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Date: Thursday, July 30, 2015, 2:00 to 3:30 pm Eastern
Length: 1.5 hours
Cost: Free for SORP members, $45 for non-members
Register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7413526787022027778
Registration Deadline: July 30, 2015, 1:30 pm Eastern

This webinar has been approved for 1.0 AICP continuing maintenance credit.

The video recording and slides will be posted at recpro.org following the webinar.

Description

This webinar kicks off a series featuring trails, tourism and outdoor recreation. Renee Tkach, project manager from the Friends of Columbia Gorge, will present the Gorge Towns to Trails project which supports land protection, recreation enhancements and economic development. Elaine Wilson from the Kentucky Trail Town Program takes a community development approach to creating marketable trails across Kentucky. Participants will learn about creating connections and partnerships utilizing the best practices of Gateway, Portal, Trail Town, and Geo-tourism philosophies and developmental assessments. These approaches bring outdoor recreation and communities together for both physical and economic growth.

Learning Objectives

• Recognizing and establishing a tourism destination through recreation;
• Elements involved in formatting partnerships;
• Methods to build trails through advocacy and grassroots organizing;
• Tools used to assist communities and public trail managers; and
• Evaluating methods to measure results.

Speakers

Renee Tkach returned to Friends of the Columbia Gorge in 2011 as the project manager for Gorge Towns to Trails, a project that supports land protection, recreation enhancements and economic development. Renee originally was the organization’s outdoor program coordinator, but then left in 2010 to serve as development outreach director for Hells Canyon Preservation Council. The organization lured back with the launch of Gorge Towns to Trails. Renee is also a founding member of Cape Horn Conservancy, Trailkeepers of Oregon and Columbia River Gorge Visitors Association. Her enthusiasm for the Gorge and the people that enjoy it is contagious. Renee is eager to share the ways Friends is working to promote more recreation opportunities in the Gorge.

Elaine H. Wilson is the Executive Director for the Office for Adventure Tourism in the Kentucky Tourism Arts & Heritage Cabinet. In this role she is was given an opportunity to utilize her life-long passion as an outdoor recreationist and 22 year experience as a travel and tourism professional. Ms. Wilson has hiked and paddled across 50 states and numerous countries and experienced quality destinations where visitor experience reigns memorable. In her current role she has researched the best adventure, geo-tourism destination development practices across the county to bring them to Kentucky communities where land and water trail systems offer adventure activities in the most pristine natural and cultural areas in the state. Her background combined with both a local and state government experience prospective, provides a practical approach to sustainable development. Ms. Wilson has a degree in Education from Eastern Kentucky University and is a graduate of Marketing College in Dahlonega Georgia.