Mountain Bikers Benefit From National Forest Trail Improvement Grants
The National Forest System Trail Stewardship Funding Program awarded over $100,000 to 12 mountain-bike-friendly trails for repair and maintenance.
Mountain bikers have cause for celebration this week. The National Forest System Trail Stewardship Program recently announced its 2022 grant awardees, and the list includes 12 trails open to mountain bike use.
The funding program awarded $294,300 to 33 trails on Forest Service land. Of that, $139,400 will go to the bike-friendly trails and stewardship organizations to help pay for upkeep and repair.
Some of the notable awardees include trail systems in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in Colorado and the Stanislaus National Forest in California. The selected trails stretch a combined 430 miles.
A Beneficial Program
The US Forest Service runs the stewardship program in conjunction with the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance and in partnership with the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and other organizations.
“We are pleased that trail organizations, particularly mountain biking groups, continue to engage with the NFSTS Funding Program,” IMBA Executive Director David Wiens said in a statement. “We will continue to educate our IMBA Local partners on grant opportunities to help them tap into funding for trail projects and increase access to mountain biking for communities everywhere.”
The grants spring from the National Forest Trail Stewardship Act of 2016. One of the chief features of the act was to boost the role of volunteers and partners in trail maintenance.
The 2022 grants will facilitate 1,200 volunteer hours for the selected bike-friendly trails. Volunteers will clear trails, replace signage, create reroutes, improve drainage, and repair bridges, among other upgrades.
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