WNY Greenways Summit drives regional connections
Parks & Trails New York hosted nearly 100 partners from around the Western New York region in Buffalo in March 2025 for the first annual Western New York Regional Greenways Planning Summit.
This day-long event explored current plans in place to build out Western New York’s regional greenway trail network and the challenges and opportunities for expansion. Planners, advocates, agency representatives, elected leaders, and others from around the region came together to collectively brainstorm how best to advance construction of the region’s greenway network and to overcome and address any barriers to expansion. Special thanks to all the presenters and attendees that shared their thoughts and perspectives.
The morning kicked off with presentations from PTNY and GObike Buffalo, focusing on efforts t a high-level statewide and regional level. The presentations highlighted the role that trails can play in boosting economic development, creating vibrant, safe communities, and addressing historical inequities. Next up came brief status updates from counties and regional planning entities on the status of trail planning and development efforts.
Click here to view the slides from the Summit.
The keynote address for the summit came from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), an organization with a long history of involvement both in developing long-distance trails and celebrating the economic success of trail communities. PEC’s presentation highlighted lessons learned from the organization’s involvement with the Great Allegheny Passage, one of the country’s most well-known rail trails, spanning 150 miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland.
As part of the keynote, PEC also introduced attendees to the Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania Integrated Trail Network project. PEC and the project team were awarded funding through an ARC ARISE Planning grant to conduct a comprehensive study on multi-use trail connectivity between the Southern Tier of New York and Northern Pennsylvania. This project will leverage the existing trail networks including Industrial Heartlands Trails Coalition, Erie to Pittsburgh Trail, PA Wilds Loop, Southern Tier Trail, and Empire State Trail. PEC envisions a trail system spanning the western half of both states, with the potential to connect Pittsburgh and Buffalo, linking into established trail systems throughout the Northeast. The project partners currently include GObike Buffalo, Cattaraugus County Department of Economic Development, Planning & Tourism, and Parks & Trails New York. Environmental Design & Planning has been brought on as a consultant for the project.
After lunch, attendees regrouped for an afternoon of participatory discussions, using both pen and paper and interactive digital tools to capture current challenges and opportunities facing trail planning, development, and activation in Western NY. PTNY staff are currently working on a report to summarize the discussions from this event and synthesize the findings into actionable steps for those across the region to pursue.
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