Members: Making the Difference for Trails

With their donations and support, our members empower hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts to explore, steward, and champion Washington’s trails and public lands. You’ve seen it for yourself—more people are out exploring Washington’s trails than ever, which means a growing community of folks care about our outdoor spaces and want to make a difference.

We're a community movement powered by hikers—powered by you. It’s been a phenomenal year so far.

Here are three stories we are proud our members made possible:

Members, Advocates, Volunteers and Partners work together to reclaim trails

With the backing of our committed advocates, assistance from our partners and your financial support, we are saving the Boundary Trail. A crucial link in the Pacific Northwest Trail, decades of decreases in funding and catastrophic wildfires have left the Boundary Trail nearly impossible for hikers and other trail users to navigate.

But, together, we’re putting this trail back on the map!

Trying something new and always learning

With the support of our members, we've been exploring new approaches and exciting partnerships! WTA teamed up with Northwest Youth Corps to send a crew of nine teens on a trail maintenance trip deep in Washington’s backcountry. We are excited to explore a model that provides outdoor leadership development and opportunities for impactful hard-to-reach trailwork. 


The Lost Trails Found Northwest Youth Corps in the Pasayten Wilderness. Photo credit: Britt Lê

A MORE RESILIENT TRAIL SYSTEM

As we’ve experienced this summer, wildfires grow more severe every year. Your support is helping hikers speak up, and made sure that wildfire funding got dedicated funding that didn't pull from trails. This past summer, made more progress for a sustainable trail system in our Lost Trails Found campaign, and just in time. Summer WTA volunteers restored the Coyote Trail, which was used to reroute the Pacific Crest Trail in the Goat Rocks Wilderness just as fires closed the iconic long trail.

And those are just a few the examples of how the support of our members make our work possible every single day.

Thank you to our community for empowering hikers to share our passion with others and give back to the trails and wild places we love!