Spring Trail and Stewardship Update

Each season we want to share our stewardship efforts of the Whitefish Trail and our community's beautiful open lands. Stewardship means the responsible planning and management of resources. The management of the trail itself will be the focus throughout this series, but we will also discuss stewardship of the land beyond the trail.

Spring time is the busiest season out on the Whitefish Trail. Each mile of the trail needs to be examined for downed trees, drainage issues, and infrastructure that needs to be replaced. This year, Lupfer takes the cake for the most downed trees, there were over 30 trees that needed to be cleared along the 3.5 miles loop.

Adopt-a-Trail crews have been hard at work ensuring their sections are in good shape heading into the summer season. Pictured here is Whitefish Mountain Resort on their adopted section of the Reservoir Trail. A total of 62 community members worked on the trail for a total of 248 volunteer hours this spring as part of our Adopt-a-Trail Crew program! Next time you are on the trail, look out for Adopt-a-Trail Crew and Sponsor plaques on signposts. You can learn who is responsible for keeping the section you are on in top notch condition! Check out Park Side Credit Union's plaque at Lion Mountain in the photo below.

The Whitefish Trail Crew has also been hard at work. We built a turnpike at Lupfer to address a permanently wet/low/puddle on the trail. The work entailed using a wide variety of tools to create an elevated trail tread surface and two massive drainages to lift the trail up and out of the muck. Check out this Forest Service diagram and the photos below of the constructed turnpike! If you want to learn more about this process, consider joining the Whitefish Trail Crew for our August workdays (email whitefishtrail@whitefishlegacy.org if interested).

We still have Whitefish Trail Crew hats available! If you're interested in supporting ongoing efforts to maintain the Whitefish Trail, purchasing a hat is a great contribution!

Check out these Whitefish Trail Crew shirts! If you see someone wearing one around town, ask them about their experience volunteering out on the trail. If you want to earn one of your own, all you need to do is attend three volunteer events next year. Email whitefishtrail@whitefishlegacy.org for more info.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the summer's Trail and Stewardship Update!