Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR
FAREWELL TO A TRAILS HERO
What Makes Our Town Home
DAN SMITH
The Roanoke, Virginia metro area has been
transformed over the past 25 years, and we salute
Liz Belcher for leading the way to 400 miles of
trails and greenways over that time.
By KURT RHEINHEIMER
T
ell me another town where you could do
this on a pretty fall day.
Roll the bicycles out of the garage, ride
three blocks down the hill to a bike lane
to be delivered, in three more blocks, to
a riverside greenway. Ride that greenway
for two miles to arrive at the riverside
site of an annual festival devoted to the
outdoors, where the bikes get parked in order to
look around. Then set off on foot further along
the greenway to its connection with the trails that
lace and climb a mountain within the city limits.
Walk trails to the top and a pretty park, unpack
lunch and enjoy it as you look out onto the ridgeline that
is home to Virginia's Appalachian Trail Triple Crown.
Pack up and continue the walking loop walk down the
front side of the mountain back to the greenway and the
festival, have some more fun and then ride the bikes back
home.
lucky enough to live in Roanoke, Virginia, which has
dedicated some 400 miles of trails and greenways over
the past 25 years. Not all of those are in the city itself, but
key pieces of the metro-especially the city, the counties
of Roanoke and Botetourt and the City of Salem-have
come together to create a network that has a new trail or
section opening every few months. It's amazin'.
The specifics of Gail's and my foray-Memorial Avenue
bike lane, Roanoke River Greenway, the Monument,
Star, Loop Road trails on Mill Mountain-are less important
than the urban bounty of which they are just one tip
of the proverbial iceberg.
And the invisibililty we associate with an iceberg is
also the perfect metaphor for the work of person who has
championed and shepherded those 400 miles.
In her quarter-century career as the lone employee of
the Roanoke Valley Greenways Commission, Liz Belcher
has lifted the shovel, persuaded the people, protected the
6 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Liz Belcher: " Greenways and trails connect us to the land in a way that
makes this space become home. We learn to breathe and look and see the
daily changes in the natural world around us. "
lands for all of us on a scale far beyond even the hardest
climbs of any Roanoke Valley trail.
Liz Belcher will retire from that work just about the
time this magazine goes to press.
But when you take a look at the detailed, 100-page
I bet you can't tell me another town, because I'm
" Roanoke Valley Greenways Plan - 2018, " you quickly
discern another dimension of the iceberg that Liz Belcher
leaves behind and which is generally invisible: visions
and plans that reach another 25 years into the future.
This magazine was fortunate, about six years back, to
feature Liz Belcher as a guest columnist. Here's a snippet
of what she said, in an essay called " Are You Home Yet? "
Recently, people (not perfect strangers, just people I don't
know) have been saying to me " greenways are the best thing
to happen to Roanoke. " I agree, of course. It has been my
work for almost 20 years, but it takes a village. It takes advocates,
engineers, donors, politicians, friends, contractors,
clean-up crews, urban foresters, volunteers. Are greenways
what have made Roanoke home to me and to so many others?
I think so. They sure have helped.
Greenways and trails are certainly a large measure of
what has made Roanoke a treasured home for Gail and
me. We have our relentless greenway coordinator to
thank for that, and while we know there is only one Liz
Belcher, we hope your town has a version of her too.
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Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021

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