The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) are developing statewide trail planning guidance documents, with the goal of ensuring that all residents, no matter where they live or their accessibility needs, have safe and equitable access to quality recreational trails.  This initiative expands on NJDEP’s recently published 2023-2027 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, entitled Outside, Together!  The conclusions of this strategic plan were clear – trails are a priority for New Jerseyans. Outside, Together! outlined the need to update statewide trail planning documents to enable government, nonprofit, and private land managers to better serve the needs of New Jersey’s trail users and local communities, to improve community connectivity, and to increase outdoor recreation and active transportation opportunities. The benefits of trails and greenways have also been emphasized in recent NJDOT planning and assistance efforts, such as through the publishing of NJDOT’s Planning for Greenways Guidebook in 2019.

NJDEP and NJDOT recognize the wide-ranging benefits of trails and greenways, as well as the identified need to develop and improve the system of trails throughout the state. In response, the agencies are partnering to build upon previous plans, including Outside, Together! and the 2009 New Jersey Trails Plan, through the development of a series of statewide trails planning guidance documents. These will serve to provide updated trail planning and management guidance that reflects current needs, priorities, and available resources, allowing the state to better meet the increasing and changing outdoor recreation and active transportation needs of the public.

The first survey in a sequence of public outreach efforts to inform statewide trail planning, funding, and policy was The Statewide Trail Needs Assessment for Trail Planners and Managers.  This survey was designed for those who develop and manage trails, to help the state better understand and meet the outdoor recreation and active transportation needs of the public.  The deadline for the Statewide Trail Needs Assessment for Trail Planners and Managers was Friday, January 10th.  New Jersey Trails Program staff are analyzing the results and will be including findings in the guidance documents.  A New Jersey Trail User survey will be released soon!