2024 Accomplishments

Every day, WTA inspires responsible exploration and stewardship of trails for hikers and explorers from all walks of life, and fosters strong relationships and partnerships within our community. Here's how we did it this year.

New trails built, old trails refreshed

WTA's Trails Rebooted campaign is ensuring Washington's iconic trails stay open and new trails are built. There's nothing like cutting the ribbon on new trail, and considering how much thought and work goes into making new trail, it's remarkable how many we opened this year.

Volunteers and WTA staff celebrate at the ribbon-cutting at Behrens Woods in Vancouver, which opens access for visitors to this neighborhood greenspace. Photo by Jim Clute.

• Full Circle
• I am so happy that I finally stepped out of my comfort zone (i.e., completely alone in the woods) and joined a work party. As an avid hiker, I've used WTA's wonderful resources for years, but always as a silent consumer. I feel inspired — writing my first trip report next.
• — first time WTA volunteer and trip reporter.

• Thanks to a partnership with the Kalispel Tribe, WTA built two trails at Indian Creek Community Forest, expanding community access.
• In Vancouver, a new wheelchair-friendly trail at Behrens Woods makes a neighborhood greenspace more accessible, a win for our Trails Next Door campaign. The Columbian covered the opening.
• A 3-day trail work Jamboree at Mount St. Helens reopened the Ghost Lake trail, a 6-mile hike in this popular destination, after years of no maintenance. Crews also repaired the Harmony Trail and sections of the rugged Boundary and Independence Pass trails.
• Several parcels of private property in Sammamish are now public. Big Rock Park South is the most recent addition, where a new trail opened in the spring.
• WTA crews opened an access trail at the new Stottlemeyer Trailhead at Port Gamble, formalizing access to this popular area between the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound.
• The work doesn't stop. We're just getting started on in-town projects like at Loganberry Lane in Everett and new trail systems in the Methow, too.

INternational recognition

REstoring Lost TrailS

A Lost Trails Found crew member preps a log for removal in the Schneider Springs fire area, east of Mount Rainier. 15 locations like this saw work from WTA's three Lost Trails Found crews in 2024. Photo by Jackie Marusiak

In addition to rebooting popular trails, WTA's Lost Trails Found campaign focused on restoring trails in the deep backcountry at risk of completely vanishing. Paid Lost Trails Found crews worked in 15 locations across Washington this summer, spending 10 days at a stretch. In addition to that work, shorter volunteer backcountry trips ran all summer. Together, they sweated, sawed, brushed and swamped for more than 35,000 hours this summer!

• Lost Trails Found crew puts trails back on the map
• WTA and Back Country Horsemen of Washington host BCHW's first-ever all-women's joint work party
• Facing a future marked by fire, the Schneider Springs response contains the seeds for restoring and building a more climate-resilient backcountry trails system.

Training the leaders of tomorrow

People will always need the respite that natural spaces provide. And those spaces will always need advocates and stewards. So a large part of WTA's programming involves engaging young people and training future leaders.

Youth Trail Work

WTA's youth trail team poses with the Tom Petri award, which they won this year for excellent use of grant funds. Photo by Anna Roth.

• Inspiration
• "I liked seeing how all the youth step up and get stuff done. They are way more capable than we sometimes give them credit. It restores my hope for our future, and gives me confidence to give my own sons room to grow on their own."
• — volunteer on a youth and families work party

Youth volunteers did 9,200 hours of work at 27 locations in Washington this year! The work itself is incredible, but we're also proud to be part of this transformative conservation and stewardship experience for the next generation. Behind those amazing volunteers is WTA's team of outdoor educators and crew leaders.

• WTA's youth trail staff earned the Tom Petri Award this year, which recognizes WTA's excellent use of grant funding with youth volunteers.
• You really like us: 35% of youth volunteers this year came back from previous years!
  
• Highlights: Youth crews built a 40-foot turnpike at Cougar Mountain, broke ground at a new trail system in the Methow, and contributed considerably to our Trails Next Door work, wrapping up work at North Shorewood Park and Big Rock Park South. They also completed work at Glendale Forest, an urban greenspace central to King County's plan for climate resilience.

Emerging Leaders Program

A group hike at Point Defiance helped create connections between WTA's Emerging Leaders Program cohort and established members of Washington's environmental community. Photo courtesy MJ Sampang.

WTA's Emerging Leaders program connects diverse cohort of individuals — including Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) individuals — to other environmental professionals, and helps participants who will be entering the workforce develop key professional skills and confidence.

Cohort members have emphasized that connecting with community partners — and many other BIPOC individuals in the outdoor industry — is one of the most important parts of the program. This year, we facilitated a BIPOC-community partner hike at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma to further foster those connections. Twelve people from eight different organizations showed up to hike, geocache and learn together.

Getting people outside responsibly

Washington's natural beauty begs to be explored, and WTA believes anyone who wants to should be able to do that. Our Outdoor Leadership Training Program (OLT), online hiking resources and ambassador program help millions of people get outside each year — including you!

