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Join the USDA Forest Service in the 10-Year Trail Shared Stewardship Challenge!

Support in making the challenge an impactful and lasting success across the National Forest System and all our public lands

The Trail Challenge is a “call to action” for all of us to work together to achieve a sustainable trail system by increasing our collective capacity to care for trails and by increasing on-the-ground results through shared stewardship of trails.

by USDA Forest Service

NWSA Funding Program Application Deadlines Postponed till April 30th.

In order to help organizations that are struggling with the Corona Virus impacts on field operations we have postponed the deadlines for our funding programs. WSP or Trails Stewardship Funding deadlines have been moved back to April 30th. See details on our website at Funding Programs.

Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen announced the launch of the Trail Challenge on February 11^th during “Hike the Hill” events in Washington D.C. that were well-attended by national trail partner organizations, Forest Service employees, and other federal agency employees. She subsequently extended and amplified her announcement via a letter to all Forest Service employees, followed by her February 21^st Leadership Corner remarks and a national news release. If you and your organization haven’t yet had a chance to check out these announcement materials, I encourage you to do so and to share this information with others.

The Trail Challenge is a “call to action” for all of us to work together to achieve a sustainable trail system by increasing our collective capacity to care for trails and by increasing on-the-ground results through shared stewardship of trails. The challenge is being implemented in three adaptive phases, with Phase 1 “Launch & Learn” geared toward a learning-lab approach that encourages local and broader level innovation and implementation of a variety of approaches developed to meet local needs and opportunities where and how it makes sense.

Reference Information

Information about the challenge is available on our Trail Challenge webpage, which includes online copies of the Trail Challenge Overview and Phase 1 “Launch & Learn” publications. The webpage is also being updated with additional reference materials including the Trail Challenge Element Selection Menu, Implementation Guidebook, and Idea Sheets.

Thank you for all that you do for trails, including the 159,000 miles of trails crossing national forests and grasslands. So many of you have been instrumental in shaping development of the challenge. We’re looking forward to our upcoming webinar and next steps as we join together with the collective trails community to increase our collective capacity to care for trails and increasing on-the-ground results.

To quote Chief Christiansen, “Let’s go!”

If you have questions about the Trail Challenge between now and the webinar, please contact acting Assistant Director for Recreation, Heritage & Volunteer Resources Jaime Schmidt, National Assistant Trail Manager Jeff Mast, and Trails Specialist, Meckenzie Helmandollar

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1,935 views • posted 03/07/2020