MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) – The City of Morgantown and West Virginia University have made it a goal to have an outdoor wilderness hiking and biking trail within one mile of every citizen.

WVU’s Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Collaborative held a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday morning for the first three miles of its massive, proposed trail system. The West Run Woods Trail is a natural surface trail located on Research Park Road in Morgantown that caters to both bikers and hikers.

“For the current residents, providing outdoor recreational opportunities improves their quality of life, improves their mental and physical health, and that’s one of the reasons we’re so keen on putting trails within a mile of where everybody lives because studies have shown that if you have trails within a mile, your chances of getting 20 to 40 minutes of active of outdoor recreation goes up significantly,” said WVU’s Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Coordinator, Richard Edwards.

Edwards said the plan is to have more than 100 miles of new trails available within the next few years.