Canal Authority Board Meeting Presentation Plan

1. Overview: This presentation will inform the canal Authority board members about my needs
assessment of the ACNHA trails through the results of the trail assessments, trail user surveys,
and systematic counts. This will take place in the Augusta Canal National Heritage Area
conference room. The audience will be professionals serving on the Canal Authority board.
2. Instructional Objectives:
 The board members will be able to identify two physical problems affecting the ACNHA
trail system.
 The board members will be able to describe the extent of trail use at each of the
trailheads as a result of the trail user count data.
 The board members will be able to discuss the public health benefits of public parks, or
“green spaces”.
3. Introductory/focus statement:
I will explain to the audience that, “Growing up, I remember biking on the canal towpath with
my family on the weekends. Now In more recent years, when I am in Augusta, I visit the ACNHA
at least a few times a week to walk my dog, run, bike, and spend time in nature. And now this
summer I have had the opportunity to intern with this organization that has meant so much to
me and my family over the years. It has been wonderful to see how the Canal area has
developed and improved over the years, but, like with any public space, there are issues that
impact the area.

I chose to do my internship with the ACNHA as a way to use my education to try to improve a
place that is so special to me and many others in the community.”
4. Outline of Content:
 Introduction
o Public Health Benefit of Green Spaces
 Opportunities for physical activity, lowers obesity
  Enables opportunity to connect with nature, positive mental health
impact
 Offers opportunity for stress reduction
 Lowers effects of climate change through preservation of green space
 Opportunity for community interaction
 Provides safe place to exercise away from busy streets and therefore
lowers chances of injury (which is a big reason I frequent the ACNHA)
 Importance of Needs Assessments
o The Canal Area is incredibly valuable to the community.
o With the growing popularity of the ACNHA, there is also an increase in the wear
and tear to this resource.
o How my projects serve as a Needs Assessment
 National Bicycle & Pedestrian Documentation Project Counts
o Why is this important?
 Systematic counts gauge trail usage
 Reveal areas with greatest need for maintenance
 Augusta Canal Trail User Surveys
 Their goal is to get important information from trail users
 Can be used for marketing purposes
 Project Results
o Counts
 Explain average of multiple counts on Saturdays across each trailhead
 This number gives us an idea of how many people, on average,
are using the Canal Area from 12-2 on a nice Saturday
 Areas of greatest use
 Headgates- busier in AM
 Olmstead- busier in PM
o Explain graph,
o Also mention max counts for each trailhead
o Trail User Surveys
 Survey Objectives:
o Trail User Demographics
o Purpose of Trail Use
o To Gauge Public Awareness of AC as a NHA
o To Measure Public Opinion on Improvements
 Methods used and why? (target audience)
o Handwritten surveys
o Verbal surveys
o Digital surveys
 Survey confounding variables
o Gender
o Race
o Location and time of day
o Bikers
 The survey results did not seem to reflect a
representative number of people there biking. This
was because it is a lot more difficult to talk to
people actively biking while out on the trail. I did
manage to get some feedback from cyclists in the
parking lot, either before or after they began their
ride.
 So some thoughts on the survey results, in the end, I did not get
the response rate I was hoping to get. This could be due to a
variety of reasons, the main one, in my opinion is that it is viewed
as an inconvenience.
 On a positive note, I believe the people who did respond really
care about the Augusta Canal and therefore their feedback is very
valuable and useful.
 Results
 Location
o Most of our trail users are from Augusta, Evans, and
Martinez,
o as you can see from the 30904, 30909, 30907 and 30809
zip codes..
o with also a few from Aiken, North Augusta, Grovetown,
Hepzibah, Appling,
o and one trail user from Arizona.
 Age
o Our second question, what is your age?, reveals an age
distribution with the highest frequencies in the 45 to 54
age group, followed by 35 to 44, 25 to 34, and the 55 to
64 age group.
 Gender
o The next survey question, what is your gender, found that
most respondents were female, although, the trail user
counts found that there are more males than females
using the AC trails.
o So, this shows that gender could be an influencing factor in
the response rate of the survey.
 Race
o The 4th question, what is your race, found that the AC trail
user population is overwhelmingly Caucasian, with Some
African Americans, some Hispanic, and some multi-racial.
o Based on my observations, I don’t think this is entirely
representative of the trail user population. My count
format did not include counting race or ethnicity, but if it
did, in my opinion I think we would see that the
 population is more diverse than what is reflected from this
survey.
o
 Reasons for trail usage
o Question five, For what reason did you come to the
Augusta Canal today- found that the main reasons were- in
descending order, to run, to walk, to spend time in nature,
to walk pet, to train for a sport, to bike, to paddle, to fish,
and other..
 In the other category, some responses were, to
take pictures, to scope out a kayak drop in spot,
and to pick up trash.
o
 Which trails they use
o Question 6, Which trails do you typically use? Found that
the TowPath was the primary trail used, followed by a
good bit of usage of River Levee, then Lake Olmstead trail,
the Mntn Bike single track, and also Mill Village.
 Starting trailhead
o Question 7, Where did you start today? Found that it was
about equal for the Headgates and Lake Olmstead,
followed by Eisenhower, and Mill village.
 How far they travelled to get there
o The vast majority of trail users travelled only 2-5 miles to
get to their starting point at the AC. We can also see that
some trail users travel 5 to 10 miles to get here, followed
by some who live very close by, within 0-2 miles and other
who travel a good bit further, from 10-20 miles.
 Awareness of the Augusta Canal as a National Heritage Area
 Suggested improvements
o Here we can see three primary selections, which are, in
descending order,
 Pet waste disposal, increased safety, and more
trash cans.
o Here is another view of the suggested improvements
o This question also included a comment box. We got a wide
range of responses, but this word cloud sheds light onto
some repeated themes
 Explain what a word cloud is
o So here we can see that safety, Eisenhower, parking, and
better are the most repeated words. Following those
words, we also see Lake Olmstead, pet waste disposal,
trash, and safer, among some other words.
 The main concern reflected in these responses was
the safety in the parking lots regarding car break
ins at Eisenhower and Lake Olmstead and also
general maintenance issues, at lake olmstead in
particular. From my observation, this is a result of
the extremely high amount of foot traffic we see at
the Lake Olmstead trailhead, especially over the
summer.
 Share some other positive and negative
suggestions for improvement
 One User mentioned the need for- Signs for
courtesy reminders. For example, some
people on bicycles will let you know they
are about to pass you. Others will swish by
you without warning. Some people don't
 keep their dogs on a leash and don't clean
up after their dogs.
 What this means for the ACNHA
o After examining these results, it is clear that, with the growth of visitors to the
ACNHA there becomes an increase in maintenance needs and therefore a need
for more maintenance staff.

