but also about the problems they've encountered.
Your initial observations, reconnaissance, and research will generate a number of ideas, as well as uncover issues that will need to be addressed. At this point you may find it helpful to contact local groups, town boards, and regional and state agencies to get their input and insights on your ideas (see Appendix B for sources of planning and technical assistance). It is also important to determine if any similar projects have been attempted in your community, and the outcome of these efforts. Reaction to your ideas and information about analogous projects are often good indicators of the originality of your ideas, the political climate, and the kind of help or hurdles you can expect in the future. Communication with a broad range of organizations in the early stages of your project will also help to foster relationships with groups and individuals that you may be interested in working with in the future. This is the time to sow widely the seeds that will be harvested later as support for your greenway.
Discussing your ideas with others is an essential part of the greenway planning process. An open dialogue can generate a great deal of useful information, educate a variety of individuals, help publicize your efforts, and garner public support. You will, however, need to use your judgment and knowledge of your community to determine how much detailed information to discuss at this point in the process. This will likely depend on the nature of the project and on your community. If, for example, your greenway project is fairly well defined and you expect there will be significant opposition, you may not wish to discuss the exact location of the proposed corridor prior to gaining stronger public support. This does not mean that you should proceed secretly. Nevertheless, it is sometimes necessary to exercise caution in order to avoid negative reactions before you get the project off the ground.
If you or your small group began with a specific project or location in mind, this initial brainstorming phase is a good time to consider the bigger picture and to look at your ideas in a regional context. While most of your efforts will be focused on getting your particular project off the ground, it is always important to keep a long-range plan in mind. Maintaining a broad perspective increases the potential for expanding your greenway and for connecting it to a regional network in the future.
An alternative to forming a brand new greenway committee is for an existing community organization, such as the Conservation Commission, Open Space Committee, or a local land protection organization to adopt the greenway project and to become its sponsor. This can work quite well. The Discover Hamilton Trail, for example, was developed by the Town Conservation Commission. This 9.9 mile long trail links greenways in Hamilton with the Bay Circuit Trail in Ipswich and with the Hamilton Historic District. It is important, however, to make sure that the overall goals of the group you are hoping to work with are compatible with yours so that the partnership will not compromise your project or limit the potential constituency of your greenway effort. If you suspect this may be a problem, you may be better off forming a new committee and asking representatives from these various groups to join.
Whichever route you choose, it is essential to select a leader early in the process. Again, the leader isn't necessarily the individual who is most knowledgeable about greenways and open space planning. More importantly, the person you choose must be truly committed to the project, have the time and energy to devote to it, and posses excellent communication and organizational skills. In addition, an effective leader must be able to:
Defining your vision may at first seem like a daunting process. One way to begin is to raise a series of questions and issues with the other members of your group. Discussion topics might include:
Wachusett Greenways wants to link our communities in the heart of Massachusetts through trail corridors and open spaces...Wachusett Greenways envisions a network of multi-use trails that would connect parks, schools, and neighborhoods, as well as giving access to nature.(excerpted from the Wachusett Greenway Exhibit, courtesy of Wachusett Greenways)
The final step is to reach consensus on a broad vision statement for your project which can be used to present your ideas to the public. Give careful attention to being clear and concise. Getting bogged down in details as this stage will draw attention away from the real message you are trying to get across and may raise red flags to those not yet sold on the idea. Remember, too, that this vision represents the concerns and desires of a small group within your community. It should be used to guide your project and to generate ideas and support for the greenway, not to dictate its outcome. Your vision statement may change considerably by the end of the planning process as you discover new information and attempt to balance resource protection goals with other community concerns and interests.
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Potential avenues for spreading the word include writing articles, editorials, and press releases for your local newspaper, communicating through radio and community access cable television, setting up a home page on the Worldwide Web, distributing brochures and flyers, holding public forums and workshops, offering field trips, working with your local schools, and contacting other groups and individuals whom you would like to involve in the process. The remainder of this chapter describes some of these publicity methods in more detail.
Written Materials
Written materials offer an endless array of options from articles to posters to annotated maps. Written materials produced in the early phases of the planning process can present some of the specific information you've learned, as well as some of the questions and issues you've uncovered. Raising questions and asking for feedback is a nonconfrontational way to draw your fellow citizens into the process.
The first step in producing written materials is to determine what you want to say and to whom you want to say it. Answering these questions will help you decide what information to include and the style or tone in which it should be presented. Tailoring written materials to target audiences is an effective means of providing specific groups with the information most relevant to their interests and concerns.
