Trail Ambassadors
Become a Trail Ambassador
Home to the teachers on the trail – our volunteers educate and communicate with trail users about sustainable outdoor recreation practices.
Do your part and play a critical role in helping educate trail users that promotes the safety, enjoyment, and preservation of our trails. With the ever growing increase in outdoor recreation, it is more important than ever to have volunteers who can interact with trail users, answer questions, and provide guidance on how to minimize the impact on the environment.
If you have a passion for making a positive impact on the community and environment while also enjoying the beauty of our trails, apply today. Trail Ambassadors will be educating trail users on how to recreate and “Respect the Vail Valley”
Commitment and Expectations
Trail Ambassador commitment and expectations include:
- Position yourself at trailheads and/or hike/bike on the trail
- Communicate how trail users can recreate and “Respect the Vail Valley”
- Sharing your passion for our trails and getting outside
- Positive and encouraging attitude communicating the joy and positive benefits that trails bring our community
- Educating trail users how to use them responsibly and sustainably
- Represent the VVMTA and partners in a professional and positive manner
- Volunteer 6 hours between June 15 – September 30
- Attend a mandatory training on Tuesday, June 11 from 5:30pm-7:30pm
- Submit a log capturing your engagement
VVMTA will provide you:
- Training and trail materials to set you up for positive and impactful conversations
- VVMTA branded Patagonia hoody and t-shirt
- VVMTA hat of your choice from Ski Town All-Stars
- VVMTA socks from DeFeet
- VVMTA water bottle
- Access to ExpertVoice & Outdoorly pro deals and Volunteer Rewards program
- Chance to win an Epic Pass for the 2025/26 season
About the Trail Ambassador Program
In the Spring of 2018, the VVMTA launched the Trail Ambassador program. The VVMTA recognized the need to be the leaders in proactively approaching the education and communication surrounding seasonal trail closures to protect wildlife and our trails. With this, the Trail Ambassador program was launched. The Ambassadors’ duties include:
- Support enforcement of seasonal trail closures by actively being positioned at trailheads
- Education to trail users about the reasons for seasonal trail closures
- Education to trail users how to “Respect the Vail Valley”
The Trail Ambassador program began to focus on spring seasonal wildlife closures to protect the mule deer and elk calving seasons. Upon the great success in the Spring, the program expanded to cover our winter seasonal closures to ensure elk and deer were not disturbed in their important winter habitat.
In 2024, the Trail Ambassador program will extend its impact and reach by continuing into the summer and fall. Trail Ambassadors during these seasons will go to busy trailheads and hike/bike on trails to spread trail etiquette knowledge and our new “Respect the Vail Valley” education campaign.
The Impact of the Trail Ambassador Program
We have been collecting data with strategically placed game cameras on seasonally closed trails. The goal of these cameras are to:
- Violations: understand how many people are violating these closures, what type of user they are, and patterns of use
- Wildlife: capture photos of wildlife in the area during the closure season
The table below tells the story of how impactful this program has become over the years. In 2017, the program did not exist, community outreach did not occur, signage and gates were basically non-existent. This data only shows the North Trail but the same data and story exists at other closed trails including Son of Middle Creek, Everkrisp, and more.
The data draws the conclusion and connects the dots that:
- The more volunteer hours that occur along with education, outreach, and improved signage & gates >
- The less violations >
- = Potentially improving the health of wildlife populations
| Trail | Year | Volunteer Shifts | Volunteer Hours | Violations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Trail | 2017 | 0 | 0 | 212 |
| North Trail | 2019 | 78 | 138 | 148 |
| North Trail | 2021 | 327 | 387 | 41 |
| North Trail | 2022 | 108 | 135 | 23 |
| North Trail | 2023 | 198 | 250 | 10 |
TRAIL AMBASSADOR REGISTRATION
*Before signing up, you must have taken the Ambassador training. Please contact Molly at molly@vvmta.org for more info and watch our training videos on our Youtube channel here.
