Colorado Trail Patrol - New Season for Valuable OHV Trail Management Tool

[ColoradoTrailPatrol]

Denver, CO – April 16, 2011 - The Colorado Trail Patrol is looking forward to another season of assisting the USDA Forest Service, Colorado State Parks and Wildlife, and the Bureau of Land Management. Everyone within the OHV community can participate in this easy and fun system built to help assist local trail maintenance and land management.

The Colorado Trail Patrol asks volunteers to log the trails they travel and document any positive and negative issues they may come across. Reports get sorted and go directly to recreation managers, planners and trail crews depending on the situation. We then work with agency staff to determine and organize an OHV-friendly solution if an issue was reported. Districts and field offices are also informed about trail systems that are in good condition too, allowing agency staff to know that the implemented management policies are working well.

The creation of a statewide network of Patrollers will allow us to notify the agencies about small issues quickly and thus prevent damage from continuing. Quick identification of maintenance needs helps direct resources and allow for issues of immediate need to be addressed.

Once volunteers are trained, they are asked to keep doing what they love…enjoying the trails of Colorado. Their normal routines are only changed by taking a few minutes to submit a trip report into the database including photos, where they traveled, and any descriptions after they get home from the ride. Colorado Trail Patrol staff then ensures the information gets to the proper personnel within the Forest Service, Colorado State Parks and Wildlife, or the Bureau of Land Management .

Trainings are held all around the state for those interested in becoming CTP volunteers. To see the complete list of upcoming training sessions, please visit the Stay the Trail Calendar (http://staythetrail.org/calendar.php) or find the Colorado Trail Patrol on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ColoradoTrailPatrol).

Upcoming Volunteer Training Sessions:
April 19 – 6:30pm Montrose Library. 320 South 2nd Street, Montrose, CO.
April 21 – 4:30pm. Southglenn Library, Centennial. 6972 South Vine Street, Centennial, CO.
April 26 – 6:30pm. Firestation #8. 3737 Airport Rd. Colorado Springs, CO.
May 10 – 6:30pm. Castlewood Library. 6739 South Uinta Street Centennial, CO 80112
May 15 – 6:30pm. Loveland Library. 300 North Adams Ave. Loveland, CO.
May 22 – 6:30pm. Firestation #8. 3737 Airport Rd. Colorado Springs, CO.
May 23 – 6:30pm. Thornton Gander Mountain. 9923 Grant St. Thornton, CO.

About Colorado Trail Patrol
The Colorado Trail Patrol is overseen by the Responsible Recreation Foundation. The Program Coordinator for the Colorado Trail Patrol is Matt Glass. In joint partnership between Colorado State Parks, USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Responsible Recreation Foundation, this program’s efforts are to gather and record data on Off-highway Vehicle (OHV) compliance on dedicated OHV trails.

Inquires
For more information, please contact:
Matt Glass, Program Coordinator, Colorado Trail Patrol. PO Box 915, Wheat Ridge, CO 80034.
Tel:720-454-0481 Email: Matt@StaytheTrail.org

[chevyjepp]

Does this really exist?
What fantastic cooperation between agentcies.

[Stonebone]

Sounds like a Trojan horse method of getting weak minded do gooders to help "pave" trails, and close trails that are too "degraded". Sad really.

[pete4wd]

Good to hear that the concept established by UFWDA continues to develop, a pity there's no credit given.
http://www.ufwda.org/education/volunteer-trail-patrol/

Peter Vahry
UFWDA international vp

[atvobsession]

Originally Posted by chevyjepp

Does this really exist?
What fantastic cooperation between agentcies.

This exists right here...on the Rubicon Trail. The Rubicon Trail Patrol, established in 2004 has been logging 1500 hours a year, every year on the trail.

The program originally started by Big Rich (WeRock), was run by myself from 2006 to 2011. Stevon Culp is now the Director, and is always looking for volunteers.

