The 30th Annual California Trails and Greeenways Conference was held at Yosemite National Park on April 22-24 2015. The conference is a 3-day training venue for trail professionals and advocates to learn practical, up-to-date trail skills; and provides a forum for collaborating on accessible and quality trail systems. The conference also acknowledges and shows appreciation for worthy individuals, organizations, agencies and businesses that, through their hard work, integrity and social responsibility, have made outstanding contributions to promote, enhance or expand public awareness and use of trails and greenways in California during the year.
The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) Eagle Falls Trail Reconstruction Project, on which ACE Crews worked between April and October 2014, won the Merit Award for project development. Garret Villanueva accepted the award on behalf of LTBMU and took the opportunity to talk about the positive relationship with ACE, which has developed over the previous 6 years.
Steps on the Eagle Falls Trail – before and after
Another highlight of this year’s conference was the session hosted by ACE’s National Trails Trainer Patrick Parsel and National Trails Director, Mark Loseth. The session was titled ‘Maximizing Volunteers for Trail Work – recruit, train, retrain’ and aimed to provide land management agencies and “friends of” groups, who often rely on volunteers to perform a majority of their trail work, with the knowledge and expertise to effectively utilize the volunteer resource.
Mark Loseth presenting at the California Trails and Greenways conference
Patrick and Mark tapped into their extensive experiences of recruiting and training hundreds of volunteers at ACE, and explained how to make the most of a volunteer’s valuable time and contribution. A particular emphasis was placed on leadership skills, training methods, and methods to ensure volunteers keep coming back.
We at ACE are so very proud of Patrick, Mark, and all of the ACE corps members who worked so hard on the Eagle Falls Trail Reconstruction project last year. Thank you! We would also like to extend a thank you to the Lake Tahoe Basin Management team for your support and partnership. For more details about the California Trails and Greenways Conference please see their site.
ACE @ California Trails and Greenways Conference