Writing articles for the local paper or for newsletters of local conservation organizations, land trusts, or similar groups, is an effective avenue for reaching a wide audience and for soliciting their input on your project concept. Thought provoking brochures, articles, and editorials will educate readers and may generate commentary in the form of suggestions, questions, and concerns. The nature of these responses will help guide your project, point out the controversial issues, and identify potential allies and opponents. If nobody replies to your articles, however, don't assume they are not being read. While not evoking an active response, you are introducing new ideas and issues to the general public. Putting the word out early on will help familiarize community members with greenways and with your proposed initiative, so they will not be surprised when they hear more about it in the future.
When producing flyers or brochures, remember that most people are bombarded with thousands of pieces of information every day. In order for your materials to effectively communicate your message, they must be eye-catching, clear, and concise. Be sure to also include a name and phone number of someone to contact for more information. Once you've created a compelling flyer or brochure, there are three steps you can take to help ensure your materials end up in people's hands, and not in their trash or recycling bins.
First, distribute the materials by hand. This increases the likelihood that people will read the information and there's a better chance they will remember the name of your group or project if they can connect it with a face. Volunteering to help disseminate materials demonstrates your commitment to the project, and the personal contact provides people with an opportunity to ask questions or express concerns. When distributing flyers and brochures, it is important to be somewhat selective and accept the fact that not everyone will want one. Pushing materials on people may make them angry and can be detrimental to the reputation of your initiative.
Second, make sure the materials are available at several easily-accessible locations such as supermarkets, laundromats, nature centers, libraries, and town halls. Placing materials in a variety of places will enable you to reach a broader audience than is possible by hand alone. In addition, an individual who chooses to take the information generally wants it and is therefore more likely to read it.
Finally, if you choose to mail written materials, be selective. It is often more effective to target specific groups of people, rather than to send a brochure to every person in town. You may also want to try a sample group at first to test your written materials before doing a larger print run. Being selective also helps to minimize the amount of printed materials wasted and cuts postage costs. You must exercise caution, however, that this targeted effort does not come across as excluding certain groups or that an overwhelming positive response is not just a reflection of the orientation of the group that received the mailing.
Another avenue for getting the word out is to create a poster that gives an overview of the proposed greenway project, along with a contract for additional information. These can be hung in the same types of places where brochures are distributed, as well as on general bulletin boards or kiosks at town parks or shopping areas. Some stores will also display notices and posters as a public service. Having school classes design posters or sponsoring a poster design contest is another effective publicity tool that reaches a wide audience. This is a wonderful opportunity to educate children-and through them, their parents-about the greenway idea. Bringing the schools into your educational efforts may also have rewards down the road if teachers and classes volunteer to help with your project.
Producing and distributing good written materials costs money. An effective way to reduce expenses is to ask local printers, copy shops, advertising agencies, and talented community members to donate their services. An acknowledgment of these services is often all a business or individual will ask for in return. These types of in-kind contributions can have a significant impact on the quality and extent of your publicity campaign while greatly reducing the costs.
During the later stages of your project, newspaper coverage and public service announcements are effective ways to publicize the actual corridor and to advertise greenway events. It is essential to develop a good rapport with the staff of the local newspaper, radio and television station(s) as early in the process as possible. If they know you and your project, they will be more likely to help you write press releases and public service announcements, to cover your events, and to run your stories.
Public Forums and Community Meetings
Forums are a great way to introduce your group and your project to the community. There are many different methods of running forums and workshops, and the approach you choose will depend on your resources and on how far along in the process you are when you decide to hold one. If your group is fairly small and having difficulty formalizing its vision statement, you may wish to hold an informal roundtable discussion where a facilitator introduces some ideas and then leads a brainstorming session. The main purpose of this type of meeting is to generate ideas and to gather information, advice, and suggestions.
Further along in the process when you have some specific information to convey, a panel discussion may be more appropriate. This format enables you to feature key members of your group such as the greenway committee leader, a member of the Conservation Commission and/or Planning Board, local business leaders, and a representative from one or more recreation or conservation organizations. Each speaker is given the opportunity to present their point of view on whatever issues you decide to address, underscoring the diversity within your group. This variety will help appeal to the broadest range of potential constituents, and their different viewpoints will hopefully stimulate discussion about the many issues to be addressed. Through these dialogues, participants will begin to discover that greenway planning is extremely versatile, and that it can provide equitable and effective solutions to environmental, social, and economic concerns.
As you proceed, it is essential to maintain a contiguous dialogue with the public through newspaper articles, flyers, fact sheets, posters, public meetings, and the like. Keeping community members informed of and involved in your activities will encourage better public participation, persuade more citizens that greenways are beneficial, and keep you abreast of concerns and potential problems associated with your greenway initiative.
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