Why The Windham Path Is The Most Important Piece Of Property In Our Town.
Green Space could be the way we shift our tourism from Skiing To Biking!
We need to make the Windham Path the jewel of our Crown in Windham; with everything that is going on with the town currently. We need to build on what we have an abundance of right now and that is Natural Beauty! We must remember that over 62 % of the second home owners and over 48% of the full time residents stated as the reason for their home ownership in the town in our Comprehensive Plan of 2022 is the natural beauty of Windham. The second most shared characteristic of the town of Windham as a reason for home ownership was outdoor recreational activities: 59.55% of the second home owners and 35.4% of the full time residents. The most important aspect of the Windham Path in its present form is that it is a low-cost and high return value asset for the town.
The fact that the Town estimates that 300,000 people visit the Windham Path alone annually should cause all of the town to ask ourselves one simple question—how to build on this great asset. How do we turn this asset into a means to provide revenue for the town, bolster tourism, and build a series of cooperatives to maximize our economic potentials. Now in my article from this Saturday where I posited that Windham can and will survive the Windham Mountain Club’s latest attempt to exclude the town and its residents— my focus here will be about how green spaces make towns more profitable and how we can link our green spaces to our Main Street more effectively.
A 2019 study by Rails to Trails Conservancy concluded that the 2,218 then present rail-trails created nationally $10.6 billion dollars in local spending and had the potential to grow to $21 billion. Furthermore the Trust for Public Land reported that NYC’s park system (including Central Park) was responsible for an additional $18 billion dollars annually in spending in the city. The facts are that green spaces are profitable in Vermont; their state wide green spaces accounted for $5.5 billion dollars of spending within the state on outdoor recreations. Further research by Trust for Public Lands shows the following: “Our research has shown that conservation returns between $4 and $11 for every dollar invested. In Vermont, conservation returns $9 to the economy, and in Maine it is as much as $11 (as of 2012).” As we can see the impact of simply conserving property as a rural open space is already generating a significant economic impact on our region.
But, we can link this property together to other resources in the town and create an experience that is more comprehensive in nature. Conserve Pa reports the following results for the addition of a rail trail : “In Dunedin, Florida, after the abandoned CSX railroad was transformed into the Pinellas Trail, the downtown went from a 35% storefront vacancy rate to a 100% storefront occupancy with a waiting list for available space”. The facts are that simple creations like this are profitable as Vermont found out: “…tourists stay about one day longer in Stowe than in the state’s other resort areas. This extra day and the revenue it generates are attributed to the Stowe Recreation Path, a 5.5-mile multi-use trail”.
Expanding the rural character of the bike and walking trails in the town would be more than profitable to the town and its businesses. We must create a new vibrant Main Street in Windham. A Main Street that encompasses our Victorian Charm and embraces our varied shops (the few we do have) with our already plentiful eateries. We need mixed economic use on our Main Street and that means we need to find state and federal grant programs that will allow us to add bike lanes to our roads for safe travel, renovations to buildings to increase their use as mixed use economic resources, and the purchase of lands to generate open spaces for farmers/makers markets in the town and the region.
Nick Bove and Lori Torgerson owners of Windham Mountain Outfitters and founding members of Windham Area Recreational Foundation created the Windham Path in 2013. They expanded it in 2015, and maintained it for a period of years until the town took over the entire maintenance of the path. The vision that Bove and Torgerson had for the Windham Path was the correct vision— a sprawling and meandering system of trails from Windham to Woodstock, NY. Essentially, this is a plan that will increase overall usage of the town’s resources and improve the economy if properly implemented. However, due to limitations to access of stream crossings and such due to the DEP this concept isn’t feasible. However, a more contained and local options due exist for this type of Bicycling and Low Impact Commerce plan. In 2022 Gov. Hochul of NY made available $178.8 million to promote eco-friendly transportation in 75 communities in NYS. Furthermore in April of 2024 People For Bikes.org reported that the Federal Department of Transportation made available $3.3 billion to communities for better connectivity with all types of transport. So, there are ways to fund this type of development— we will have to work with our county leaders and we should work with other towns in our little Mountain Top Region.