We interface with USFS, El Dorado County Sheriff and El Dorado County regularly, so that everyone is on the same page.

So yes...these types of things exist...and work.

[atvobsession]

Originally Posted by pete4wd

Good to hear that the concept established by UFWDA continues to develop, a pity there's no credit given.
http://www.ufwda.org/education/volunteer-trail-patrol/

Peter Vahry
UFWDA international vp

As far as credit, I have no knowledge of UFWDA's trail patrol program. After reading your information page, the UFWDA's program is vastly different from the Rubicon Trail Patrol program.

RTP, is not in the law enforcement or illegal activity gathering business at all. Of course if we see something obvious, we would report it to the authorities, much like any other citizen would do, but that's the extent of it. Our primary mission is that of a mobile educator. Our volunteers, travel the trail, passing out literature, educational bandana's or oil spill kits to users on the trail. Our users are specifically trained how NOT to appear as any pseudo-law enforcement organization. Initially in the early days, we had a law reporting component, but that was scrapped in 2006 for safety reasons primarily.

Hope your program is going well.

[LYIN' KING]

Originally Posted by chevyjepp

Does this really exist?
What fantastic cooperation between agentcies.

The organizational structure goes something like this . . .

Responsible Recreation Foundation - http://staythetrail.org/foundation/

Stay the Trail - http://staythetrail.org/about/index.php

Colorado Trail Patrol - http://coloradotrailpatrol.org/patrol/login.php



Matt appears to have taken over a position formerly held by Justin Lilly.

Justin Lilly worked for “Stay the Trail” from 2008-2011 and now works for Tread Lightly!, he is a registered user here and had visited this site often under the name "Tread Lightly!" until a recent promotion.

https://staythetrail.org/about/bios/bio.php?who=justin

http://www.treadlightly.org/page.php...s-Release?i=52


RRF recently gave $2k to this org: http://www.coloradotpa.org/ . . . and $500 to the BRC according to the .pdf below.

RRFs 990 . . . http://irs990.charityblossom.org/990.../510533294.pdf


Here's an old forum discussion . . . http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/showt...-how-do-I-join

[ColoradoTrailPatrol]

It is very similar to the UFWDA's program, but on a very local level. We do credit UFWDA during our volunteer training and we certainly are thankful for the foundations the program laid.

Stay The Trail does have a new coordinator. His name is Sam Logan. He has been a seasonal for STT for several years. Justin is still very involved with the Foundation and its programs and we are happy that he can be an assest to Tread Lightly!

Colorado Trail Patrol is essentially a sister program to Stay The Trail, within the Responsible Recreation Foundation. In addition to these programs, the Foundation also annually operates a signage grant allowing FS Ranger Districts and BLM Field Offices to request and receive additional signage for OHV trails.

The Foundation is also an active funding sponsor and organizer of the trail development program in the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area (outside Grand Junction).

The "patrolling" model is a proven method of assisting manage and maintain OHV trails. Better maintained trails will be open for our future enjoyment and no one can help identify conditions and maintenance needs better than the enthusiasts who utilize those trails. By working alongside agency staff, we are able to be at the table for discussions and are able to suggest OHV-friendly solutions in addition to showing our good-will.

Our goal is to unite the OHV community around our state in the effort of assisting local managers while showing that the true enthusiasts will do what they can to help. Not everyone has the time to attend every trail clean-up, but we can at least be observant about trail conditions/signage needs/dump sites, etc. Our program clears out the tape that sometimes stops OHV users from reporting the info.

[ColoradoTrailPatrol]

The Colorado Trail Patrol and Stay The Trail are profiled in this weeks episode of At Your Leisure. Airing on the Altitude Network starting Monday April 30th. (station listing)

Highlight all different aspects of Outdoor Recreation, this episode explores the Rainbow Falls OHV trail system outside of Woodland Park, CO.

For those outside of Altitude's area, the episode can be seen online here: http://www.ayltv.com/hdepisode.html