The 2025 National Trails Lands Summit and Training will take place October 19–23, 2025 at the Plaza San Antonio Hotel and Spa in San Antonio, Texas situated along the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. The National Trails Lands Summit and Training will take the place of PNTS’s annual workshop in 2025.

At the National Trails Lands Summit and Training, trail professionals and emerging leaders within the trails community will come together for three days of learning, collaboration and networking. This event welcomes trail professionals, advocates, and volunteers; Federal employees whose work involves the National Trails System; emerging leaders, students, and young professionals looking to network and learn more about trails; and, others that wish to learn more about Lands Summit topics such as state and local government, recreation, preservation, tourism, and conservation professionals.

Trail corridor protection is one of the most critical issues facing the National Trails System. This event will bring together Federal land managers, National Trails partners, local municipalities, land trusts and LWCF offices to address long term planning and mapping, collaborate to create a comprehensive review of trail corridor protection across the system, engage in system-wide strategic planning for corridor protection, and serve to provide knowledge of the future staffing needs of both agency and nonprofit partners to achieve this work. 

At the National Trails Lands Summit and Training, we worked together to identify:

  • Where the biggest gaps in the National Trails System are
  • What the top threats to the system are
  • The biggest challenges that the system is facing
  • Hotspots for conservation
  • System priorities 
  • Resources and needs
  • Challenges and opportunities to work collectively

 

Presentation and roundtable discussion topics included:

  • Anatomy of a conservation project
  • Trail mapping and national trail right of ways
  • Emerging technologies and trail planning tools
  • Using economics to make the case for trail protection
  • The role of nonprofit partners in trail protection
  • On-the-ground methods for protecting and developing your National Historic Trail along its corridor
  • The REPI program and Sentinel landscapes as a conservation tool
  • Loan funds and private fundraising
  • Protection and promotion of public access to trails
  • Non-federal protection approaches
  • Acquisition pathways that are not traditional
  • Regional comprehensive trail planning that includes National Historic Trails
  • and much more!