Amplifying Voices Across Our Community

Everyone deserves access to trails. We're supporting community partners and breaking down barriers, so that the trails of the future belong to everyone. And by amplifying voices from across the trail community and sharing stories, we can help people know we all belong in the outdoors.

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Post 84 helps hundreds of high schoolers get outside every year

Jun 11, 2025

Post 84, a partner with WTA’s Outdoor Leadership Training program since 2018, helps teenaged campers from the Puget Sound area get outside by offering more than a dozen camping trips a year. WTA's gear library makes it possible for even more teens to attend the trips.

Building connections to nature

Woodland Park Zoo is a leading expert in wildlife conservation and empathy-based curriculum in their education programs. The Wonder in Nature photography camp, a part of their Community Collaborative, partners with WTA through our gear lending library-- ensuring youth are comfortable outside by lending backpacks, rain gear, warm layers and hiking boots. By Erin McQuin

How youth are fighting climate grief with action

Apr 14, 2025

Time outside helps the youth with Climate Action Families in their work to advance climate justice. By Emory Ranes

Urban forestry and why it matters

Spending time amid trees boosts the enjoyment of time spent in nature. But tree do a lot more than that — they sequester carbon, help create the air we breathe, provide shade, mitigate heat, absorb stormwater and create habitat. But the benefits of those trees are not distributed equally among neighborhoods.

Miles, smiles and community with Miles Hike Club

Mar 17, 2025

Miles Hike Club gets out on trail with hikers of all ages — and WTA helped them get there. By Joseph Gonzalez

Nosotros En Naturaleza is building community on trail

Mar 05, 2025

Nosotros en Naturaleza, a partner of WTA's Outdoor Leadership Training program, is helping young adults in the Latinx community connect to each other and to the outdoors.

How WTA is building trails for a changing world

Washington needs resilient trail systems — WTA is helping to build a trail system that can stand up to the test of climate change. | By Andrea Waite

How learning the ways of the crosscut saw helped one hiker foster joy outdoors

Crystal Hudelson is a climber, volunteer and BIPOC community leader. Here's how learning how to use and refurbish crosscut saws brought her closer to community. By Joseph Gonzalez

12 Women and 4 Horses Fix a Trail

WTA and Back Country Horsemen of Washington team up for their first all-women volunteer trip. By Victoria Obermeyer.

5 WTA partner organizations to support this Giving Tuesday

Dec 02, 2024

Washington Trails Association believes that trails are for everyone, forever. This year for Giving Tuesday, we are highlighting five WTA partner groups that are making sure everyone has access to experience nature in meaningful ways. Please consider sharing your generosity with these organizations.

Checking in with Emerging Leader Alums

Past participants of WTA's Emerging Leaders Program chat about what they're up to now and how their time in the program has helped inform their careers so far.

WTA's Outdoor Leadership Training: 1,000 trips and counting!

Sep 23, 2024

WTA’s Outdoor Leadership Training program has supported 1,000 trips with gear and funding assistance.

Intentional spaces

WTA’s Emerging Leaders find professional connections in the outdoor community. By Angelic Friday

Representation and horse power: WTA and Back Country Horsemen of Washington team up for first joint all-women's trip

Aug 29, 2024

Watch a short film about the first all-women's backcountry trail work trip by longtime partners, Back Country Horsemen of Washington and Washington Trails Association.

Back to School with WTA: A Guide for Busy Educators Planning Outdoor Adventures

Want to create outdoor experiences for youth this year? Get trip planning tips, resources and opportunities for the 2025 to 2026 school year.

Gear up for learning: Transformative bikepacking trips for Olympia teens

Jul 09, 2024

The Avanti Bikes! program offers immersive educational experiences centered around bicycle education, safety, and community engagement. With the support of WTA, the program has also organized bikepacking trips to create hands-on learning opportunities, foster teamwork and promote environmental awareness.

A bounty of seaweed: How foraging can connect us to ancestral food practices and trails

A foraging trip offered a connection to the land and sea — and my own and other cultures. By Riley Collins

A public school science outdoors program to inspire

Lincoln High School in Tacoma is proving the hypothesis that an outdoors science program can deliver on STEM, help students dream big and break down geographic, economic and social barriers to the outdoors. | by MJ Sampang

Outdoor educators who inspire: Whatcom Intergenerational High School

Jun 24, 2024

Science teacher Cameron Kolk on how place-based education that integrates Western and Indigenous ways of knowing can foster a stronger sense of student identity, community and lasting, trusting relationships.

Outdoor educators who inspire: Tacoma Online

Jun 19, 2024

Assistant Principal Ruth Schlattmann on why it's vital for all kids to have the opportunity to experience community, set goals and stretch their comfort zones with outdoor experiences, even when they go to school in a largely online environment.