Triangle Greenways Council Mission To conserve land and water corridors connecting the culture of our cities and countryside; past, present and future. Geographic Area Triangle area: Chatham, Durham, Lee, Johnston, Orange, and Wake Counties Contact Info Email: bill.flournoy@ncmail.net     Web: www.trianglegreenways.org/ Address: 520 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC 27604-1960 TEL: (919) 715-4191 (Bill Flournoy)       FAX: (919) 715-3060 (Bill Flournoy)

Historical Highlights - Two Decades of Evolution Continues
When it was established, the Triangle Greenways Council (TGC) was focused on an educational service and advocacy mission. At the time, Raleigh was the only community in the region with a substantial commitment to the creation of a greenway system. There was the general public to be informed about the multiple public benefits to be gained by this new type of public facility, and public officials to become comfortable with the need to pursue a new type of public infrastructure. Today, almost every local government in the region has a greenway system plan and a program for its implementation.

Over the years, the TGC has prepared numerous reports, itself or in partnership with others, on various greenway related opportunities:

• Future of the Neuse River
• Richland Creek Conservation Corridor
• Walnut Creek and Rocky Branch Greenway Loop
• Upper Neuse River Riparian Corridor Conservation Plan

The TGC has also sponsored or co-sponsored numerous conferences or workshops. Prominent among these are:

• NC Greenway Conference in 1987 and 1991
• Nationall Greenways Conference in 1992
• Walkable Communities Conference in 1998
• Trails for the Triangle Conference in 1999

Likewise, the TGC has collaborated with others to construct trails on lands owned by public agencies and nonprofit organizations. The most prominent of these is the South Shore Trail at Falls Lake that stretches for almost thirty miles from the dam to NC-50 Highway. The most recent was the initial construction of the NC Museum of Art's Park Trail.

During the mid 1990s the TGC undertook a project to identify and map all of the public trails in the region. This was accomplished and established in a GIS database, and subsequently shared with the Triangle J Council of Governments. The data was later integrated into the region's Green Print planning exercise.

By the late 1990s the TGC had decided to begin a land trust function, based upon recognition that there was a greater need for greenway corridor conservation than could be addressed by existing government programs. Working cooperatively with the Partners for Environmental Justice, the TGC is committed to creation of the Walnut Creek Wetlands Park and Educational Center. Thus far, approximately six acres have been secured toward this project adjoining the Walnut Creek Greenway. Along Crabtree Creek, approximately seventy-five acres have been secured within the greenway corridor, inside Raleigh's beltline. In Durham County, approximately three acres have been secured for an access point to the American Tobacco Trail.