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President Obama is expected to sign a public lands bill into law on Monday. Many environmentalists consider it to be one of the most comprehensive land bills approved by Congress in recent years.  But it’s especially important to Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The bi-partisan Omnibus Public Lands Management Act will help restore forests and conserve coastal areas. But it also designates a series of hiking trails in Connecticut and Massachusetts as a National Scenic Trail. This will be New England’s first federally designated hiking trail since the Appalachian Trail was established in 1968. The nearly 200 miles, known as the Metacomet , Monadnock and  Mattabesett trails, stretch from Middletown, Connecticut through Massachusetts to the New Hampshire border. The designation will help protect the footpath from development. U.S. Congressmen Chris Murphy helped push the designation through the house and says it’ll attract tourists as well as local hikers

“it has three million people living within a dozen miles of the trail so it’s a uniquely accessible trail for millions of outdoor activists.”

The Connecticut Forest and Park Association helps maintain the trail. The national designation will make the group eligible for federal funding. John Hibberd served as its director for 37 years and knows the trail well.

“The trail, as it goes over Talcott Mountain... it shows the contrast between the Farmington Valley to the west and the Hartford landscape to the east and it looks north to Massachusetts and south continually over the traprock ridge. “

There are plans to extend the trail this summer south to Long Island Sound where it will take hikers from the woods through an historic district in Guilford.