Cooperative Agreement Between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and American Trails | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Cooperative Agreement Between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and American Trails is a discretionary funding opportunity designed to strengthen how trail-related information, training, and technical support are delivered to both the public and to FWS staff. The award (Funding Opportunity Number F16AS00368) was issued by the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service under CFDA 15.654, with eligibility limited to qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofits (excluding institutions of higher education). The opportunity anticipated a single award with an expected ceiling of $60,000, and the notice indicates the recipient had already been selected by the original closing date. In practical terms, the agreement supports American Trails as a national partner that can modernize digital infrastructure, expand visitor-facing trail information, and improve the training and guidance available for planning, building, and managing trails in ways that align recreation with habitat and wildlife conservation goals.

A major component of the work focuses on fixing a longstanding problem with the American Trails website: it has grown since the late 1990s into a large library of more than 6,000 static HTML pages that require manual updates and can be difficult to navigate. The current approach relies heavily on Google indexing and keyword searching, which often forces users to sift through long lists of results without strong filtering. Under Task 1, American Trails proposes replacing this static system with a unified Content Management System (CMS) built specifically to organize trail resources and make them easier to find and keep current. The CMS is intended to support detailed, structured searches across thousands of resources using fields such as title, state, agency, category, keywords, and full-text article search. The intended outcome is faster, clearer access to up-to-date guidance and resources for the general public and for FWS employees in particular, including information relevant to wildlife trails, refuge recreation, and integrating habitat considerations into trail planning, construction, and maintenance.

Task 2 centers on National Recreation Trails (NRTs), a designation made by the Secretary of the Interior under the National Trails System Act of 1968 to recognize exemplary trails with local or regional significance. FWS sees NRT designation as a practical, cost-effective way to raise the visibility of trails on refuge lands and encourage appropriate visitation, consistent with the agency vision described in Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation. The opportunity emphasizes that trails are often the primary way visitors experience refuge landscapes and learn about their natural and cultural heritage, so improving how these trails are presented online can directly support public engagement. This task includes improving and expanding NRT web content and database records so visitors can find key details such as trail descriptions, directions to trailheads, points of interest, permitted activities, proximity to towns and highways, and links to refuge pages that provide current conditions and events. It also calls for adding photos and downloadable maps supplied by refuges, and developing more "Featured NRT" pages in an attractive article format that highlights seasonal interest, route descriptions, and practical trip-planning information, with special attention to youth opportunities and accessibility for people with disabilities. Another explicit goal is to recognize the role of volunteers and Friends groups who support trail construction, maintenance, and interpretation, while ensuring pages link back to relevant agency and nonprofit partners.

Task 3 supports the National Trails Training Partnership (NTTP), a collaborative framework created through federal-agency and national-organization agreements and formalized in a 2011 memorandum of understanding. The NTTP is aimed at workforce development and coordinated training across agencies and partners involved in trails and outdoor recreation. FWS staff and refuge partners often need specialized expertise to design and maintain sustainable trails, particularly in sensitive habitat areas where poor design can increase erosion, fragment habitat, or intensify wildlife disturbance. Through American Trails stewardship of the NTTP website, this agreement helps keep trail-training resources available to agencies, nonprofits, volunteer groups, and the general public. It also prioritizes practical guidance that improves accessibility to public lands and promotes best practices, while helping users identify training providers and opportunities ranging from youth and conservation corps skills to curricula for higher education and locally tailored training for agencies and community organizations.

Task 4 expands the focus from training to hands-on technical assistance and knowledge sharing for FWS staff and cooperating organizations. The underlying need is that refuge managers may be responsible for trail decisions involving surfacing, drainage, maintenance cycles, visitor facilities, seasonal closures, wildlife viewing considerations, and minimizing habitat impacts, even when trails are not their primary technical specialty. The agreement frames technical assistance as both a conservation tool and a visitor-experience strategy: well-planned trails can concentrate use, reduce unmanaged impacts, and create better opportunities for environmental education and stewardship. This task aligns with Conserving the Future recommendations to use web-based technologies for storing and sharing information and for strengthening internal communication and public inspiration. It also recognizes a workforce transition issue by pointing to the need to document and transfer knowledge from retiring staff. A major deliverable under this task is continued development of the "Planning Trails with Wildlife in Mind" online handbook area, originally based on a Colorado State Parks publication and adapted by American Trails into an online resource. The handbook is positioned as a uniquely comprehensive reference describing both the impacts and benefits of trails as visitor management tools, and the agreement calls for involving FWS staff in expanding it with refuge-based examples and making the content useful not only to agency practitioners but also to volunteers and environmental education providers. Another emphasis is clarifying and sharing information related to accessibility requirements for trails and facilities on federal lands, responding to the historic uncertainty that has led some agencies to delay or avoid accessibility improvements.

Task 5 supports FWS involvement in the American Trails International Trails Symposium, described as a premier biennial event for learning and networking across the trail planning, development, management, and advocacy community. The 2017 Symposium in Dayton, Ohio (May 7-10, 2017) is highlighted as a venue where FWS can share refuge trail success stories, build partnerships beyond traditional audiences, and promote the agency mission in ways consistent with the goal of connecting more people to nature. The program theme, "Trails Take Flight: Connecting People, Places, and Possibilities," is presented as a response to growing demand for cost-effective and sustainable trail solutions. The task description also points to expanded technical training offerings through a partnership with the Professional TrailBuilders Association, including Sustainable Trails Workshops, targeted educational sessions, and mobile workshops that bring participants to field sites to learn from real-world projects involving partnerships, maintenance, design choices, and visitor management.

Task 6 extends the Symposium work through the Hulet Hornbeck Emerging Leaders Scholarship Program, which funds participation by young adults to help build the next generation of trail, conservation, and outdoor recreation professionals. The program began in 2013 and continued in 2015 with scholarship cohorts, aiming to immerse recipients in best practices, provide mentoring, and expose them to a broad professional network. A key feature is intentional diversity and inclusion, reflecting a concern also raised in Conserving the Future about the need for agencies and partner organizations to remain relevant and representative in a changing society. Each scholarship recipient is paired with a mentor aligned to their interests and career goals, reinforcing that the program is not only a conference stipend but also a structured professional development and leadership pipeline. The opportunity lists multiple authorizing statutes tied to wildlife conservation, refuge administration and recreation, youth programs, cultural and archaeological resource protection, volunteer and community partnerships, and federal transportation support for recreation access, underscoring that the scholarship effort is framed as a legitimate extension of broader federal conservation, recreation, and workforce development priorities.

Taken together, the cooperative agreement is essentially a multi-part modernization and capacity-building package: it upgrades American Trails digital infrastructure so users can actually find and use a very large body of trail resources; it improves the quality and reach of National Recreation Trail information for refuge visitors; it strengthens national coordination of trail training through NTTP; it provides targeted technical assistance on sustainable trail practices, habitat-sensitive planning, and accessibility; and it invests in professional development through the International Trails Symposium and a scholarship program meant to bring more diverse young leaders into the field. The common thread across all tasks is improving public connection to refuges and other natural areas while ensuring trail development and management reflect conservation realities, user needs, accessibility expectations, and long-term sustainability.

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