The League of American Bicyclists ranks Arkansas #50 in terms of bike friendliness. I'm a little shocked to see that ranking given all the money and work that has been put into trails in both the central and northwestern parts of the state, but even in Little Rock and Fayetteville you don't have to look far to find tons of room for improvement. The rankings looked at lots of variables and the report shows that Arkansas lags far behind in terms of legislation, programs, infrastructure, funding, education, and planning. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised we are last given that some Arkansans believe bike trails are part of a conspiracy to take away people's cars while others think trails like the River Trail are a complete waste of money and should be converted to roads to decrease commutes for people who choose to live and pay property taxes 30 miles away from Little Rock, but still want to get there and leave ASAP, with little concern for local quality of life. If you happen to agree with that sentiment, check out these traffic numbers for the Big Dam and Two Rivers bridges.
Last year, I was excited to see that Bicycling magazine ranked Little Rock as one of America's 50 top bike-friendly cities, but my happiness was lessened upon reading that they ranked Little Rock #49 and only because they wanted their article to have geographical diversity and not just be a list of 50 cities in California and Oregon.
If you want to see Arkansas break out of last place:
1. Read this piece on Master Plans in various cities in the state.
2. Let your local, state, and federal elected officials know you enjoy trails and would like to see more of them.
3. Push for increased funding for trails. Make sure someone in your local government is aware of all the various funding sources for trails.
4. Join BACA or BCO or at least check out their websites to learn more about the issues.
5. Work to get your town or university designated as "bike-friendly". Interestingly enough, this designation is granted by the League of American Bicyclists. Fayetteville, Conway, and North Little Rock have achieved Bronze status in this program.
6. Volunteer to help design and maintain trails in your community.
7. To see the actual report for Arkansas and specific statewide policies we are lacking, click here.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Bryce Davis Park
Located north of Wedington Dr., with parking off Yale St. and Dartmouth Ave., Bryce Davis Park has a short, 0.3 mile, paved trail that connects to a playground, two pond/wetland areas, a large pavilion, and a dog park. The trail is pretty flat and surrounded mostly by mowed grass and open area. There are some mowed grass paths around the northern lake for those looking for a more natural experience.
Buddy's favorite part was the dog park, while I really enjoyed the observation deck looking out on the wetland near the playground.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Pinnacle Mountain Updates II
After visiting the park this past Saturday, I've got two updates for the Pinnacle Mountain State Park section of Trails of Central Arkansas today:
1. The half-mile Kingfisher Trail now connects to the overflow parking area on the west side of Hwy. 300. Taking this detour and walking around the overflow parking area road (on a day when it isn't flooded with cars) adds some diversity of scenery and roughly doubles the length of just doing the Kingfisher. Notice that the trail also has a spur to the large field by the picnic areas and playground.
2. The park would like me to clarify that they refer to the Quarry Trail as a spur off of the Rocky Valley trail, while I've combined the two in my description of the area. You can see their maps at this link.
1. The half-mile Kingfisher Trail now connects to the overflow parking area on the west side of Hwy. 300. Taking this detour and walking around the overflow parking area road (on a day when it isn't flooded with cars) adds some diversity of scenery and roughly doubles the length of just doing the Kingfisher. Notice that the trail also has a spur to the large field by the picnic areas and playground.
2. The park would like me to clarify that they refer to the Quarry Trail as a spur off of the Rocky Valley trail, while I've combined the two in my description of the area. You can see their maps at this link.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Mulberries Are Ripe!
If you are going hiking this week (or in late April-May some other year), be on the lookout for mulberry trees. Here in NW Arkansas, the berries were starting to be ripe last week and are now peaking. We've been raiding trees along various trails here in Fayetteville and it's been a lot of fun.
For more edible treats you can find outdoors visit this post.
2012 - Late April - May
2013 - Late May - June
2014 - I think we just missed them, but I'm guessing it was Late June. Very cool summer.
2015 - Mid-May - June (bumper crop!)
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| Mulberries |
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| More Mulberries |
.JPG "Ripe Mulberries")
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Little Rock Parks Master Plan
It has been more than a month since my last post and, due to papers, tests, and presentations on isotopic fractionation and water quality in Arkansas (it isn't great and doesn't seem to be getting much better), I still don't have anything prepared to blog about. While I hope to improve on my blogging frequency once the semester ends and summer begins, here are a few interesting items to tide you over:
First, I want to thank everyone who came to my talk at the Arkansas Literary Festival. The festival was a great success and I recommend checking it out next year. My talk went well (at least in my opinion!) and we had a great discussion afterwards on parks and trails policy and how to move forward.
I've written a few pieces on master plans, planning, and ideas for future trails in Arkansas, but Mason Ellis over at Life in the Rock, recently wrote a much better and incredibly interesting piece on Little Rock's current and historical parks master plans. I encourage you to check it out. It has great maps and some images from John Nolen's 100 year-old master plan for the city, which I frequently cited in my presentations on Fourche Creek as evidence that the city has repeatedly missed opportunities to preserve, and utilize as greenspace, Fourche Bottoms and the rest of the city's creeks and associated floodplains despite being told to do so a hundred years ago. Roughly five years ago, Little Rock assembled a committee to draft an Open Space Policy Initiative. The draft and comment area are now gone as far as I can tell, but you can still see what the city was thinking about at the time at: http://www.littlerock.org/ParksRecreation/blogInformation.aspx
As far as I know (please leave a comment or let me know if I'm wrong!) this draft never got its day in front of the board of directors and never was voted on.
First, I want to thank everyone who came to my talk at the Arkansas Literary Festival. The festival was a great success and I recommend checking it out next year. My talk went well (at least in my opinion!) and we had a great discussion afterwards on parks and trails policy and how to move forward.
I've written a few pieces on master plans, planning, and ideas for future trails in Arkansas, but Mason Ellis over at Life in the Rock, recently wrote a much better and incredibly interesting piece on Little Rock's current and historical parks master plans. I encourage you to check it out. It has great maps and some images from John Nolen's 100 year-old master plan for the city, which I frequently cited in my presentations on Fourche Creek as evidence that the city has repeatedly missed opportunities to preserve, and utilize as greenspace, Fourche Bottoms and the rest of the city's creeks and associated floodplains despite being told to do so a hundred years ago. Roughly five years ago, Little Rock assembled a committee to draft an Open Space Policy Initiative. The draft and comment area are now gone as far as I can tell, but you can still see what the city was thinking about at the time at: http://www.littlerock.org/ParksRecreation/blogInformation.aspx
As far as I know (please leave a comment or let me know if I'm wrong!) this draft never got its day in front of the board of directors and never was voted on.
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