Michigan Trails & Greenways Alliance

LMB Michigan Bicycle Summit to Feature National Cycling Advocates

Andy Clarke, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists, will keynote LMB’s 2010 Michigan Bicycle Summit, and Chris Phelan, founder of the Ride of Silence, will be a special guest. Come meet and greet these two nationally known bicycle advocates on March 27 in Lansing, MI. For more information click here.

This is the last of the DNR  “informational workshop for communities interested in applying for grants from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).” The workshop is free and open to the public and you do not need to RSVP.

Topics for all of the workshops will include applicant and project
eligibility, distribution of funds, application and attachment preparation,
project selection and grantee obligations.

The grant application deadline is Thursday, April 1, 2010.  Grant application materials will be available from the DNR Web site atwww.michigan.gov/dnr-grants, click on “Grant Programs” under Overview or by contacting Grants Management at the DNR at 517-373-9125. Application materials also will be available at the workshops.

Location:

Lansing, Wednesday, Feb. 17, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Michigan Library
and Historical Center Forum located at 702 West Kalamazoo St. in Lansing.

Title: Mackinac Bridge Labor Day Run
Location: Mackinac Bridge, Mackinaw City
Link out: Click here

The The seventh annual Mackinac Bridge Labor Day Run lottery is now open and taking applications for the opportunity to be one of 400 runners and wheeling athletes who lead the way across the Mighty Mac as the sun rises.

The Bridge Run is a five mile non-competitive run over the Mackinac Bridge, sponsored by Farm Bureau Insurance. It is organized by the Governor’s office, the Michigan Fitness Foundation, and the Mackinac Bridge Authority. This is not a timed event and the course will not be certified for Distance. The Bridge Run is limited to 400 participants who will be selected from a lottery drawing in June, 2010. For qualification requirements and to register, click here.

Date: 2010-09-06

Wednesday, May 26,2010

Lansing,  Michigan

Fee: $10

Hosted by MTGA,  LMB &  MMBA

The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, League of Michigan Bicyclists, and Michigan Mountain Biking Association are pleased to announce they are joining forces for the 2010 Lucinda Means Bicycle Advocacy Day. A traditional bike parade to the State Capitol will kick off the event, which will take place on the Capitol’s north lawn on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, starting at 9 a.m.

Learn More

Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance teamed up with Michigan State University RS and GIS Center to map the state’s trails in relation to elementary and middle schools. Trails can serve as an important artery for children walking and biking to school if they are aligned properly with a connection to nearby neighborhoods. Check your county to see whether there are trails within a 2-mile radius to your local school that could be part of a safe routes to school network. For more information on the Safe Routes to School program in Michigan go to www.saferoutesmichigan.org

The Adventure Cycling web site has a good writeup on their recent visit to Detroit to discuss a new Underground Railroad bicycle route.

Now, at the urging of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (and with support from Adventure Cycling members), we’re pleased to say we’ll be expanding the Underground Railroad Route once more — to south eastern Michigan (including Detroit) and south western Ontario (including the Buxton Historic Site).

There is an intense amount of passion in Detroit for this history. I witnessed a small sampling during my visit. The Michigan Freedom Trails Commission and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will play an important role in helping us incorporate the best sites and history into this route, and cycling advocates will help us ensure the route stays true to the Adventure Cycling standards of scenic and safe roads and trails.

Though there’s a lot of work to be done to get this route from concept to map, I am honored, once again, to be working with dedicated people on something that will bring economic and active transportation opportunities to a city once known as the Paris of the Midwest.

Read the entire Adventure Cycling article

MTGA is excited to “go live” with an on-line trailway toolkit, as the latest achievement from the Connecting Michigan State Trailways Vision Action Plan (released by MTGA in 2005). To take a peak, follow this link.

Trail advocates can now find 156 downloadable resources, gathered from MTGA and other trail experts across the state, as well as connections to other helpful website links and trail resource collections across the nation, to help in planning, building, operating, and maintaining their trail projects.

The toolkit is interactive in that it allow for comments to be posted upon review of each resource. There is even a star-rating system that allow the best resources to displayed at the top of the list. “The toolkit will evolve over time as we continue to gather new topics and informational pieces to add,” said Nancy Krupiarz, Executive Director of MTGA, “but this starting collection and the user-friendly format lays a good foundation for the future of this online resource.