Park Service Gives $900K For Trails

To celebrate 40 years of national trails, the National Park Service awards nearly $900,000 in grants to the National Trails System.

Hooray for trails: The National Park Service just granted a total of $873,000 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the National Trails system. This year's grants were awarded to projects where national historic and scenic trails cross paths with national parks and other federal facilities.

“The infrastructure improvements these grants provide translate into better experiences for trail and park visitors,” said National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis. “It’s a wonderful way to commemorate this anniversary decade of the National Trails System.”

Money from the grants will soon go to work on projects for improving existing trails, trailhead connections, bridge and trailhead designs, as well as encouraging innovative educational services at 17 project sites along the 52,000 miles of trails the National Parks Service operates.

Grant recipients include:

Rocky Mountain National Park, Continental Divide National Scenic Trail
-$59,750 to build a new kiosk, pavilion, and entrance sign for the trail at Grand Lake.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Stanwix National Memorial, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park
-$30,485 to construct North Country National Scenic Trail waysides at Grand Marais, Michigan; Rome, New York, and; Dayton, Ohio

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge
-$35,000 to provide for Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail interpretive programming at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse in Ridgefield, Washington.

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
-$45,205 to develop an "Explore the Outdoors, Your Life Depends on It" education program in Great Falls, Montana.

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Saguaro National Park, and Tumacacori National Historical Park
-$96,000 to develop a brochure that links the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail to these three sites in Arizona.

Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
-$36,909 to develop the Twin Arches Connector Trail for the Twin Arches National Recreation Trail

Various national forests
-$100,000 to "build and support capacity in the USDA Forest Service for a Trail to Every Classroom" involving the Appalachian National Scenic Trail

Check out the full list here.

-Jordan Olmsted

National Trail And Park Projects Funded (NPS)
Nearly $900,000 Will Help Connect, Improve Trails In National Park System (National Parks Traveler)