Training the Trainers and Lending them gear

Braided Seeds is one of WTA's longtime OLT partners. Photo courtesy Braided Seeds.

• This year marked OLT's 1,000th outing with gear and funding since the program launched in 2013. Program graduates have taken their groups bike packing, gone camping and explored the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
• One bag, dozens of stories: See how many adventures one sleeping bag in the OLT program has supported!

Ambassadors and Trip reports help you hike Trail Smart

WTA ambassadors were stationed at the Maple Pass trailhead and on trail during peak larch season this year, working in tandem with the U.S. Forest Service to educate visitors on hiking best practices. Photo courtesy Nomi Fuchs.

A huge part of keeping Washington's trail culture excellent is sharing intel, best practices and looking out for each other. Here's how we're doing that.

• Chronically online?
• We're one of The Verge's favorite social networks

• We blew past 250,000 trip reports on wta.org this year! All that collective knowledge helped 2.85 million hikers find their next adventure and help each other out. Some highlights:
  • Hikers help a stranded driver on the way to Hidden Lake Lookout
  • A family celebrated Earth Day by picking up trash at Ebey's Landing.
  • Hikers welcome a new trip reporter who wrote their first report for a Mount Storm King summit.
• 62 volunteer ambassadors interacted with more than 8,000 people at community events and trailheads this year. They shared information about WTA and how to get outside safely and responsibly. The Seattle Times even reported on our efforts at Maple Pass during larch madness.

WTA's app encourages dispersal and informed hiking

WTA Trailblazer kept 120,000 hikers company this year, helping them find the perfect trail. Like our Hiking Guide, it's a tool we make available free of cost, with the mission of keeping hikers safe on trail and find alternatives trailheads when conditions call for a change in plans.

• We added our custom-made hike recommender to help you find more hikes you like.
• A new snow layer helps you understand where the snow is, and how much to expect.
• Public Safety: Yakima Herald covers WTA's AQI layer for hiking during smoke season.

WTA's website: A reliable Resource

• in the news
• — Bellingham Herald: Spring hiking tips
• — Seattle Times: How to hike safely in fire season
• — KUOW highlights WTA Trailblazer's "hikes near me" feature

WTA strives to be a good partner and spread tips on safe hiking year round.

Agencies across Washington work with WTA to not only perform maintenance, but to spread the word about trail and road closures.

They also use our trip reports to get current trail information when rangers can't reach the backcountry.

Agency Testimonials

• "We LOVE your website. It's one of our most used resources. We send visitors there all the time, especially if they're looking for somewhere to hike with their dogs. Thank you for everything you all do!" — Mount Rainier National Park rangers
• "Big thanks to WTA for being such great partners and consistently striving to deliver on volunteer work, even when it means scheduling extra work parties. I appreciate the diligence; it makes it easy for us to (do) business with WTA. Ya’ll deserve more recognition for running a smooth operation. I appreciate it." — Hyden McKown, Department of Natural Resources, Mount Baker District
• "We so appreciate the crews coming out and helping keep the trail at top condition. We can take a lot of things for granted in our lives, but good colleagues and great volunteers are two we cannot ignore!” — Ray Entz, director of Wildlife and Terrestrial Resources for the Kalispel Tribe

Securing funding and advocating for our future

Ongoing advocacy is important to emphasizing how much Washington's community values the landscapes we live and play in. We engage hikers online and at trailheads to teach folks that trails don't just happen, they need advocates. By encouraging legislators and government to think ahead, we're helping build a better future for Washington.

WTA CEO Jaime Loucky (right) with Congresswoman Kim Schrier at an August event celebrating projects that Great American Outdoors Act funding made possible, including improvements to the trailhead at Franklin Falls. Photo by Michael Decramer.

• This year, advocates helped defeat I-2117, and find funds to fix the state's longest trail.
• We also supported an additional investment of $5.78 million in Washington State Recreation Conservation Office’s Community Forest Program to make possible two community forest projects: one on Whidbey Island and another in the city of Hoquiam.
• Working with the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) coalition, WTA secured $7 million for No Child Left Inside from 2023-2025. This funds 92 programs around the state and supports tens of thousands of Washington’s youth in getting outdoors.
• A workshop at Whipple Creek illustrated how to design trails to increase accessibility for hikers of all abilities.

members make it happen

All this work can't happen without members! Annually, members make up over half of WTA's income, and though you can join year-round, one major event in August is core to WTA's success: Hike-a-Thon! This year, the event raised $189,411.73 for WTA. The 486 participants hiked 11,606 miles and 1,948,117 feet of elevation in the month. That's like walking across Washington more than 32 times and 135 trips up Mount Rainier. Whoa.

In spring we hosted our first-ever fundraiser with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra. This unique event showcased photos submitted through WTA's photo contest, Northwest Exposure, and paired them with a live music performance. The event was a new way to bring nature to the city and to our members.

We welcome new members all year round! Want to join? Here's how.