Trail Agent Program

The independent efforts accomplished by Trail Agents are a compliment to the public projects and group efforts led by RFMBA & our valued partner Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers.  If you’re new to the trail volunteering world, we recommend that you first experience a scheduled group event to become familiar with trail stewardship.

As a Trail Agent, your training authorizes you to keep trails free of fallen trees, dedicate a couple hours in the middle of a ride to trimming back a tight section of overgrowth, or to spend an entire day maintaining your favorite local trail, all in a safe and effective manner.

The Trail Agent program is based on the Guide to Independent Stewardship for Trails. The Guide was developed through the Outdoor Stewardship Institute by a committee of dedicated trail advocates to meet the needs of public land managers.  The Guide teaches volunteers the basics needed to perform typical trail maintenance independently or in small groups.  When the training concludes, you will know how to identify and perform basic trail corridor, trail tread and drainage structure maintenance, as well as how to recognize and report on other more complex maintenance needs that are beyond the scope of this training. You will also learn basic safety and risk assessment, along with how to appropriately work with and represent volunteer organizations and land management agencies.

Importantly, as a Trail Agent, we expect that you will schedule your time on the trail to fit well with your family, work, and play time. In fact, we encourage you to keep that folding saw or portable loppers in your pack, get out for a big ride, clear some fallen trees or cut back a remote section of overgrown trail corridor, and report your total volunteer hours as your entire door to door effort.   We also ask Trail Agents to report current trail conditions so we can better coordinate other volunteers –  and our Seasonal Trail Crew staff – to tackle maintenance needs throughout our region.

We’ll leverage your volunteer efforts to help secure additional funding for our local trails. We share annual volunteer hour totals with our potential and recurring funding sources, so your time will not only immediately improve trails for users like yourself, but in the long-run will help us to fund bigger improvements and future trails!

Check our Events page for in-person training sessions planned for this season, AND note that we are always willing to train people directly, one-on-one. Email info@rfmba.org for more information.

There will certainly be more in-person training sessions next spring!

We provide pizza and drinks in a social atmosphere during these training sessions. Please review the steps listed, and read the prerequisite OSI Guide to Independent Stewardship for Trails as well as the Trail Agent Program Manual prior to your training session.

Trail Agents receive a free set of lightweight portable loppers, or a folding hand saw after finishing training.  Additional trail tools and portable tools can be borrowed from RFMBA’s tool caches.

1. As a pre-requisite, read the OSI Guide to Independent Stewardship for Trails prior to your training session. Approximate time: 60-90 minutes.
2. Join a virtual or in-person RFMBA Trail Agent training session.  Read the following Program Manual which includes a Synopsis of key issues to be reviewed during the training session, as well as more info. on the below steps.  RFMBA Trail Agent Program Manual
3. Review current list of Roaring Fork region trails authorized for basic trail maintenance through this program. See page 5 of the Program Manual.
4. Review portable trail tool resources. See page 8 of the Program Manual.
5. Report your efforts & observations on our webform: Work Accomplishments & Trail Condition Reporting.  
6. At the end of your training session, document comprehension of your training via a 10 question Quiz.  See page 10 of the Program Manual for the quiz.
7. Confirm with RFMBA that your field training component has been satisfied.
8. Sign program Agreement and Waiver. See pages 12 & 13 of the Program Manual. (If you register for evening training, please accept the Online Waiver & Agreement.)