I just watched an entertaining and poignant video, “5 Extra Years,” that promotes Nike’s research on global inactivity and its resulting stark report, Designed to Move: A Physical Activity Action Agenda. If the embed doesn’t work, use this link.

I’ve heard that inactivity would soon eclipse smoking as the world’s number one cause of premature death. The report’s findings show that in 2012, 5.3 million deaths will be attributed to inactivity, vs. 5 million for smoking. It’s a new world.

The most stark finding, for me, is the potential loss of years of high quality life for this current generation of children. At current levels of inactivity, they risk being the first generation in the history of the developed world to not live as many years as their parents.

I’ve heard this before too. The Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail, a volunteer organization that I’ve long been involved with, produced a video last year that drove home the danger of inactivity to Illinois families and communities, and how a trail could help save them. Watch their video too.

The Friends are hosting their annual fundraiser, Bridges & Blues, on November 3. You can read more about it and get tickets at http://bridgesandblues.org. Their fundraising helps Cal-Sag communities pay for the trail’s construction and the signs and amenities that will integrate its use in families’ every day lives. Check your calendar, and see if you can attend.

We read The Atlantic’s report on an Australian study of sitting this morning, and it brought us to our feet. 

We’re declaring today to be Stand Up for Trails Day! Here’s how you can participate:

1. Share this tumblr post!

2. Go to our Facebook page and share the link to The Atlantic with your friends. Let them know it’s Stand Up for Trails Day!

3. Check out the hard working organizations in our Facebook Likes who are bringing more walking, running and biking opportunities to Illinois.  Pick one to Like. Heck, Like them all!

5. Retweet The Atlantic article to your followers - here’s our tweet about it.

5. Then holy cow—get out of the chair and get outdoors!

Last Friday, still dripping from a wave of support from Illinois and the rest of America to preserve trail funding, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its draft transportation reauthorization bill that shrinks trails funding for the next two years by more than $80 million, from $1.15 billion to $833 million. And those funds are no longer set aside by mandate for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. They can be raided by the state for more roads.

This moment, right now, is why Trails for Illinois matters to your life, your community. Two reasons:

1. Less obligation for Illinois to spend federal funding on trails means more depends on relentless & statewide trails advocacy. If the Senate language survives markup—and our DC friends say it will, as Senators Boxer and Inhoefe have prevented amendments—it will set the tone for the transportation debate in the U.S. House. And if Illinois gets the flexibility to let itself off the hook from creating safe, convenient, and sustainable pathways for enjoyment and transportation, then our relationship building and advocacy in Springfield and in Illinois lawmakers’ home districts—already a critical and core activity—will directly impact whether dollars are spent on trails—or not.

2. Statewide trails advocacy is key to the federal transportation fight. Senator Boxer’s bill backtracks on promises she made to trail advocates this past summer, and it’s lowered our expectations for the Senate’s version of the transportation bill. But passage in the Senate remains, and the House gets a say; one of the things they’re saying is lawmakers want a 6-year transportation bill, not a 2-year as the Senate is likely to propose. There are a lot of wins left on the table for trails, and capturing them requires the diligence, connections and quick feet that only a statewide trails advocacy organization can provide.

We’ve been waiting for the larger battle for federal trails funding to begin, and, with Boxer’s stunning draft, suddenly find ourselves in it. While you consider your end-of-year giving, please consider that the fight for continued federal investment in trails for Illinois has suddenly begun. Trails for Illinois needs your year-end gift to fund the work ahead.

Please use our simple and safe donation page hosted by Razoo.com to pledge your support for Trails for Illinois. We’re working with our Washington, DC partners to craft a strategy in response to Boxer’s draft, and that will help shape our strategy here in Illinois. Within a week, we should have a plan of action for your involvement. Stay tuned, and thank you for reading! And remember to give!

If your trail experience already can begin at your front door—and we mean without needing to drive somewhere to have one—you’ll be delighted in this report that justifies how annoyingly happy and healthy you are to all of your friends and family. :-)  

This is the heart of our work at Trails for Illinois—we believe that extending trail opportunities and experiences to every Illinoisan offers better living and a better Illinois in which to live.

Here’s how we’ll begin making every doorstep & driveway in Illinois a trailhead in 2012:

1. Accelerate regional trail completion. We’ll offer technical and advocacy resources to the state’s trunklines for healthy living, its regional and destination trails, and the local connections to them.

2. Partner to fight for good trail policy. We’re already mixing it up. But the state is struggling to fund its trail programs, and in DC 2012 brings the climactic battle for protecting federal trail dollars. We’re finding allies in trail user groups, cycling advocates, and parks & recreation to unite for victory.

2. Make trails count—literally. With volunteers and electronic counters, we’ll measure the use of the state’s major trails and survey users. With numbers, we’ll gain a tool for measuring and estimating not just economic impact, but health impact of Illinois trails.

3. Communicate. Illinois trail builders and trail user groups need a mechanism to broadcast, celebrate, and share stories. And the far larger number of Illinoisans un-involved in trails needs a place to find us all.

4. Promote. Illinois’ trail network is within two years of going toe-to-toe with Wisconsin, Minnesota, (your-wish-Illinois-was-more-like-state here). We’ll tell that story by helping you tell yours.

This is a brief outline of our program for 2012. It’s a lot, and it’s going to require your support as a donor or a fundraiser (fortunately, our partnership with Razoo will help you do either/both). I’ll post more in detail in the December/January Trail News. Now go outside!