Otsego County's best asset is Otsego County.

It is a topographical jewel of rolling hill and dale, dotted with lakes, criss-crossed with creeks, and boasting the Susquehanna River. It wears the revolving season's fashions in dramatic style; lush and summer green, aflame with autumn foliage, breathtaking as a picture postcard in winter, or awash in spring colors.

Horses and Herefords graze, deer and trout leap, bear and even moose are occasionally spotted. On a map, you might find Otsego County just this side of Heaven.

Oddly enough, being one of the poorest counties in the state has worked to our advantage. For the most part, we have been mercifully spared that horrible blight of sprawl and big box development that marked the beginning of the end for the beloved American downtown, giving rise to, in its place, those identical and charmless shopping centers. Our villages intact and our remaining green and pristine surroundings are the main component to a superior quality of life. They should be fiercely protected, while available for respectful use.

Just think of the boon to our physical and economic health if our pastoral splendor was accessible by foot.

It was once, of course, when human legs were still a main form of transportation. For example, Cooperstonians routinely walked between the village and Fly Creek, and not so many years ago, when footpaths were the norm.

Those pathways were a good idea then and an even better one now. It is no coincidence that our county population is the most motorized and the least fit it has ever been. Imagine a network of non-motorized multi-use trails connecting the towns and villages of Otsego.

Imagine an Otsego County River Walk along the Susquehanna; a multi-use trail for walkers, hikers, runners, cyclists, and in winter, snow-shoers and cross-country skiers. Since it's this close to Christmas and we're making a wish list, let's build a bridle trail to run along side, and include the horse folk, too.

Webster's defines transportation as "a means of conveyance or travel from one place to another." Nowhere does it restrict that travel to four wheels and an engine, yet that's where nearly all of our transportation tax dollars go.

It's time that we re-divide that pie.

I vote we build an infrastructure that gives that same consideration and respect to the needs of human beings as we give to the needs of internal combustion machines.

Brenda Berstler is the founder of the Walking Example Group (WE-GO) a non-profit organization encouraging walking and walkable communities. Visit their website at www.we-go.org.