What is an outdoor town? Above all, it’s a community that brings people together through nature. Trails are a crucial part of thriving outdoor towns; a trail passing through a town is often the impetus for that town deciding to build itself around outdoor recreation. The Outdoor Towns Toolkit was designed to help communities become outdoor towns—and reap the significant economic, health, and quality of life benefits. It includes a step-by-step guide to becoming an outdoor town (or further developing a community’s outdoor-recreation resources) and case studies of successful Pennsylvania communities like Columbia, whose revitalization is due in large part to the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail and Columbia Crossing Visitors Center.
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