Among the largest municipal parks in the country, Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a 4,300-acre park with 22 miles of trails, says Carrie Kasnicka, park manager at Eagle Creek Park.

But with more than 700,000 visitors every year, the park’s trails needed maintenance and better directional signs. “Our need is great in making these trails as user-friendly as possible, and given the economic climate, that’s a huge challenge,” says Kasnicka. Eagle Creek’s four main soft-surface trails emphasize all of the major features of the park, including a lake with beachfront, two nature centers, a marina, a bird sanctuary, and scenic views.

“We want people to understand all the amazing features that the park has to offer,” Kasnicka says. “One of the trails is a popular birding trail, so you might not have been a birder coming in to the park but you might leave wanting to be a birder.”

The Great American Trails grant came at the right time to help the parks system accomplish their goals for improving the Eagle Creek Park trails, Kasnicka says. With nearly three quarters of a million park users visiting annually, these changes helped make trails easier to traverse. “What this grant allowed us to do was really improve the trail experience for all of those folks,” says Kasnicka.

In addition to restoring and reconfiguring some of the trails, grant money went towards trailhead signs, as well as interpretive and directional trail markers along pathways in both English and Spanish. “There are a lot of priorities in a large park system in a large city, and all those priorities are high, but this grant really allowed us to improve these trails,” Kasnicka continues.

In addition, the grant funding provided opportunity for the park to invite other community groups to help blaze trails and clean up the park. “It was the launching pad for a lot of great community involvement,” Kasnicka says. “It’s a great way for folks to get involved in their parks and take ownership.” Among those community groups, LongHorn Steakhouse volunteers came out for service days to help install signs and clear trails as part of the trail improvements.

For other agencies pursing a grant, Kasnicka advises having a clear goal in mind, and making sure you have a team on board who can accomplish that goal in a timely manner. Kasnicka says, “Working with the parks foundation, our team of naturalists, and the city planners, we were able to work quickly and effectively.”