An elevated abandoned railroad over a century old lies undisturbed above Chicago’s struggling Englewood neighborhood, hidden by overgrown wild grass yet filled with endless potential. With assistance from Trust for Public Land and other organizations and community partners, it will be transformed into the 1.75-mile, 17-acre elevated Englewood Nature Trail.

Since 2009, Englewood community members have worked hard to transform this neglected space into a walking and biking nature trail inspired by the “Green Healthy Neighborhood Plan”—a 10-to-20-year vision to maximize the use of resources and vacant land in and around Englewood.

TPL invests in projects early to position them to get more funding and more support down the road. In Englewood, it provided the necessary funds for a landscape architecture firm to complete a schematic study on the proposed trail—a critical first step toward obtaining federal funding for projects like the nature trail.

TPL’s work as a catalyst to funds paid off in a significant way in 2022, when the project received $6 million from the City of Chicago and $20 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to move work on the trail forward.

“An expansion of trails and open spaces is sorely needed across our neighborhoods to benefit existing residents and for the city to achieve health, economic, climate, and transportation goals,” said Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The Englewood Nature Trail project fosters all of TPL’s core missions: community, climate, equity, and health. Community members are heavily involved in the design of the trail, and brownfield remediation will ensure the proper removal of environmentally dangerous remnants of the rail line. The new trail will provide much-needed access to nature in a predominantly Black area of Chicago’s South Side marked by empty buildings and abandoned lots, and it will connect the community to a growing network of farms and local food sources, helping to foster good health and a robust local economy.