A Mid-Year Look at More Trails
Here’s something to think about on your next ride: 2023 is a little more than halfway over, and your generous support is helping communities nationwide create, commit to, and engage on spectacular trail projects that will benefit riders for decades to come. You’re helping create an incredible legacy.
In particular, IMBA Singletrack Society members and donors have been a powerful force of thought-leadership and financial support. We thank every single donor for helping IMBA partner with communities to take a trail vision and move it through the complexity of development. Your dedication means more new trails, more ribbon cuttings, and more trails close to home.
We’re excited about the momentum we’ve seen so far this year and wanted to provide you with a mid-year report and some shining examples of success below. The next few years look phenomenal for trails.
Communities Creating New Trails
This year our Trail Solutions construction team is making their way from east to west, having worked on six trail systems in eight states. Our planners are working across 22 states on 29 projects, having already completed 24 more. By year-end IMBA planners will complete 16 Trail Accelerator grant plans—giving 16 more communities a strong leverage tool. And in May, we released a new guidebook on trail development to equip even more communities with more tools for trails.
“The IMBA Trail Accelerator grant has been a critical tool for West Virginia’s communities, advocacy groups, land managers to coordinate and collaborate around trails. In doing so we have developed action-oriented plans that lead to dirt being moved with the ultimate goal of enhancing access to high quality trail systems by lowering the barriers to entry and bringing trails closer to home.” — Danny Twilley, West Virginia University
Trail Accelerator grants demonstrate the power of a professional trail plan. Since 2018, IMBA has awarded $577,000 that communities have leveraged to raise $12.8 million for trails. The grant has been consistently under-funded to meet the volume of quality applicants. In 2022, we received requests for $717,000 and had to decline $472,000. We are actively asking our top donors to expand this grant funding so a minimum of $400,000 is in reserve each year.
Communities Committed to Trail Development
From California to Wisconsin, Las Vegas to Navajo Nation, IMBA’s 2023 Trail Care and Trail Management Schools have been evidence of new and renewed community commitments to sustainable trails. We’re grateful for generous support that has allowed us to bring on a Navajo Nation Coordinator to help Diné communities move projects forward, while our team continues to focus on what it takes for communities to commit. The number one hurdle? Trail funding.
New Partnerships
In April 2023, IMBA was invited by the Southern Nevada Mountain Bike Association to lead a two-day Trail Care School just outside of Las Vegas. This educational opportunity brought land managers, NICA coaches, and trail users of all kinds to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to learn sustainable trail practices.
Long-time Plans
Maryland is an excellent example of how trail champions leveraged state-level support to get more trails. To develop a 30-mile trail plan put together by IMBA Trail Solutions, local leaders partnered to get involved in the State’s Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan and advocate for new funding.
Securing access for a project is one thing. Securing funding for a trail project is another huge hurdle for many communities, which often lack time and expertise to raise the funds necessary for success. IMBA is responding with Funding Services & Education support. We have examined 37 trail projects that may benefit from fundraising counsel and technical support. As IMBA provides these services, which are free in most cases, we’ll be learning about needs to inform a larger Funding Education program for 2024 onward.
Communities Engaged in the Process
Even with 468 communities engaged with IMBA, we learn something new from each place and pass that knowledge on. Every experience informs our online resources like Six Tips for Community Engagement and a Trail Champion’s Guide to NEPA. Community case studies are core to our long-standing Trail Labs Foundations workshops, which welcomed 15 communities in April. Early Trail Labs Foundations attendees like Millinocket, ME; Chattanooga, TN; and Omaha, NE are now becoming those case studies. Twenty-two communities that have attended a Trail Lab have new trails, with 20 more committed and well on the way.
Stacking Trail Labs in SoCal
"This course is building on a toolkit to help us figure out what our options are and how to manage these trails. Can we close them? Can we open new ones? We have a very big mountain bike community that has a lot of ownership here in these trails, as well as hikers and trail runners and even a few equestrian riders.”
– Joe Fayer, California State Parks Associate State Archaeologist
New Gravity-Flow in Arizona
“We’re excited to add this unique experience to our world-class trail system in the greater Prescott area. As is the case for all our trails, this project would not be possible without our partners and the dedicated community of all trail users who continue to help us design, build and maintain them for the benefit of locals and visitors alike.”
– Sarah Clawson, District Ranger for the Bradshaw-Chino District of the US Forest Service
Saving Trail Funding in Ohio
“Working with IMBA and using the ACT, we contacted and rallied various user groups, including mountain bikers, equestrians, hikers, and water trail enthusiasts, who are engaged with OMBA, the Ohio Trails Partnership, Rail Trails, The Buckeye Trail Association, Ohio Horseman's Council, and other outdoor recreation advocacy and trail organizations.”
– Jason Reser, Trail Development Director for the Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance
Hundreds of communities have engaged with IMBA’s online and in-person resources to advance trail projects. When a community starts to skyrocket in success, we often see something else in common: dedicated, professional staff. Many IMBA Local member organizations struggle with the capacity needed to navigate the complexities of trail development. Keeping the momentum and advocating for the right things can be a challenge, and one we intend to address with a local leaders summit in 2024.
Great Trails Take Great Investment
Rallying riders and community leaders to invest in trails; leveraging grant funding and planning to pick up the pace of development; creating trails in stunning environments for riders of all abilities. That’s just a sprint summary of the progress that’s been made this year!
Trails are an investment. An investment in time, an investment in passion. A financial investment, one that lasts generations. Please, take a moment on your next ride to feel proud of all your investments have helped do for trails in your community and in communities across the country.
Imagine what could be next. Invest in what’s next alongside us.
A love of riding trails brought us together. Our passion for protecting and enhancing them keeps us together. Join us in supporting the future of mountain biking by joining IMBA today. Thanks, stay rad!
Meet our teamDavid Wiens
Executive Director
