Trail Ambassadors

Become a Trail Ambassador  

The snow might be lingering, but spring is just around the corner! As trails begin to open in Eagle, Gypsum, and around the Knob Hill area, we shift our attention to closures up-valley.

For our Spring Trail Ambassador Training, we will be hosting a webinar on April 9th from 5:30 to 7:00 PM. With this change in format, we hope that this webinar will accommodate schedules and allow for more flexibility in attendance. You are required to register in advance. Please follow this link to register for Spring Training. 

We need your help to educate trail users on why these closures are so important and to inform them where they can recreate responsibly during the winter and spring season. We look forward to seeing you out on the trails.

About the Trail Ambassador Program

In the Spring of 2018, the VVMTA and its Adopt A Trail program 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:

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 it’s 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 Leave No Trace Principles.  Stay tuned for more information in the Spring of 2024.

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

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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.

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