{"id":11064,"date":"2019-11-01T15:51:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T20:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pnts.org\/new\/?p=11064"},"modified":"2019-11-01T16:11:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T21:11:12","slug":"an-action-plan-for-our-national-trails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pnts.org\/new\/an-action-plan-for-our-national-trails\/","title":{"rendered":"An Action Plan for our national trails"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Partnership for the National Trails System
\nAdapted from submissions by Ron Tipton<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Partnership for the National Trails System (PNTS) has engaged a team of experienced conservation and trail advocates to create an Action Plan to fund the protection and management of America\u2019s 30 national scenic and historic trails.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This idea was presented to the PNTS Board and Trail Leaders Council in February 2019 by Ron Tipton, who retired at the end of 2017 as the President and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The Board directed Tipton to move forward and recruit a working group to pull together a five year plan for approval by the Board at its next in-person meeting during the 2020 Hike the Hill week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While important progress has been made in recent years toward protecting and funding our 11 national scenic trails and 19 national historic trails, we have not yet been successful at fulfilling the vision of Congress and past administrations for creating a world class national trails system. The Appalachian and most of the Pacific Crest and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trails are publicly owned and have permanent protection in place, and many high priority sites and segments of our national historic trails are also protected and capably managed. However, in the last several years Federal and State funding for the national trails for land acquisition and trail management has been reduced, and the highly effective Collaborative Landscape Planning initiative created by the Obama administration to fund national trails no longer exists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Plover River Segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. (Photo Credit: Cameron Gillie)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

During the past six months, the Action Plan team has interviewed nearly 20 national trail leaders and Federal agency partner representatives to identify their top priority goals for the next five years for the protection and sustainable management of their trails.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recommendation for Top Priority Goals<\/span><\/h4>\n