Workshops will elaborate aspects of “Healthy Trail Partnerships – Healthy Trail Resources” in four tracks that will run concurrently during sessions on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Attend all five workshops in one track or choose among workshops from all the tracks.of each workshop is listed below, just click on the title to view the description.
TRACK A: Healthy Resources
1. Creative Ways to Make Trails Visible, Relevant, and Fun for People in Cities
2. Why Archeology is Important to Trails
3. Collaborative Approaches to Trail Corridor Preservation
4. Approaches to Monitoring Trail Resources to Keep Them Healthy
5. Management Approaches to Keep Trail Lands Healthy
TRACK B: Healthy Partnerships
1. Supporting Trails: Successful Partnerships with Outdoor Industry Businesses & Local Preservation Organizations
2. Multiple Approaches to Connect Children with the Outdoors
3. Promising Partnerships: Making the Connection between Byways and National Scenic and Historic Trails
4. Drawing Unique Users to Your Trail Thru Watchable Wildlife
5. Partnership Lessons Learned from the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial
Track C: Healthy Experiences
1. Building Accessible Trails
2. Long Learning and the National Trails
3. Reaching Out to Diverse Communities
4. Connecting Trails and Health Communities
5. Engaging Interpretation: Telling Trail Stories
Track D: Healthy Organizations
1. Developing a Fundraising Culture
2. Volunteer Recruitment & Retention Strategies
3. Volunteer Training & Safety
4. Connecting with Generation Y
5. Partners at the Interface–Pitfalls of Partnership: What Works, What Doesn’t Session 2
A1. Creative Ways to Make Trails Visible, Relevant, and Fun for People in Cities: The Golden Gate National Park Conservancy works with local artists to engage thousands of people in San Francisco to creatively enjoy, help build and maintain, and tell the stories of trails and public lands in their community. Learn how you can use their ways of “Taking Trails to People” to engage more people in your community in the joy of sustaining your trails.
A2. Why Archeology is Important to Trails: Archeologists from the Bureau of Land Management and the Park Service’s Midwest Archeology Center will explain what they have to do with trails and what trails have to do with archeology. Learn how archeological techniques and approaches can help us better understand the history and resources of our trails.
A3. Collaborative Approaches to Trail Corridor Preservation: Learn how to work with state agencies, local, regional, and national land trusts to preserve trail rights-of-way and resources through acquisition of various types of land rights. Staff from The Conservation Fund and Bureau of Land Management will present case studies of successful projects along national scenic and historic trails.
A4. Approaches to Monitoring Trail Resources to Keep Them Healthy: Dr. Mike Harding will take us on “Flights of Discovery” along the Lewis & Clark NHT and staff from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy will describe the Appalachian Trail Mega-Transect Project – two innovative approaches to sample the health of resources along the entire length of long-distance trails. These approaches using the trails may provide methods for assessing the ecological health of large scale landscapes and with the Lewis & Clark diaries as a benchmark begin to document the change in landscapes over centuries.
A5. Management Approaches to Keep Trail Lands Healthy: Good stewardship of land along scenic and historic trails will keep the land healthy and provide high quality trail experiences. We will explore USDA-Forest Service forest and wilderness planning, interagency work to eliminate invasive species, and approaches to landscape eco-system restoration as necessary components of healthy land stewardship.
Top of the Page
B1. Supporting Trails: Successful Partnerships with Outdoor Industry Businesses & Local Preservation Organizations: Michelle Barnes will describe how member businesses of the Outdoor Industry Association are partnering with non-profit organizations to get children out using trails and how your organization can be a part of this effort. Representatives from The Conservation Fund will describe how they forged local resource preservation organizations around Chesapeake Bay into a coalition to support the establishment of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. They will provide insights about how to successfully collaborate with such organizations in your area to benefit your trail.
B2. Multiple Approaches to Connect Children with the Outdoors: Participants will learn how to engage and connect children and urban youth to the outdoors directly and indirectly by empowering teachers through professional development programs. Children need to have fun in the outdoors. Discussion will focus on connections with schools, making outdoor activity appealing to kids, overcoming parental safety fears, and finding time and a place for outdoor recreation within the schedules of very busy families.
