Developing a Program to Reduce Trail Conflicts

Check out the first webinar on this topic from May 2022: Slow and Say Hello: A Program to Reduce Trail Conflicts and Protect Resources. The presenter explained what their group of volunteers had accomplished in the San Francisco area and encouraged others to duplicate that approach.

Since then, the program has shifted gears to equip land managers with the knowledge and tools they need to create their own program. Their website now offers step by step instructions for creating a conflict reduction program. It also has a page identifying best practices for such a program, what works and what doesn’t work. Their organization, The Trail Partners Foundations, is now a 501(c)3.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify “Best Practices” we and our affiliates have developed.
  • People don’t know what they don’t know – Trail Quiz engages people.
  • All Trail User groups have safety and resource protection in common.
  • People learn best from their own stakeholder group.
  • Talking humanizes encounters and improves safety.
  • Safety is both real (injury free) and perceived (lack of anxiety).
• Analyze the science of behavior change.
  • Best approach for behavior modification – Education
• Identify the primary result of conflicts – displacement- which is the opposite of inclusion. Conflict also generates hostility and with that, a lack of respect for the environment.
• Learn about the tools we’ve developed to engage people, Outposts, the Trail Quiz and the Tails & Tires Workshop for Mountain Bike racing teams. Free access to all tools and graphics is provided.