It's Spring! So Walk!
In Our View, The Columbian Editorial Writers
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Local health advocacy group and parks department promote numerous trails
When Clark County leaders gather at 11 a.m. today at the public dock near the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay to receive the Clark County Trail and Bikeway Systems Plan, they'll find it to be very unintimidating.
Yes, it is a fitness document, but it's not aimed at the iron- pumping, well-ripped tri-marathoner. It's designed more for the moderately pudgy, people who walk or bike occasionally but not often enough. For local health advocates, this is indeed a target-rich environment.
The Systems Plan will be presented by Community Choices 2010, a local nonprofit group that also has produced a colorful Walkaround Guide that will debut online on April 14. The guide, which highlights 10 relatively easy walks throughout Clark County, will be available on that date at www.stepstoa healthierclarkco.org.
This already is a marvelous county for walkers, but it can be made even more accessible to the public, and walkers can become even better informed. That's why Community Choices' efforts, especially the Walkaround Guide, are so commendable.
As Erik Robinson reported in Wednesday's Columbian, these initiatives are designed to turn couch potatoes into calorie- burning walkers. The easy hikes beckon, from Frenchman's Bar Park in southwest Clark County to Moulton Falls in the northwest, from Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge to Captain William Clark Park at Cottonwood Beach in Washougal, each offering a few miles of leisurely but healthful walking, each just a few minutes' drive away.
Barbe West, executive director of Community Choices, said, "Our target audience is people engaged in little or no physical activity or at high risk for diseases of diabetes or obesity. We're thinking basic trails, not the ones that have climbing or are more difficult to use."
Fortunately, Community Choices is joined by many other walking advocates such as the Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation Department. The department's trails and greenway planner, Kelly Punteney, has already mobilized numerous groups, and he often speaks excitedly about what he hopes will become the crown jewel of Clark County trails. It's the proposed 33-mile trail paralleling the railroad spur running from Vancouver through Battle Ground to Yacolt and Chelatchie. Such a grand project might take decades to finish, but Punteney figures it's time to get started. And he's got plenty of connections with trail organizations, offers strong organizational skills and projects a contagious can-do spirit.
If you would like more information about easy local walks, visit www.co.clark.wa.us/parks. Or look for one of the 50,000 copies of the Walkaround Guides that will be distributed soon at local clinics, schools, businesses and community centers. Or check out the guide online on April 14 at www.stepsto ahealthierclarkco.org.