In 2008, the Niles Charter Township Park Commission met with regional and municipal trail planners and trail advocacy groups at a meeting hosted by the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, where participants decided that a continuous, off-road, paved trail linking municipalities between Niles and Mishawaka, and eventually beyond, could serve as a pedestrian interstate highway promoting the growth of collateral trail systems throughout Michiana. Representatives from those municipalities and advocacy groups, together with a representative from the Niles Charter Township Park Commission, volunteered for a Trails Task Force that met regularly through the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, and from those meetings the network was named the Indiana-Michigan River Valley Trail. A continuous route was established and its segments were completed over time: in 2010 the City of Niles finished 2.25 miles of trail from Plym Park to the intersection of Fort and 3rd Streets; in April 2014 Niles Charter Township broke ground on the 3.3-mile Phase I segment from the Indiana-Michigan State Line to Brandywine Creek Nature Park; and Phase II, running from the trail at US-12 through Brandywine Creek Nature Park to the Niles City Trail, was completed in fall 2019, closing the gap between the city and the state line.