GARDINER -- Discontinued roads, railroad tracks, forgotten trails and old telephone and electrical utility lines may be woven into existing community trail systems.

For three years, Mainewatch Institute, an economic and environmental research nonprofit group, has been working on a report titled "Rediscovering Forgotten Assets: Trails for the 21st Century Project."

The Mainewatch Institute hopes its report will generate increased physical activity and connect people to the natural environment. Reeves gave city councilors a copy of the rail map and report on the regional mapping project.

"You have, perhaps, the only instance in the United States where three types of rail systems form a giant loop," Reeves said Thursday. "That's quite unusual."

The loop of railways is formed between the Kennebec River Rail Trail on the west side of the river, a narrow-gauge railroad from Randolph to Togus, and a discontinued electric trolley line that went to Augusta from Togus, Tom Reeves, a consultant for the institute, said. "What they've been doing is identifying all sorts of abandoned or unused trails of various sorts throughout the region," Gardiner Mayor Andrew McLean said Thursday. "The project doesn't go into who owns any of these things or what public access might be, if any. They just identified them so communities can see the public accesses and how they could link to other rail projects like the Kennebec River Rail Trail."

Reeves said motorized transportation has replaced navigating the world on foot or bicycle. As a result, people have become physically inactive.

"If you go back 100 years to 1900, a typical Maine person walked three to five miles a day. And if you fast forward to 2008, that number may be 1,400 feet," Reeves said. "So, that's a large change. The idea behind the map is to see what we can come up with for planning purposes. These maps are not to be general guides to the public."

Reeves said the institute looked at 14 communities from Monmouth through Winthrop, Manchester and Augusta, then down on both sides of the river, including Gardiner to Bowdoinham and Dresden.

He said mappers used modern technology including the Global Positioning System and Geographic Information Systems. He said a map and the report will be distributed to each of the towns to be used by planning boards, city councilors and conservation committees.

"All together, we mapped over a three-year period about 1,000 miles of potential assets," he said. "The idea is to develop multiple choices that are physically available. It's going to help towns with regional planning."

The mapping initiative was presented to Gardiner city councilors Wednesday.

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com