Agenda - 09-18-2012 - 8a - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 September 2012 Attachment 8 NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail through Orange County What is the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail? The NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) is a 1,000-mile trail that will traverse the state from the Great Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina to Jockey's Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks. Partners across the state are helping to plan and build the trail that will link communities and serve as the backbone of a growing system of land and water trails in North Carolina. In 2000 the NC General Assembly authorized the MST as unit of the North Carolina Parks System. A map showing the Mountains-to-Sea State Trail across North Carolina is available at: http://orangecountync.gov/deapr/nat cul resources/mst.asp How many miles of the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail are finished? About 530 miles of dedicated trail — roughly half the planned length— has been completed to date and is open for hiking. A series of interim roadway connectors (bicycle routes and back roads) have been identified by the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail organization that knit together the completed sections of the MST across the state. Some examples of completed trail in this area include the following: • In Durham and Wake counties there are 60 miles of completed trail around Falls Lake • In Alamance County there are 10 miles of the trail open or under construction, including Swepsonville River Park and a new trail segment at Glencoe • Raleigh recently opened the first 6.5 miles of what will soon be a 28-mile Neuse River greenway trail and part of the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail Where will the Trail go through Orange County? The MST planning corridor through Orange County (from west to east) begins at the Haw River in the far southwest corner of the county, then parallels Cane Creek to the northeast through OWASA's Cane Creek Reservoir lands, then further northeast through the Seven Mile Creek Preserve and Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area. From Occoneechee Mountain the trail will follow the Eno River along Hillsborough's Riverwalk and through land owned by Classical American Homes Preservation Trust and Eno River State Park into Durham County. A map of the MST planning corridor across Orange County is available at: http://orangecountync.gov/deapr/nat cul resources/mst.asp How was the planned Trail corridor chosen? From 2005-2007,the NC Division of Parks and Recreation held stakeholder meetings to identify a suitable MST planning corridor through Alamance, Orange and Durham counties. Trail planners began by identifying existing trails on public lands and connected them to key natural features across the region. The result of that effort was a MST Trail Planning Corridor for consideration by local governments. The Orange County Board of Commissioners endorsed the MST Planning Corridor in April 2010 following review by advisory boards (Intergovernmental Parks Work Group, Parks and Recreation Council, Commission for the Environment) and town boards of Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. 1