How to Create and Cultivate a Trail Alliance for Success

Learn the steps to take to form a trail alliance in your own community, as well as what it takes to cultivate an existing one with tips for success.

Presented by:

• Charlie Barnwell, Board Member, Homer Trails Alliance
• Nathan Knudsen, Executive Director, Redding Trail Alliance

If you’re considering forming a trail alliance and wondering how to get started, or have years under your belt and want to take away some new ideas, this webinar will be of interest. We welcome a discussion amongst other trail alliances as we all can learn from each other. The presenters, both from trail alliances that only have a few years under their belts, will go over how their trail alliance came to be and will explain what drives their success year after year.

The groups highlighted will include Homer Trails Alliance out of Homer, Alaska, formed in 2020, with an approximate size of 400 square miles. They focus on hiking and walking trails, but partner with various groups including ski clubs, snowshoe clubs, and city government trails and parks, as well as some equestrian groups. With a board size of eight and no staff, Homer Trails Alliance has 25 as of mid-2022. As Executive Director Charles Barnwell says, “This is Alaska, and things are still developing with regard to trails organizations (and trails themselves!). The Homer Trails Alliance is a relatively new group (about two years), but we’ve made great strides.”

Redding Trail Alliance, which will also be highlighted, was formed in 2016. They serve and have partnerships with various government and NGO’s in Trinity and Shasta County in northern California and serve all trail users of multi-use trails including hikers, runners, equestrians, and mountain bikers. Executive Director Nathan Knudsen says, “Love of our home trails and a desire to see them develop into a world class trail system lead to the formation of Redding Trail Alliance. With over 200 miles of available trails in the greater Redding area, our planning and development of new trails has been focused on quality and diversity. We believe in smiles, not miles.” Redding Trails Alliance has a paid staff of four with five board members and 250 volunteers, 100 of which were active in the last year (2021-2022).

Learning Objectives:

• What drives success of a trails alliance
• Lessons learned from year one to now and how to move forward to be bigger and better
• Communication assets between staff, board, and volunteers
• Partnership outreach of different trail types
• Understanding that smaller groups can also have a large impact