High Springs May Be New "Blueway Community'

HIGH SPRINGS – Executive Director of the Florida Springs Institute Robert Knight addressed the Feb. 27 City Commission meeting to suggest that the City become a Florida Paddling Trails Blueway Community. 

The Florida Paddling Trails Association (FPTA) established the Florida Paddling Trails Blueway Community Program.  The program helps communities develop locations of interest to both in-state paddlers and out-of-state tourists.  Florida's climate, natural surroundings, and vast navigable waterways make the state an ideal destination. Currently there are 58 designated paddling trails on various rivers and streams in Florida and a 1,515-mile Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail (CT) that flows around Florida.

The cost to the City of High Springs to establish itself as a Blueway Community is nothing, explained Knight.  The benefit is that the Florida Paddling Trails Association can help market the area’s resources to outdoor recreation enthusiasts as a nature-based tourism designation.  This marketing can increase the local economy and make the public aware of natural paddling locations.

FPTA will provide signs for the City to use to notify traffic coming into the community that it is a Blueway Community.  The City’s website and the FPTA website can be crossed so people going to one website will be able to visit the other, which will likely drive more traffic to the City.

Knight said the reason the Institute is interested in promoting this is because people who see the natural beauty of the area will want to help preserve it.

According to FPTA’s website, “The Florida Paddling Trails Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 2007 under the guidance of the Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Greenways & Trails to be the steward for all Florida's water trails, including the 1,515-mile Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail that surrounds the state.”  They are located in Gainesville.

Commissioners approved the concept and will consider a resolution formally supporting their interest in establishing the City as a Blueway Community at the next commission meeting.

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