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Washington Trails Association (WTA) is the voice for hikers in Washington State. WTA protects hiking trails and wild lands, takes thousands of volunteers out to maintain trails, and promotes hiking as a healthy, fun way to explore Washington.
WTA works on trails throughout the state on Federal, state, county and city lands, and is funded primarily through grants, agreements, and donations. WTA’s trail work schedule is determined through meetings with the Land Management agencies during which we collaborate to identify and prioritize trail needs from which we can generate volunteer opportunities. Our volunteer opportunities range from one-day front-country trips, to extended weekend and weeklong work parties.
Many of our volunteers come to WTA through outreach and tabling events, our website, or by “hiking across” our volunteer crews working on the trail. Our website, www.wta.org, is one of the main ways we communicate with volunteers about upcoming events and trail maintenance opportunities. Volunteers sign up for work parties on-line, using our automated system, which sends agendas and reminders directly to their inbox. If additional communication is needed, we do this via email, through contact with our crew leaders and, in the instances of our more involved programs such as our weeklong Volunteer Vacations or multi-day Backcountry Response Teams (BCRTs); we may communicate over the phone.
Safety information and PPE requirements are also communicated to our volunteers not only through our website, but also on-site by the designated WTA crew leader, prior to the commencement of the work day. Hard hats, boots, gloves, and long pants are required on every work party, and additional PPE can be required depending on the project. A tool briefing and safety talk is lead by WTA’s trained crew leaders and assistant crew leaders prior to leaving the trailhead for the worksite.
Volunteers are responsible for getting to and from the trailhead for each work party. We do encourage carpooling and provide an automated on-line avenue for volunteers to try to coordinate this. However, WTA is not responsible for transportation. Our carpooling system generally works very well, though there are times when folks cancel and this affects the transportation needs of other carpooling-dependent volunteers.
We have both paid and volunteer crew leaders and do both formal and informal training in wilderness first aid, basic first aid, and CPR, leadership skills, technical skills etc. WTA also has a set of requirements that must be met prior to advancing somebody to the status of a trained WTA crew leader. WTA also has a strong base of volunteer assistant crew leaders who help ensure that all our volunteers follow our three rules: “safety” first, “fun” second, and “getting the work done,” third. This motto seems to motivate our volunteers to be successful in all three. |
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Overview
