Deschutes Trails Coalition announces 2022 Small Projects Grant awards to support trail stewardship

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Deschutes Trails Coalition has announced awards totaling nearly $40,000 for their annual Small Projects Grant program.

This program funds trail-related projects within the Deschutes National Forest.  Now in its sixth year, the program has cumulatively funded nearly $200,000 since its start 2018. Project work will occur between August 2022 and Sept. 30, 2023.

Congratulations to this year’s recipients: Friends of Central Cascades Wilderness (FCCW), Sisters Trails Alliance (STA), Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA)- Bend Chapter, Meissner Nordic Ski Club, Central Oregon Nordic Club (CONC), and the Deschutes National Forest.

Eight projects were selected to be funded:

• Improving winter trail accessibility for persons with disabilities at Wanoga, Swampy and Meissner Sno-Parks
• Purchase of a new router with which to make wooden routed trail signs made locally by a volunteer
• For the Whychus Creek area: volunteer and training support, education and signage, and trail use counters to support required use monitoring and the stewardship and preservation of this area
• New high-quality maps at popular mountain bike trail access points throughout the West Bend area
• New signs and ski trail markers, and construction of reroutes and new trail segments to improve the navigation of the snowshoe and un-groomed ski trail network accessed along Cascade Lakes Highway
• Protection of a repeatedly vandalized and archeologically sensitive site through the decommissioning of a user-created trail accessing it, as well as physical barriers
• Addressing management issues along the Phil’s Trailhead access road by delineating areas of appropriate use and supporting re-vegetation
• Replace aging trail signs within the network of trails around Black Butte

For more information about the DTC Small Projects Grant, please visit DTC at https://deschutestrailscoalition.org/trail-grants or email DTC’s Executive Director, Jana Johnson, at deschutestrailscoalition@gmail.com .

About the Deschutes Trails Coalition (DTC)

The Deschutes Trails Coalition (DTC) formed in 2017 from diverse local and regional recreation stakeholders who came together to provide community leadership and support to Central Oregon land managers in an effort to address escalating challenges to our trail system. The coalition is made up of nearly 35 trails organizations, land management agencies, visitor bureaus, conservation organizations, businesses, and organizations representing youth, and underserved populations. More specifically, DTC’s vision is a deliberately-designed and sustainably-maintained regional trail system that is stewarded by land managers and the community, and upholds the four Pillars of Sustainability:  environmental, social, economic, and physical.