When it was established, the Triangle Greenways Council 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 network. 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. The TGC has also sponsored or co-sponsored numerous conferences or workshops. 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 30 miles from the dam to NC-50 Highway.
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 began 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 securing acreage to create the Walnut Creek Wetlands Park and Educational Center.
