Torlakson wrote Senate Bill 1556, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in 2006, the first step toward creating a trail system in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Inspired by the San Francisco Bay Trail, which will encircle more than 450 miles of Bay waterfront, the Great California Delta Trail will be a bike and pedestrian trail system that will stretch along more than 1,000 miles of Delta waterfront in Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo and Solano counties.
The bill authorizes transportation planning agencies that currently allocate funds to cities and counties in the Delta to also allocate funds to the Delta Protection Commission to build the trail system.
The system will also be funded by grants, bonds and public/private partnerships.
The award was announced at the National Trails Symposium in Little Rock, Arkansas. Torlakson will be recognized again today at the Delta Protection Commission's meeting in Stockton.
