CAVE CITY – At a Cave Country Trails meeting, local and state tourism officials celebrated the recent joint Trail Town certification of Cave City and Horse Cave and the extension of a national bike trail, and announced plans to secure a national recognition for a stretch of the Green River running through Mammoth Cave National Park.

Bruce Powell, deputy superintendent of Mammoth Cave National Park and an ex-officio member of the nonprofit group working to set up a network of trails in Barren, Edmonson, Hart and Warren counties, announced the start of a plan to apply for a Blueways Water Trail designation for a roughly 30-mile stretch of the Green River.

This designation, he thinks, would draw more people to what he considers to be one of the most underrated natural assets the region has.

“It would mean that more people would see a hidden gem,” he said. “The Green River is one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the Southeast and once you get on the river, it’s like no other place.”

A Blueways designation would bring the area more renown as a spot to paddle in much the same way a Kentucky Trail Town designation brings a city more recognition as an adventure tourism spot for people interested in hiking and cycling.

“It’s kind of like a Kentucky Trail Town but on a national level and it would bring added prestige to the area,” he said.

Powell said Cave Country Trails already has much of the information for the application, which he said would probably not be ready for submission until at least the end of the year.

Russell Clark, a landscape architect with the National Park Service who has worked directly with the group, said a Blueways designation communicates to paddling enthusiasts that the river is safe and in a community that prioritizes adventure tourism.

“It offers the aspect of a greater sense of safety and security, that this is a well thought out system in place for me to take my family and experience a natural resource,” he said.

At the meeting, Kristen Branscum, state commissioner of travel and tourism, announced that Cave City and Horse Cave had received a joint Trail Town certification, which had previously been made public in a release from Rachelle Wright, Cave Country Trails’ new director.

Seth Wheat, director of tourism development for the Kentucky Department of Tourism, praised the collaborative spirit of the counties involved, saying he wants to see similar cooperation among other trail town communities across the state.

“By all these different communities working together to promote what one another has, we create experiences that can last longer than a single day or even a single weekend,” he said.

At the meeting, the designation of a stretch of roads leading from the Tennessee border to U.S. Bike Route 76 as a U.S. bike route was also announced, though this too was previously made public in Wright’s release.

Eddie Bruner, president of Cave Country Trails, said that, as a cyclist, he was excited about the route.

“It’s a neat route. It’s 108 miles and change. I’ve ridden every inch of it,” he said.

The route is an official continuation of U.S. Bike Route 23, starting at the Tennessee border and cutting through Franklin, Oakland, Smiths Grove, Mammoth Cave National Park, Cave City, Horse Cave and Munfordville and connecting to Bike Route 76, which stretches from Astoria, Wash., to Yorktown, Va.