My idea is rather simple. By expanding bike routes along the Mountain Top we can create a series of connected towns and this means increased tourism, increased appeal and the ability to access new revenue streams for the local businesses and job opportunities. Some simple napkin calculations can show us the great potential for economic growth by growing the path and increasing the activities in the town and region associated with the Path. For example let’s say we can attract 50,025 pedestrian guests to the Path each summer we will call summer between June-August. That’s a fair estimate based on the work of the town’s comprehensive plan. It also takes into account that ⅓ of the visitors to the path are locals and spend no additional money into the economy with each visit to the Path. So, for example let’s say conservatively they spend on average $125.00 per visit- this include: lunch, snacks, and gasoline. So that equals $6,253,125.00 deposited into our local economy. Now, let’s say we can expand this amount of money to include a hotel room , a visit to a local shop , a day at our farmer/maker’s market breakfast, lunch and dinner and a fill up– now we’re talking about $1,250.00 per guest– or $62,531,250.00 that is a factor of 10 increase. This is just for simple examples. But, you get my point this explodes rather quickly– if you create the right environment for it to explode. And what will that environment look like?
Our little town will have a plentiful makers market / farmers market that is designed to augment our neighboring towns activities. So, imagine it this way: the mountain top with about 30 or 40 miles of bike lanes and scenic views that people can enjoy every Saturday. Perhaps, you start your journey from your Hotel, The Albergo Allegra with your bicycle on the scenic side of Windham after finishing the loop you extend your journey on our new bike lane on South Street where you continue your journey to Ashland, NY via RT 23 west. While currently the main street of Ashland, Ny is devoid of any commercial assets–in my future there is a new little Cafe that serves farm to table fare that is all grown locally. You stop by your journey for a quick nosh, perhaps fresh eggs from a small local producer, local produce such as tomatoes, kale, and so on are added to fresh cheese from a local dairy cooperative, and the oil your omelet is cooked in is from our local sunflower oil cooperative. Finally the artisanal tote bag you purchase is also produced at a local cooperative. Every part of your meal and your local purchase is produced from people and resources found in the region. Then you make your way to Lexington’s Farmer Market where you fill your tote bag with goods for your trip back to the Big Apple– perhaps you purchased a couple of preserves and jams for mornings in Red Hook Brooklyn. Finally, you meander through the increased bike access on RT 23C on your Way to hard scrabble climb up RT 296 East and back to Windham. While you’re on the way through East Jewett you stop at a new small shop selling All Natural Honey from our regional collective of local honey producers. And by now you’re getting a bit peckish again and you decide to try one of the new locations in the much maligned Hensonville area of Windham. By the time you get back to the Hotel you’ve decided that instead of going golfing or hiking tomorrow– you want to try out the Path’s Free Kite Flying in the morning and the adjacent Makers Market in the afternoon before you leave.
While my story is a bit hyperbolic, the idea is that we need to create an experience that captures people and holds them in the communities we have built in this region. The key to my idea is to see the assets we have already in our communities on the Mountain Top and really put them to work in a way that allows for broad economic growth in our communities. We don’t have to compete with Ashland, Jewett , Tannersville, Hunter , Lexington or Prattsville. What we need to do is grow locally owned and resourced interconnected businesses where the success of one group increases the success of another group. The waste of the Sunflower Oil can become the low priced feedstock for the local dairy farms and cattle operations. And then we have the handy-crafts from Tote Bags to knitted scarves and blankets– yes, I’m stealing a little bit from the shtick of Lancaster, PA for sure–but it will work for us. We need to build on this because at the heart of the Path is a bucolic past that is lost and we can build on this.
In the near future we might expand the activities of the path to include impressionistic painting lessons (everyone gets to set free their inner Monet) or nature photography, we can plant wildflowers to create a pollinator garden along with attracting pollinators we will attract many species of birds for amateur ornithologists. As you can see we have many low impact options that we can implement with a pristine path to increase our economic engine and build a new future in the Town.
[Edited due to David Wallace Levers’ comments on Facebook that I some awkward sentences. If you see any more point them out to me— I’m a terrible self-editor.]