Trails initiative an amazing holiday gift

Delaware is moving ahead with an important initiative that will help define Sussex County and the state’s future for decades. Endorsed and funded by the General Assembly and the Markell administration, a trails infrastructure being developed to connect the state’s communities with walking and bicycling opportunities will create lasting benefits.

Studies show obesity and diabetes are growing problems. Our culture has become one that finds its children inside, in front of TVs and computers, and eating unhealthy foods, rather than outdoors and eating well.

Delaware’s trails program is not just for fun and games. For a nation already straining under the weight of huge debt, the tremendous cost of providing healthcare to people suffering from inactivity and obesity has the potential of breaking us completely.

We're bankrupting our health and our economy. Only by introducing our children to the joys of being outdoors, and making trails and parks more accessible, can we begin to reverse this dangerous trend.

Delaware recognizes these problems, and the Sussex Outdoors program initiated earlier this fall is part of many efforts under way to increase outdoor activity for people of all ages.

On Thursday this week, the state’s Division of Parks held a workshop to show the proposed alignment of an improved bicycling and walking trail connecting the Gordons Pond end of Cape Henlopen State Park and the northern end of the park near Herring Point. This workshop was originally scheduled for January, but Delaware’s Natural Resources Secretary Collin O’Mara insisted that it be moved up to December.

We like that thinking; we like that sense of urgency. Along with the Junction and Breakwater Trail, that long-awaited connection will create a world-class loop including Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. This trail will serve as a poster child for community-connecting trails inviting people to be outdoors more.  It will also enhance our region’s allure as an outdoors destination.

At this Christmas season, what greater gift could there be than a trail system that promotes outdoor activity and good health, and facilitates the pursuit of happiness?