National Trails Day basically ignored in NH

It used to be that there were many National Trails Day events in NH, with many trail clubs as sponsors and often with EMS as cosponsors but these groups are mostly staying away this year. There used to be free parking that day in the WMNF, but not this year. Other states seem to still have events. Any comments as to why?
http://americanhiking.org/NTDSearchResult.aspx?sId=29

National Trails day (6/2/12) has never been as popular as NH Trails Day (7/21/12) - at least in New Hampshire. Possible reasons include NH trails still being pretty wet in June, and concern that (lack of) public interest would not support two high-profile trail days.

Of course, it started as WMNF Trails Day, which was strongly supported by the USFS and many trail clubs, and was generally well-attended. Although I understand the reasons for broadening this to a state-wide NH Trails Day, it never regained the strength or participation it enjoyed as the original WMNF trails day.

In CT, at least in my town, maybe the opposite is true, we have Earth Day and the town organizes clean ups or the town green and rail trail. By late April, things are beginning to turn green. National Trails Day is the 2nd day.

Maybe more local projects going on. I grew up in alarger town & we had public works cleaning up locally & no one was working in the more remote places. (Other than RMC & AMC) With local cuts & the AMC still appearing to thrive, feels like my town needs more help.

Actually camping & hiking with Scouts that day, I'll remember to bring it up.

Nat Tr Day fine idea...

... that we tried for several years listing a workday through the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. Never had more than two people show up. But the main reason we do NH Trails Day instead of this one is that this one falls right in the bullseye of blackfly season, when we are on break from trailwork. Having patrolled our trails for blowdowns and cleaned the drains, we have listed the projects for summer and are doing other things. Sometimes that even includes walking paths to hilltops and enjoying the view, or just a stroll of a few miles without toting any tools. Feels strange, this "hiking"...

IMO, practically its normally peak bug season and hard to get folks out. Usually the weather is also damp. I particpated a couple of years in a row in the rain.

Primarilly I expect its a funding issue. When the event first started there were lots of sponsorship dollars. Anyone running an event got boxes of bandannas, T shirts, clif bars and other "kitsch" plastered with logos. Publicity for the event would be be covered with logos. After a few years of any event, sponsorship typically declines and thus money to administer the event goes away and the folks who actually get organizations to participate cease getting paid and move on to another paying gig.

It seems to be popular in NY and NJ,as I see various hiking clubs put on trail events that day. The Catskills 3500 club is putting on a chicken BBQ this year for trail volunteers and I hope to go out and do some maintenance on my trail that I maintain..

Jay

psmart said:

National Trails day (6/2/12) has never been as popular as NH Trails Day (7/21/12) - at least in New Hampshire. Possible reasons include NH trails still being pretty wet in June, and concern that (lack of) public interest would not support two high-profile trail days.

Of course, it started as WMNF Trails Day, which was strongly supported by the USFS and many trail clubs, and was generally well-attended. Although I understand the reasons for broadening this to a state-wide NH Trails Day, it never regained the strength or participation it enjoyed as the original WMNF trails day.

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My understanding is this was started as a national event which is why it wound up in June in blackfly season much as Arbor Day was in Feb because it originated in Georgia. And NH Trails Day in July also started strong but has also been relatively defunct lately.

RoySwkr said:

My understanding is this was started as a national event ..

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Yes - National Trails day has always been a separate national event. And when it started, it was basically competing for support against a well-established NH Trails Day.

Trails Days

Trailwrights has always supported both days.
This year is no different. National Trails day June 2nd. will find us on the Mt. Pemigewasset Trail and NH Trails day July 21 (always the 3rd sat, in July),will find us helping the adopter on the Mt. Kinsman trail.
Your support will be welcome as always.
On a seperate note Trilwrights tried to continue the NH day by serving as a clearing house so to speak some years ago,to keep it going.. We did not get very many clubs to participate, although some did.
We have since then participated every year and will continue doing so. It is that important to us.
Maybe there will be more interest in the future thanks to this post .

What is the goal of a "trail day"? Is it to get people to do maintenance? Or to hike? Raise awareness for one of these two items?

Tim

bikehikeskifish said:

What is the goal of a "trail day"? Is it to get people to do maintenance? Or to hike? Raise awareness for one of these two items?

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For the WODC the priorities have generally been:
1) get a bunch of work done
2) raise awareness of trail maintenance needs
3) recruit new volunteers
4) encourage and train good maintenance practices
5) generate general support for the club

Nat. Trails day

Ditto What Peter said. We also have in the past added a hike to talk specifically about trail maintenance, by showing examples of both conditions of a trail and how to improve it. At the same time we would have a crew working that same trail solving one of the problems discussed on the hike.

Fortuitous timing. We were just speaking today that we would like to become involved in volunteer trail maintenance. I recall last year there was a post herein (by Cooper perhaps?) that listed volunteer possiblities over the summer months. I will have some time M-T-W in July and would love to get my hands dirty and give back a little. Last year I tried to make it up to the Ranger Station on the Kanc but either weather, work or some other detractor got in the way. I'll keep my eye on the trailwrights posts and hopefully I can make it happen. Should I bring my own tools?

The SubSig outing club works on its trails (Langdon, Stanton and Parker) in mid-May usually, when the temperatures are a bit cooler. So we were out there a week ago, but it was still too warm, so one had to choose between wearing long pants (and sweltering) or shorts (and getting your legs all scratched to hell).

Side note: only one wood tick found on our group later that day.

Sat.June 2nd. National Trails Day

Nope tolls or experience are needed for working with Trailwrights. We are an educational organization firts and foremost. See our post here on VFTT or our web site at www.trailwrights .org.
To save time we are playing on the Mt.Pemigewasset trail this coming sat. (2nd) in order to keep national trails day alive and well here in NH.
We meet at 8:30 near the Bike Path in the Flume visitors parking lot.
KV forgot to add that if you go to Trips and events and check out the Post by ARM where many groups are listed for trail maint. A very useful post.

Creag Nan Drochaid said:

... that we tried for several years listing a workday through the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. Never had more than two people show up. But the main reason we do NH Trails Day instead of this one is that this one falls right in the bullseye of blackfly season, when we are on break from trailwork. Having patrolled our trails for blowdowns and cleaned the drains, we have listed the projects for summer and are doing other things. Sometimes that even includes walking paths to hilltops and enjoying the view, or just a stroll of a few miles without toting any tools. Feels strange, this "hiking"...

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Craeg, the lack of participation you experienced may be because there are so many Trails Day events going on on in the Upper Valley, so the labor gets diffused. I always join our Town Conservation Commission group for the day, and we generally get around 8 - 14 volunteers (in a town of population less than 2,000). There are usually enough people to divide into several work groups and tackle a few different projects.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32876400@N08/sets/72157619501192024/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32876400@N08/sets/72157624216675352/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32876400@N08/sets/72157626765334325/