B3. Promising Partnerships: Making the Connection between Byways and National Scenic and Historic Trails - Participants will learn how the National Scenic Byways Program supports National Scenic and Historic Trails; share success stories between byway organizations and trail advocacy groups; and how the America’s Byways Resource Center can be a resource to both the trails community and byways community, to strengthen the connection between byways and National Scenic And Historic Trails.
B4. Drawing Unique Users to Your Trail Thru Watchable Wildlife: Learn how you can use your National Trail to provide a wildlife viewing experience for visitors and realize the economic potential of nature-related recreation while conserving native plants and animals in their natural habitats.
B5. Partnership Lessons Learned from the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial: Participants will learn about the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and lessons learned from the many partners involved in the event. Members of the panel will discuss the tremendous support from the public and private sectors in sponsoring the event. There will be discussion about the many partnerships that were formed and the lasting legacy of the bicentennial event.
Top of the Page
C1. Building Accessible Trails: “Trails and Accessibility” will cover the requirements for trail accessibility and how to meet them while maintaining the character and experience of the trail. The differences between the Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines and the Access Board’s proposed guidelines for Outdoor Developed Areas will be discussed. Case studies of the practical application of the guidelines on trails will be shown. Discussion will be encouraged.
C2. Long Learning and the National Trails: As people travel more frequently and participate personally in their travel adventures, appealing possibilities exist to connect these travelers with our national scenic and historic trails. In addition, there are lifelong learning opportunities to tell the national trails story in your local community. Recent experiences with Elderhostel illustrate its current programming, how a trail association partnered on an Elderhostel program, and examples of how national trails intrigue both active and armchair travelers.
C3. Reaching Out to Diverse Communities: This topic focuses on recent data on use of urban distant (such as forests) and urban proximate parks (city parks) for physical activities. This study emphasized sites that were thought to be used by diverse groups. With the emphasis on what items are desired by diverse visitors at sites (site attributes such as lights, restrooms, hiking/walking paths, crime-free, etc.) and what are constraints to use (such as family obligations, having activities available that people want to do, gang activity, etc.). It does ask these questions related to physical activities.
C4. Connecting Trails and Health Communities: The speakers will discuss ways the national trails community can positively interact with the private, state and federal health communities with planning, funding, physical and mental health promotion and funding opportunities.
C5. Engaging Interpretation: Telling Trail Stories: This session explores the use of interpretation to relay the human stories and history of the landscapes, culture and life in and around National Historic and Scenic Trails. This session provides some unique and innovative ideas and tools to offer a way to tell these stories and engage the users of these very important resources
Top of the Page
D1. Developing a Fundraising Culture: A thriving fundraising program requires more than a fundraising plan or writing a winning grant. Don Charpio the BLM’s National Training Center Director will explore what it means for an organization to have a thriving “fundraising culture.” Organizations that embrace a fundraising culture consistently generate more philanthropic income. This workshop will explore fundraising cultures and examine the critical components necessary to increase philanthropic support.
D2. Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Strategies: Establishing and utilizing an effective recruitment and retention program will increase the likelihood of finding and keeping the right people for the right tasks. This workshop will highlight the key components of successful volunteer recruitment and retention programs from successful outdoor organizations.
D3. Volunteer Training and Safety: As land management agencies rely more and more on non-profit organizations and their volunteers to conduct essential trail and conservation projects, there is an increasing need to make certain that crew leaders and participants are adequately trained and have the skills to be safe and succeed. This workshop will highlight the essentials of successful trail stewardship training programs.
D4. Connecting with Generation Y: According to demographers, they were born between 1980 and 2000. They are called Generation Y, Gen Y and Generation Why. We are all shaped by our culture and community. What makes them different from generations before? What are the implications for interpretation and how we tell our story? Dr. Philip Smartt will help us improve our understanding and appreciation among the different generations.
D5. Partners at the Interface–Pitfalls of Partnership: What Works, What Doesn’t Session 2: See page 3 for more information on this workshop.
Top of the Page
