Maggie's Farm

It's hard for volunteers to get through the multi-layer bureaucracy on their own. In my experience building multi-use trails (hiker, horseback, mountain biker) and being an advocate for them it's a lot easier to get the process moving with some seed money - it needn't pay for anywhere near the whole project but you'd be amazed at how state & local (and Fed park) bureaucracy jumps if the fed partially funds something. A 5 or 10% payment with a federal blessing is like a dynamite charge to get the bureaus moving - yeah, they're that bad at the economics of it and that explains a lot. Volunteers often do most of the trailbuilding work and donate, but some of the heavy lifting isn't do-able without serious cash infusions from private donors or stolen from your pockets. It's easy to get private money when there's a gold mine at the end of it, a lot harder to do when the 'profit' is social and all you are getting is a bunch of basically non-commercial uses out of the trail, and you're hitting up businesses or advocacy groups for the cash. It's a tough call whether you think this is a worthwhile expenditure; I think on the balance it is particularly when so much land is in government hands, and not otherwise open to use. People should grow accustomed to think of green spaces as their land, the commons...