Hi Jon, Probably you know of the East Coast Greenway. If not, you may want to see http://www.greenway.org On another note, if you have looked at the Summer 2009 newsletter on the website of the Genesee Valley Greenway (www.fogvg.org or more directly http://www.fogvg.org/about/newsletters/2009summer.pdf), then you have had an opportunity to see some of my colleagues on the Genesee River Wilds Project (Sherry Grugel and Bill Hart; in the same photo is Ron Abraham of NYSDEC, who is also working with us more and last summer took a long bike ride on the Pine Creek Trail, which adds to the knowledge of those who can help in the integration of the two systems). Sooner or later I expect you will meet them in person. They are great people and doing a good work there, despite the limited resources available to them (which are, however, growing). All the best, AK

Hi Jon, The East Coast Greenway was just a piece of info. for the larger picture when requesting funding and articulating your own project. So don't get too overwhelmed about all that is out there, which I too am constantly learning about. Probably the most practical and most rhetorically persuasive connections for your own friends and students in Rochester are still more comfortably local and regional, i.e., developing more fully the connections that the Rochester trails already have with other nearby trail systems in New York (e.g., the Erie Canal system) and the connection that Rochester can have with the network of PA trail systems via the Genesee Valley Greenway and our own project. Given the PA goal of having a greenway in all 67 counties in the state, the PA connection would probably soon tie Rochester in to the East Coast Greenway almost by default. Thanks for the kind invitation to work on a paper together. I appreciate the offer very much. Unfortunately, I am trying to get back into some research projects that have been shoved aside to do a pile of work for various committees and new programs. I really wish that I could do some collaborative conference presentation as you suggest, but I cannot make such a commitment right now. This is all the more disappointing in this particular case, because my wife is from Washington State and Portland is temptingly close to her home town, so a trip there might be fun for her. I have to admit that I am envious of your position in a setting in which your publications and teaching can integrate so well with genuinely useful work that has benefits for humanity outside academia. At least for now, in my own university my work on the Genesee River Wilds Project is considered worthy of a pat on the back as a noble hobby or, at best, a nice example of community service. Real research in my field is of little or no use for humanity, but this is what I am expected to do. Other people in my own university department recognize that the university needs to shift its way of approaching its mission and do see the value of my work in the Genesee River Wilds Project. But such a shift is a long way off. Perhaps eventually this work will be viewed more positively when it advances to the point that it provides a couple sites for some of our students or alumni to do some volunteer work. Perhaps in the future I even may be able to find ways to integrate my scholarship with this kind of work, because the boundaries are becoming increasingly fluid between at least some parts of environmental science, biology, and anthropology (and thence anthropology and history of religion). But for now it is more feasible to just do what I can with the project in between the time I need to devote to cranking out obscure articles that nobody will read. Incidentally, I had a discussion with Bill Hart and he mentioned a few new possible developments for the riverside park system. I will try to keep you informed on this. If I do not get back to you again before New Years, have a nice holiday break. I still have a few final grades to calculate, but I hope to escape somewhere for a while before hitting the problems of ancient funerary rituals and other fun things about dead people. All the best. You are doing great work up there in the great white north, so I very much appreciate it. Allen - Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -