Support from the Federal Highways Administration's Recreational Trails Program

enables us to host a great conference for minimum fees

The next Trailbuilders Conference will be from Sunday, March 15 through Friday, March 20, 2009 at the Crown Plaza in downtown Asheville, North Carolina!

Preliminary schedule:

We can not wait to get to Asheville to bring the PTBA to the East Coast!  We are extremely excited about the opportunities for new and exciting workshops, trade show vendors and sessions highlighting the challenges and rewards of building, designing and maintaining trails in the varied environs of the East.  The schedule and agenda are currently being finalized, but here is a quick peek at the session topics that have been submitted so far:

Private Trails –Evaluating Return on Investment

by Lee Reading, Director of Outdoor Programs for The Biltmore Company

This session will present a case study of the privately-owned Biltmore Estate located in Asheville, NC. Over 1.2 million guests visit the 8,000 acre destination annually. We will look at the comprehensive trail system on the property. Some trails are over 100 years old, others have been designed and built in the past few years for specific user groups. We will examine trail construction costs as well as the revenue streams being generated from these trails. A part of the discussion will explore risk management issues, signage and maps associated with these projects.
 
Adopt-A-Trail Model for Utilizing Volunteers

by Alex DeLucia, North Country Trails Volunteer Programs Supervisor, and George Brown, AMC Trail Adopter and Region Leader

In addition to a Professional Trail Crew, the Appalachian Mountain Club trains and organizes hundreds of volunteers to complete basic trail maintenance. The AMC's Adopt-A-Trail program manages about 220+ Trail Adopters and works in cooperation with many other land management agencies to use Volunteers as the eyes and ears on the trails each season. This session will explain the structure of our Adopt-A-Trail program, use of volunteer Region Leaders, the division of trails, the trainings provided to volunteers, reporting and data collection, benefits of this program to our Trails Department, and successes and challenges encountered in this 28-year program.
 

Walking on Water

by C. Dixon Sherman and Dave Zastrow, Cordova Ranger District, Alaska

As trail managers in a coastal Alaskan rain forest that receives over 14 feet of precipitation annually, we are constantly on the lookout for new or different technologies, materials or methods of providing safe and sustainable trails. We will explain how and why we have chosen the methods and/ or materials used in the construction or
re-construction of our trails and hope that acts as a catalyst for the audience to do the same.

Trade show vendor info and fees have not yet been updated.  Check back soon for 2009 Vendor information.

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