Most trail professionals know that it is easier to obtain trail construction funding than it is to obtain trail maintenance funding. The main reason for this disparity is that trail managers have not been able to accurately quantify what it cost to maintain their trail systems. Trail maintenance cost estimating ranges from seat of the pants wild guesses to over simplified costs per mile that fail to take into account the number or types of trail structures needing cyclic maintenance. Unable to quantify the resources it takes to maintain their trail systems they often are forced to keep it patched together with very limited staffing and a dedicated group of volunteers. One of the biggest short comings of any trail program is the development of appropriate funding to maintain the existing trail system at a safe and functional level.

Participants will learn “process based” trail maintenance budgeting.  This type of estimating can be applied to developing accurate time estimates and funding requirements.  This information will be valuable to the Agency Trail Manager, Trail Consultant and the Trail Crew Supervisor or Forman.

You will learn trail maintenance budget estimating that is inventory based with construction production rates, trail structure prorating, material costs, labor cost and logistics worked in.  It is developed in such a way that changes in labor rates and material costs can be globally factored into the final product.   Inflation, regional cost variations and labor production rates can be adjusted for accurate cost estimating.  These maintenance cost estimates quantify the labor, materials and equipment it takes to adequately maintain your trail system.

At the end of the day, participants will come away with Microsoft Excel software templates that assist the Trail Manager, Contractor or Crew Supervisor to properly develop the resources to maintain a trail system. These templates will include Trail Logs and Schedule for Maintenance Trail Budgeting Sheets for use with Microsoft Excel spreadsheet programs.These Microsoft Excel spreadsheets will be demonstrated in class based on actual field exercises completed by the participants.

If you wish to bring a laptop with Microsoft Excel software and work with the Excel spreadsheets in the afternoon part of the workshop, you are welcome to do so.These trail maintenance budgeting processes and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for calculating costs have been in use for over 20 years and are the basis of accurate budgeting for annual trail maintenance programs with California State Parks.

This process based budgeting and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets have been developed by the two instructors of this workshop.

Schedule

Workshop presenters
Don Beers and Karl Knapp have both worked over 30 years each for California State Parks.  Don has recently retired as Supervisor of the North Coast Redwoods District  Roads, Trails and Resources Maintenance Program.  Karl is the Roads and Trails Manager for the California State Park System.  They have been training for all aspects of trails program management since 1980. 

In addition to being lead trainers for the established trails training program at California State Parks William Penn Mott Training Center, both Don and Karl have been privately consulting for a number of years.  Most recently they have provided training for Denali, Grand Canyon and Big Bend National Parks and the Las Vegas Field Office, Bureau of Land Management.  They are also integrally involved with the National Trails Training Program sponsored by the Federal Highways and coordinated through the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Each participant will receive a computer disk with a Microsoft Excel Trail Logs and Schedule for Maintenance Trail Budgeting Sheets.  The cost of the class includes these two Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for your use.

Lunch is not provided; bring lunch food to eat while commuting to the field sites and during the field demonstration.

Attendance limit: 32
To keep student to instructor ratios manageable in the field, the class size limit is 32 people.  When the class participant numbers exceed 16, additional field instructors will be provided.  The field exercise will be a maximum of 1 field instructor to 8 participants.  It is expected to car pool to the field work site. Check current availability

For more information please contact Mike Passo at 360-734-7270 or