4.3. Greenways and greenspaces for the United
States
The impetus for this plan for the United States
has three sources. First, the New England Greenway
Vision Plan of 1999 paved the road for a national
plan. The team expressed an interest for a national
greenway system to Bill Welsh, the editor of LAND
in 1999 (see Welsh, 1999, p. 4). Second, the visionary
National Plan of landscape architect Warren Manning
from the 1920s was recently reprinted and described
by Lynn E. Miller (November 1999, p. 58). Third,
as part of a greenway seminar during the spring of
2000, the author’s interest was to review the remarkable
efforts of the US Federal government, whose
agencies have planned and managed one third of the
nation’s landscapes during the last century. Their
federal efforts provide the framework for a more
comprehensive national plan for greenspaces and
greenways.
The challenge was to undertake this effort without
any dedicated funding. The Department of Landscape
Architecture and Regional Planning, however,
provided the team of graduate students with computer
facilities, space and office supplies.1
4.3.1. An overview of the United States
The continental United States is the focus of
this study. The states of Alaska and Hawaii are
not included. The area size of the lower 48 states
is 7,825,155 km2. The Federal Land area is around
2,600,000 km2 in the lower 48 states (National
Geographic, 1992, p. 20). The majority of the public
land, however, is located in the west in the mountainous
regions of Rocky and Cascade Ranges. These
mountain ranges are among the most spectacular
mountains of the world. The United States is also
blessed with thousands of miles of shoreline along
the East and West coasts as well as the Gulf of Mexico
and Great Lakes. The river system, the backbone
of greenways are also very large and extensive in the
United States with over a hundred major rivers, that
are nationally significant, and constitute that “giant
circulation system” flagged by the President’s Commission
Reports for a greenway network (1987). Finally,
the United States has over 256,000 km of abandoned
railroads. To date over 19,000 km have been
converted to trails. The remaining abandoned railroad
tracks have the potential for trail conversion which
would create a huge network of rail trails across the
United States. All these resources provide the United
States with great opportunity to create an extensive
and high quality national network of greenways and
greenspaces.
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