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Innovative Strategies for Developing Sustainable Trail Networks - EP 17
🚀 In this episode, trail advocate Don Burn shares decades of experience working to transform historic rail corridors, trolley lines, and aqueduct routes into modern shared-use trails. From his early exposure to the Illinois Prairie Path to championing trail networks in Massachusetts, Don explains the challenges of navigating utilities, working with state agencies, and convincing communities and developers to support trail connectivity. This conversation explores why trails should be designed as networks—not isolated paths—and how persistence, community engagement, and long-term vision can turn ambitious ideas into lasting public infrastructure.
🎧 Hosted by: Craig Della Penna
👤 Guest:🏡 Don Burn – Rail Trail Advocate & Retired Computer Consultant
Don Burn is a retired computer consultant and early supporter of the rail-to-trail movement. As a child, he explored the abandoned Chicago Aurora & Elgin electric rail line that later became the Illinois Prairie Path, where he met May Watts, the trail’s original proposer. After moving to Massachusetts, Don settled along the former Boston & Worcester Air Line Trolley corridor and began advocating in the early 1990s for its conversion into a shared-use trail. Over the years, he has worked with state agencies, businesses, and municipalities to advance trail projects, contributing concept plans, feasibility studies, and advocacy papers that continue to shape local trail development.
💡 What You’ll Learn:
✔️ How to develop trails on incomplete or complex rights-of-way
✔️ Why trail systems should be designed as networks, not isolated routes
✔️ Strategies for working with utilities, municipalities, and developers
✔️ How advocacy, planning studies, and community education drive trail projects
✔️ Lessons learned from decades of rail-trail development and activism
🎵 Whether you're an investor, agent, or homebuyer, this episode offers valuable insights!
💼 Connect with Don Burn:
🌐 Email → [email protected]
🎧 Follow Craig Della Penna:
🌐 Website → https://www.greenwaysolutions.org/
🌐 Website → https://www.northamptonrealtor.com/
🌐 Website →https://www.sugar-maple-inn.com/
📷 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/craigdp413/
🔗 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdp/
📌 Don’t Forget to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔 & COMMENT 💬 Below!
⭐ Produced by Icons of Real Estate - https://iconsofrealestate.com/
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By Craig Della Pena🚀 In this episode, trail advocate Don Burn shares decades of experience working to transform historic rail corridors, trolley lines, and aqueduct routes into modern shared-use trails. From his early exposure to the Illinois Prairie Path to championing trail networks in Massachusetts, Don explains the challenges of navigating utilities, working with state agencies, and convincing communities and developers to support trail connectivity. This conversation explores why trails should be designed as networks—not isolated paths—and how persistence, community engagement, and long-term vision can turn ambitious ideas into lasting public infrastructure.
🎧 Hosted by: Craig Della Penna
👤 Guest:🏡 Don Burn – Rail Trail Advocate & Retired Computer Consultant
Don Burn is a retired computer consultant and early supporter of the rail-to-trail movement. As a child, he explored the abandoned Chicago Aurora & Elgin electric rail line that later became the Illinois Prairie Path, where he met May Watts, the trail’s original proposer. After moving to Massachusetts, Don settled along the former Boston & Worcester Air Line Trolley corridor and began advocating in the early 1990s for its conversion into a shared-use trail. Over the years, he has worked with state agencies, businesses, and municipalities to advance trail projects, contributing concept plans, feasibility studies, and advocacy papers that continue to shape local trail development.
💡 What You’ll Learn:
✔️ How to develop trails on incomplete or complex rights-of-way
✔️ Why trail systems should be designed as networks, not isolated routes
✔️ Strategies for working with utilities, municipalities, and developers
✔️ How advocacy, planning studies, and community education drive trail projects
✔️ Lessons learned from decades of rail-trail development and activism
🎵 Whether you're an investor, agent, or homebuyer, this episode offers valuable insights!
💼 Connect with Don Burn:
🌐 Email → [email protected]
🎧 Follow Craig Della Penna:
🌐 Website → https://www.greenwaysolutions.org/
🌐 Website → https://www.northamptonrealtor.com/
🌐 Website →https://www.sugar-maple-inn.com/
📷 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/craigdp413/
🔗 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdp/
📌 Don’t Forget to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔 & COMMENT 💬 Below!
⭐ Produced by Icons of Real Estate - https://iconsofrealestate.com/