and facilitating the creation of zoning laws to protect river corridors and public access areas. 3.Strategically link important natural and human communities. The purpose of this strategy would be to strengthen the viability of existing recreational areas and habitats by extending them and linking them to each other and to inhabited areas, thereby reducing habitat fragmentation, increasing resource awareness through the proliferation of public contact points, and expanding the recreational value of previously isolated resource islands. Specifics here would include identifying potential links between existing resources and focusing funds on the creation of such links; using such links as a way of connecting resources to population centers; and linking ecologically important areas to greenways as a way of economically combining both ecologic and recreational conservation efforts. 4.Create a cross-state multi-use trail reaching from Boston to the Berkshires. This effort would address the lack of east-west greenway corridors in the state and the strategic difficulty of developing such greenways (most current greenways are north-south corridors). This strategy identifies abandoned railway beds as possible routes. Specific efforts here would include developing state-wide coalitions to address the creation of and east-west greenways. (The goal of securing these east-west corridor trail elements by 2003 was recently met by the development and extension of several rails-to-trails projects in the east, west, and central parts of the state). 5. ‘Trail bank’ unused rail corridors and work to gain public access to utility corridors. Strategies here include forging agreements that would make use of electric, gas, road, and rail right-of-ways as potential linear greenway routes, especially in areas where existing development has isolated open space parcels. This strategy would involve working with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to identify and transfer surplus utility corridors to towns and cities for the use of greenways at no cost. It would also facilitate the creation of emergency loans for towns and cities for the purchase of defunct utility corridors. Finally, it would establish partnerships with utility companies to address liability and access issues. 6. Assist the greenways and trails development community with technical support and funding needed to establish a coordinated statewide greenway system. This strategy would involve the creation of a "public clearinghouse" of resources: human, technical, and financial; engage in outreach and support initiatives geared toward helping local greenway development efforts; and establish a flow of information between various state, federal, non-profit, and private entities with the aim