o Repeated themes for improvement

 Safety
 Dog waste
 Maintenance
 Pet Waste Reduction project
o Why this is needed?
 Survey results
 Complaints from community members
 Quote from community member (woman who called back in June
to discuss issues and hopeful interventions to address them)
o “I wish I could keep Augusta’s best kept secret just that- a
secret, but fortunately and unfortunately, more and more
people are finding out about it, and it is apparent through
dog waste and trash.” (Dr. Bell)
o Explain “take A bag, Leave a Bag” and supporting research
 Encourages community involvement
o Outline plan to implement if not already implemented
 Explain sign
 Informational component
 Educational component
o Raises awareness of issue
o Intended to increase compliance
 o Outline evaluation
 Process and impact evaluation
 Process:
o Check dispensers to ensure they’re being used as intended
o Pre-implementation dog owner survey
 Explain that the take away is that implementing a dog waste station
would increase the chances of dog owners picking up after their pets
 People would donate
o Explain trail assessments and Average “Incidences of Pet Waste
Before and After Implementation” chart
o Explain suggestions for improvement
 The job description/ list of responsibilities for the plan operations/park
ranger staff is for a team of people, rather than 2.
 More maintenance staff needed
o One is out recovering from surgery, more people are
needed
5. Instructional activities:
 Informational Lecture
 Engagement Questions
6. Time allotted: 30 minutes
7. Materials:
 PowerPoint
 Projector
 Handout of key results