In 2007, volunteers contributed 720,000
hours worth $22 million. They want to
leave a legacy, give something back.
Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails—only 55 or 60
percent of the total mileage of the scenic trails is protected.
It’s a real problem with a very short timeline.”
Here’s an example of the urgent task at hand. When
complete, the North Country National Scenic Trail will
lead hikers from the New York–Vermont border all the
way to North Dakota—a distance of 4,400 miles. But
only half of that route is on the ground to date. The
remaining 2,200 miles lie unprotected, on private lands.
“What remains to be acquired of just this one trail is basically the length of the whole Appalachian Trail,” says
NPS’s Elkington.
In addition to public ownership, methods of protecting the routes of scenic trails include landowner
agreements and easements that permit access.
Nonprofits such as The Trust for Public Land play a
key role by working with federal agencies and trail
stewardship groups to help protect the most important
trail segments and viewsheds, through both public
acquisition and access easements with private landowners. In the last 30 years, TPL has helped protect
land along ten national scenic and historic trails.
Another ongoing challenge for the system is that
while each trail is administered by a federal agency, each
also crosses numerous jurisdictions on the ground, with
segments managed by a variety of landowners or agencies.
“Florida is a good example of the complexity of establishing a trail that must pass through a maze of more than
50 agency jurisdictions,” Werner says. “One of our biggest
challenges is how to coordinate so many agencies, none of
whose main mission is to administer a national scenic or
historic trail. Sometimes it can be hard to get the agencies,
or private landowners, to appreciate that they have a
nationally significant resource on their land.”
Consider a military installation whose primary role
is national defense. Security is the top issue. So how did
the Florida Trail Association get permission to route a
trail through the enormous holdings of Eglin Air Force
base in northwest Florida?
“It took more than ten years of patient negotiations
until the base folks felt comfortable allowing the trail to
pass through an easement on their property,” Werner
says. “But the Florida Trail Association, through its persistence, showed long-term commitment to the trail, and
helped the Department of Defense feel proud of the natural and scenic resources on their property.”
“It takes a while to get all these players to trust and
line up,” he adds. “You might say that the most fundamental thing about the National Trail System is that it’s
unbelievably complicated.” Only the Florida Trail and
Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail traverse land within a single
state. Imagine the intricacies of managing a multistate
trail such as the Appalachian Trail, which passes
through 14 states.
VOLUNTEERS: LIFEBLOOD OF THE TRAILS
“Trail volunteers have a practical bent,” observes Dale
Allen as he rests from our hike by Shepherd’s Spring. “I
know I need a tangible reason for wandering around a
beautiful forest. With trail work, you’ve got something
to show at the end of the day.”
In 2007, volunteers like Allen contributed 720,000
hours of work worth $22 million to the National Trail
System, says Gary Werner. “Many of our trail volunteers are lifetime hikers, and they want to leave a legacy,
give something back.”
But trail managers know they need to find ways to
draw in a younger and more diverse demographic as
well. “We are trying to create new kinds of volunteer
opportunities by offering folks chances to work for just
a month, a week, or even a weekend,” says the Forest
Service’s Wimmer. “An example is the Florida Trail
Association’s F-Troop, a volunteer trail crew program
that invites participants to construct boardwalks or
repair bridges on a short-term basis, if they don’t have
the time or inclination to make trail work a regular
part of their lives.”
How will the national trails, with their heavy reliance
on a volunteer cadre, thrive and remain relevant in the
years to come? One way is to create trail experiences with
new themes that focus on identity groups; for example, on
the Underground Railroad, the civil rights movement, or
Hispanic exploration and immigration routes.
