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🌷 Spring is springing, the flowers are blooming, and more people are starting to get outside to enjoy nature with family and friends.

But a major barrier often stands in the way: a lack of public transportation to hiking trails and the great outdoors.

Support Outdoor Access This Earth Month
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Dear Friend,
Joy. Adventure. Fun. Tranquility. All these words come to mind to describe what it feels like to get outside into nature. But what happens for underserved communities without nearby quality parks or good public transportation access? 

As an Outdoors for All organizer for the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, it's my job to make outdoor spaces more accessible. A few months ago I helped lead a group hike in Philadelphia, where a fifteen minute bus ride took us to a beautiful reservoir and trailhead. As our group boarded the city bus together, I could see people laughing and chatting about the exciting day ahead. 

On the trail, we hiked and talked about the human right to access local green spaces and discussed how, while national parks are amazing and important, equally valuable nature exists HERE -- right in the middle of a city like Philadelphia. This nature is what people need in their daily lives for health, play, and joy.

🚌 But good public transportation options are not available in every city or town. That is why this Earth Month, I am asking you to tell Congress to support the Transit to Trails Act! 

Tell Congress: Support Equitable Access to Nature
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This bill will provide grants to underserved communities to provide public transportation to hiking trails and green spaces. We need more cosponsors so that the bill has the support it needs to pass.

This outing was a way to celebrate the strides that government and organizations have made to improve transit access, and to acknowledge that there is more to do. Studies show that just 20 minutes spent in a local park helps kids concentrate better in school, but not everyone has access to a local park. People of color and low-income families in cities across the U.S. are significantly less likely to live near a park, trailhead, or green space. 

That's where transportation grant programs can make a difference. Transit Equity is environmental justice -- it protects our autonomy and our ability to visit quality, safe green spaces both far from and close to home. 

Will you join me in taking action to tell your legislators to support the Transit to Trails Act?
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In gratitude, and Happy Earth Month,

Rebecca Deegan

Outdoors for All Organizer, Philadelphia

Sierra Club

P.S. If you use transit to get outside this Earth Month, be sure to post on social media and use the hashtag #transit2trails to share your support!

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