The Upper Valley Trails Alliance, or UVTA, is a non-profit trails organization, based in Norwich, Vermont and serving the towns of the Upper Connecticut River Valley. Unlike many related groups, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, which lead hikes and perform trail maintenance, UVTA serves more as an umbrella group, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds who are interested in protecting and expanding existing trail networks.
For example, mountain bikes are banned from using the Appalachian Trail and several other major trail systems, due to a variety of reasons, from concerns about trail erosion to the traditionally inimical view held of mountain bikers, by landowners and hikers. In the summer of 2004, UVTA helped sponsor a visit by a representative of the International Mountain Bicycling Association to help dispel some of the myths and facilitate a more expansive multi-use trail network. Because of this role convening various groups, UVTA spends as much time working with local land trust and conservation commission groups as it does working on the trail.
In late 2003, UVTA received a major grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote more active lifestyles in the Upper Valley through the use of trails. The result of this grant was the Trails for Life program, in association with several prominent local groups, such as the town of Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. This program has so far resulted in the publication of an entry-level walking guide to local trails, and the inception of a prescription walking program, through which doctors prescribe a certain amount of physical activity each day for inactive patients. Trails for Life also aims to help towns and real estate developers create more walkable/bikeable communities.
Read more about Upper Valley Trails Alliance: Related Links
Famous quotes containing the words upper, valley, trails and/or alliance:
“Surely you wouldn’t grudge the poor old man
Some humble way to save his self-respect.
He added, if you really care to know,
He meant to clear the upper pasture, too.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“I will frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Life ... is not simply a series of exciting new ventures. The future is not always a whole new ball game. There tends to be unfinished business. One trails all sorts of things around with one, things that simply won’t be got rid of.”
—Anita Brookner (b. 1928)
“Ah! how much a mother learns from her child! The constant protection of a helpless being forces us to so strict an alliance with virtue, that a woman never shows to full advantage except as a mother. Then alone can her character expand in the fulfillment of all life’s duties and the enjoyment of all its pleasures.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)