More Management Resources

Resources and Library:

Trail Maintenance & Management

The many kinds of trails require different management strategies. See trail sharing and multiple use, trail policies and ethics, impacts and mitigation, and maintenance plans. A separate area covers safety and liability.

Operations, Maintenance, and Stewardship 101
Rail-Trail Maintenance and Operation (PDF 1.6 Mb)
Maintenance Checklist for Urban Trails
Trail operation and maintenance requirements
Sustainable trails: more than maintenance
Wheeler Geologic Area Trail Rehabilitation
Piedmont Trail realignment from fall line to contour
Maintaining trails for the 21st century
Design, Signage and Maintenance Guidelines:
Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail
Natural Surface Trail Maintenance (PDF 188kb)
New York/NewJersey Trail Conference: Trail Maintenance 101 (pdf 440 kb)
Burke-Gilman Trail Vegetation Management Guidelines
Guide to Trail Work, maintenance, tools; from Washington Trail Association
Trail Maintenance Manual (7th Ed.), New York-New Jersey Trail Conference (pdf 311 kb)
Maintenance management systems for trails
Construction and maintenance costs for trails, WI
Maintenance costs for the Schuylkill Trail, PA
Roadway and Bikeway Maintenance Practices, AZ
Maintenance concerns close major Kentucky trail
More articles on trail building and maintenance from International Mountain Bicycling Association

Planning and managing environmentally friendly mountain bike trails (pdf 3.1.mb)
Natural resource impacts of mountain biking
Studies weigh mountain-biking, hiking impacts
Comparing relative impacts of various trail user groups
Bike, hike and Erosion control strategies for new trails
Monitoring recreational impacts using panoramic and fixed photopoints (pdf of PowerPoint 2.9 mb)
Off-Road Impacts of Mountain Bikes, New Zealand Department of Conservation
Caring for Cairns at Acadia National Park
Using Signs to Reduce Visitor-Built Cairns: Gorham Mountain Trail, Acadia National Park (pdf 280 kb)
Stay off the trails during mud season
Minimizing Llama Impact in the Backcountry from Leave No Trace
Wet trails take beating from mountain bikers
Closing and reclaiming damaged trails
New perspectives in national forest recreation
Don't be a trailblazer!
Basic training for life (rules for recreationists)
Recreationists must respect private property!
Closure of Trails: A Restoration Strategy or Lack of Management?
Changes on Trails in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, MT (pdf 172K)
ATC Backcountry Sanitation Manual covers human waste management in the backcountry (pdf 1.6mb)

Mountain bike trails in National Parks: the Cactus Forest Trail debate at Saguaro NP
Protection From liability: on recreational trails
Debate on trail use policy regarding mountain bikes (New England)
Mountain bicycling in Wisconsin surveyed and analyzed
Managing for multiple-use trails
Multi-Use Trail Management Policy: How Agencies address Conflict and Impacts
Trail use policies: Mid-Peninsula Open Space, CA
Photo gallery: Trail signs showing allowed and prohibited activities
Photo gallery: Rules and regulations signs for trails and parks
Indiana mountain bike trail to be in place for a year
Jefferson County, Colorado, sticks with multiple-use
Colorado Springs sets cooperative mountain bike policy

photo of San Antonio River Walk

Education and clear policies are iimportant aspects

of trail management

Solving management policy issues for trail systems by Terry Whaley
We Built It and They Came: managing busy trails
Guidance for Managing Informal Trails by Jeff Marion
Why do people leave the trail?
Management Guidelines for OHV Recreation
Travel Management Signs for Public Lands in Colorado
Mountain Walking Track Management; 260 pages of Australian and UK experience (pdf 6.0 mb)
Power line trails: Safe management and development
Preventing illegal motorized use on non-motorized trails
Comprehensive Plan for Protection, Management, Development and Use of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, 1987 (pdf 161 kb)
Assessment of Trails, Watercourses, Soils, and Redwood Forest Health, Joaquin Miller Park, CA
Mud, manure, and money: fixing the trails in Indiana
Trail condition preferences of horseback riders
Accomodating horse trails in the national forests
Mountain bikes and metropolitan park districts: issues and trends in trail management
Volunteer rangers to hit Cherry Creek Trail and Mountain bikers patrol national forest trails
Clueless: it's easy to ignore environmental ethics
Dialogue continues on responsible recreation
Backcountry trail standards: the user perspective

Conflicts on Multiple-use Trails: synthesis of the literature and state of the practice, Roger Moore
Sharing Our Trails: A Guide to Trail Safety and Enjoyment
Equestrian and Other Nonmotorized Use on Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities: FHWA guidance
Steam-powered autos share the trail with bikers and hikers in Delaware
When snowmobilers meet others on the trail
Snowmobilers and skiers reach agreement in ID
Snowmobiles, Machines from Hell or Sleds to Paradise? Or, can we work together?
Alternative day zoning: handling heavy trail use
Recreation Code of Ethics urged by Blue Ribbon
The Continental Divide Trail belongs to all citizens
Coalition for Recreational Trails presents annual awards
Separate trails divide; shared trails build community
Land-use conflict between hikers and mountain bikers
Suggestions on improving safety for horseback riders and other trail users
The Equestrian and other trail users: the issues
Share traile with horses: understand their instincts
Equestrian use for Maybrook Rail Trail, NY
Cyclists and equestrian trail users
Hikers and hunters on shared-use single-track trails
North Country Trail Association affirms hiking-only vision for National Scenic Trail
Design out conflict: backcountry trail management
Multi-use trail and equestrian issues (pdf 292k)
"Share the Trail" page from Arizona State Parks with Shared-Use Trail examples
Rules for shared use pathways, CO

Improving the California Coastal Trail at Lands End
After the Devil’s Windstorm: Cutting Blowdown Trees from Trails, Inyo NF, CA (pdf 3.5 mb)
Torrey Pines State Reserve Trails Management Plan (pdf 1.1 mb)
Using crushed rock to improve trail drainage and stability at Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve, VA
State of Maryland and bicyclists work together to improve trails and training
Restoring trails in the Mount Sutro Forest, UCSF
Forest trails in Ohio recover from winter floods
Better trails for Colorado's "fourteener" peaks

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Resources and Library:

Trail Maintenance & Management