HOW BWM GOT INVOLVED
When we learned that a new trail was being developed to connect communities along the Chemung River Valley, we did what comes naturally to an agency rooted in this region: we offered our skills. Not because we were the obvious choice for infrastructure work. Because we understood what this kind of project means to a place, and because naming and branding a trail is one of the most quietly consequential things you can do for a community asset.
A trail without a clear identity is invisible. It doesn’t appear in travel guides, it doesn’t show up in visitors’ searches, it doesn’t attract investment, and it doesn’t give the people who use it a shared language for talking about it. Identity work isn’t decoration. It’s the difference between a path through the woods and a destination.
WHAT BWM DID
Brave World Media has served as the branding partner for a growing network of trails throughout the Southern Tier of New York, developing names, visual identities, and brand frameworks for trails across Steuben and Chemung counties. Trails BWM has contributed branding to include:
— Chemung River Greenway Trail — the proposed 20-mile multi-use corridor connecting Corning and Elmira along the Chemung River, currently in active feasibility and public engagement — Sullivan Park Trail — a local recreational trail within the regional network — Big Flats Rail Trail — connecting Big Flats to the broader trail corridor — Lackawanna Rail Trail — the existing 8.5-mile trail running between Eldridge Park in Elmira and the Town of Ashland along the former Erie-Lackawanna Railroad bed — Chemung Canal Trail — aligned with the Chemung Canal Connector corridor linking the Lackawanna Rail Trail and the Catharine Valley Trail
The scope of BWM’s involvement has varied by trail — in some cases developing naming and identity from scratch, in others contributing brand language and visual consistency to an existing concept. In all cases, the work reflects the same principle: regional trails deserve the same quality of brand thinking as any consumer product or destination.
THE NETWORK THESE TRAILS ARE BUILDING
The individual trails BWM has helped brand are nodes in what is becoming one of the most significant regional trail investments in the Southern Tier in decades — and the momentum is accelerating.
The proposed Chemung River Greenway, which Three Rivers Development Corporation describes as “decades in the making,” is currently undergoing a year-long community feasibility study. The Chemung Canal Connector — a 7-mile trail linking the Lackawanna Rail Trail and the Catharine Valley Trail — received a $248,815 federal grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission in 2025 and a $1.5 million donation from Kennedy Valve and parent company McWane Inc., with Phase 1 construction planned for Spring/Summer 2026. When complete, this project alone will create a continuous 29-mile trail corridor.
That 29-mile corridor will ultimately connect to the 580-mile Finger Lakes Trail System — one of the most extensive trail networks in the northeastern United States.
Running alongside this: the New York Susquehanna Basin Water Trail, a 190-mile water trail from Cooperstown to Corning along the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers, developed with NYS Economic Development Administration funding and branded under the tagline “Paddle the 607.”
BWM’s branding work predates much of this investment. Clear, consistent trail identity is part of what makes a trail system fundable, marketable, and worth using. We contributed that groundwork.
WHY THIS WORK MATTERS ECONOMICALLY
Trail infrastructure in this region is not a recreational amenity sitting alongside the real economy. It is the real economy. Federal grant materials for the Chemung Canal Connector cite research showing that every $1 invested in recreation trails yields $3 in direct medical benefit. Steuben County outdoor recreation visitor spending grew 62% year over year in recent data. Trail systems attract new visitors, retain residents, raise property values, draw new businesses, and support the hospitality sector — all documented and measurable.
Branding is what connects that infrastructure to those outcomes. A trail that residents and visitors can name, recognize, and seek out generates economic activity in a way that an unnamed, unbranded path cannot. That’s the work BWM does — and it’s the work this region needed.
