It’s summertime, and the living is a little easier here on the Gulf Coast. We all know the usual tropes:  less traffic, more room at the beach and no long lines to get a table at your favorite restaurant. It’s a welcome chance to catch your breath, if the air isn’t too thick with humidity!

But some of our most civic-minded citizens hardly slow down even as the temperature soars. Two groups of these civic foot soldiers who deserve commendation are the Friends of the Legacy Trail and the volunteers of Venice Area Beautification, Inc. Both are working hard on huge projects poised to transform recreation and natural habitat through the heart of Sarasota County. They epitomize citizen engagement.

Yesterday, the Friends kicked off the “Race to Completion” of the Legacy Trail extension from its current northern terminus in Palmer Ranch to downtown Sarasota’s Payne Park, where a festive morning celebration was held. The project, which Sarasota County voters overwhelmingly approved in a referendum last fall, also will improve trail connectivity to North Port through Venice. All told, it will result in nearly 30 miles of continuous paved, multiuse trail, with potential for even further connections to Manatee, Charlotte and Desoto counties.

The project’s economic, environmental, recreational and health benefits are many and well-documented. From off-road connections to landmark attractions (think Siesta Beach, Ed Smith Stadium, and Nathan Benderson Park) to safe, new routes to dozens of Sarasota County schools in close proximity to the Trail, the potential is enormous.

Friendly Friends are out on the Legacy Trail every day to protect, promote and enhance its use. The Friends estimate that 216,000 people used the trail last year. Calculations through May show even higher usage every month so far in 2019. Just imagine where those numbers will go when the extended Legacy Trail connects downtown Sarasota, through Venice, to North Port.

At its southern end, the Legacy Trail links to the Venetian Waterway Park, a paved multiuse path that runs along both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway in Venice. This linear park was the first signature project of VABI, whose mission is to make Venice a more beautiful place to live, work and play. Gulf Coast’s partnership with VABI stretches back to the project, which the foundation helped support with significant grants.

VABI’s latest big initiative is the Venice Urban Forest, an ambitious effort to reforest more than 30 acres of former railroad right-of-way adjacent to the VWP. At the same time that the Friends of the Legacy Trail hosted their kickoff event in Sarasota yesterday, VABI volunteers were planting five huge live oaks and several red cedars in the burgeoning forest they’re growing south from the Venice Avenue Bridge to Center Road. If you’re reading this column early on Saturday morning, another group is out there right now pulling weeds and tidying up before the sun gets too high. These folks set a new standard for “sweat equity,” and the fruits of their labor will be bountiful and beautiful.

Like every VABI project, the Urban Forest is all about volunteers and donations. Gulf Coast recently awarded the group a matching grant to invite more cash contributions from the community, and the abundant in-kind gifts received so far are typical of a VABI effort but nonetheless impressive.

The vision for the Urban Forest, like the Legacy Trail, includes wide and numerous benefits—preserved parkland, restored wildlife habitat, improved water quality, and much-needed carbon sequestration, oxygen generation, and cooling, to name a few. Invasive plants have been almost completely removed from the “phase two” section of the forest, and soil is being graded for the next milestone feature: a verdant butterfly garden.

Also like every VABI project, the Urban Forest’s people-powered progress is producing impressive incremental improvements and pleasant surprises. Partners from the local Audubon Society chapter recently counted 30 species of birds enjoying the new plantings in a single day, and sightings have even included wild turkeys and Florida scrub-jays—two visitors not expected so early in the new forest’s growth.

Together, the citizen-driven Legacy Trail and Venice Urban Forest are proving that when it comes to smart, sustainable transformation of an unused rail corridor, if you build it they will come. And the driven citizens behind these projects have earned the gratitude and admiration of many generations to come.

Mark Pritchett is president and CEO of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.