Washington Trails Association (WTA) is the voice for hikers in Washington state. WTA protects hiking trails and wildlands, takes volunteers out to maintain our trails, and promotes hiking as a fun and healthy way for people to explore the outdoors.

Volunteers
We are a group of Washington rock climbers, working to promote and preserve access to Washington’s crags. Members of the Washington Climbing Coalition include some who have climbed and in the State for thirty years, along with climbers newer to the sport. Some have been active in climbing area maintenance and working with land managers, while others have previously avoided such involvement.

 Access Fund Affiliation
We are an affiliate organization with the Access Fund, but we are our own organization dedicated to addressing issues of specific concern to Washington climbers.

Washington Business Support
In addition to private donors, the WCC has recieved some support from local businesses. Feathered Friends and the Redmond Vertical World have provided help with fundrasing.

Nonprofit Status
The Washington Climbers Coalition is a nonprofit organization, and enjoys the benefit of 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service. Donations to the WCC are tax deductible.
  Official Site: www.washingtonclimbers.org

History

Signpost Magazine First Published in 1966

WTA first began with Signpost, a grassroots magazine started in 1966 by the late guidebook author Louise Marshall as a way for trail lovers in the Northwest to share their backcountry adventures and trail conditions.  

It soon became much more than a magazine, and under Louise’s leadership it evolved into Washington Trails Association, a community of hikers speaking out for trails and wildlands. The late hiking guidebook author Ira Spring was also an instrumental force in the creation of WTA, serving on its Board of Directors from 1982 until his passing in 2003.

Avid hiker and guidebook author Louise Marshall began publishing the magazine Signpost in 1966.
WTA still publishes a magazine for hikers, now under the name Washington Trails. And the trip reports hikers shared with each other in Signpost are still one of the most-used hiker resources out there – the trip reports section of WTA’s website.

In fact, WTA’s dynamic website launched in 1995 and was an early model for website visitors to contribute and share content, through its photo gallery, trips reports, and online trail guide. The website has continued this legacy in recent years through the launch of the Signpost Blog (named as a tribute to the earlier magazine) and online storm damage map and database.
Greg Ball’s Legacy: WTA’s Trail Maintenance Program

Greg Ball started WTA’s volunteer trail maintenance program in 1993.
Over the past two decades, WTA has been at the forefront of trail issues in our state, continuing to build on its legacy of advocacy and stewardship for hiking trails and wildlands. One of WTA’s most successful accomplishments began as a modest idea of WTA’s former executive director, the late Greg Ball. He envisioned connecting hikers directly with the stewardship of the trails they traveled on. In the early 1990s, as trail budgets began to wane, a backlog of trail maintenance repairs piled up. WTA responded by creating its volunteer trail maintenance program. Although it had humble beginnings, the program quickly grew. That first year, in 1993, volunteers completed 250 hours of trail work on National Parks and Forest trails; in 2006 volunteers logged 75,000 hours. It’s now the largest program of its kind in the nation.

Hiking trails and wildlands in Washington state have benefited tremendously from the sharp increase in volunteer stewardship and trail maintenance on our public lands, especially in light of diminishing trail budgets. “Without the WTA trail volunteers, we would barely be able to keep a lot of trails open," said Gary Paull, wilderness and trails coordinator for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Over the past decade, WTA has added week-long Volunteer Vacations to its program, youth trail maintenance for high school students, and expanded regionally to host trail maintenance work parties throughout the Cascades and Olympics.
Washington Trails Association as a Voice for Hikers

Speaking out for hiking trails has always been a key component of WTA’s core mission. WTA weighs in on a variety of issues that impact hikers, from trail funding to wilderness protection to forest planning.

In the late-1990s WTA mobilized a large-scale lobbying effort to reform a state trail-funding program that was unfair to hikers. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people explore Washington’s parks and forests by hiking, backpacking, sightseeing, mountain biking, and using stock like horses and llamas. They contribute millions of dollars annually through a gas tax to the state NOVA (Non-Highway and Off Road Vehicle Activities) program, but received only a small percentage of the benefit in grants to maintain hiking trails. Recognizing the unfairness of the NOVA program allocations, WTA and other representatives from all recreational trail users came together and developed a consensus solution that reallocates NOVA funds to more fairly benefit the trail users that pay into the NOVA program. After many years of strategic advocacy in this effort, a bill to enact this solution was passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor in 2004. As a result, NOVA funding for non-motorized recreation increased by more than $1 million each year.
Sharing the Joys of our Trails with New Hikers

It’s been fourteen years since Washington Trails Association hosted its first TrailsFest, an outdoor extravaganza packed with fun for all ages. For its first several years, the event was held indoors at Seattle Center, but WTA moved TrailsFest into the great outdoors in 2002 to the shores of Rattlesnake Lake near North Bend. Moving the event outside allowed attendees to experience many hands-on outdoor activities like hiking, rock climbing and kayaking, while still visiting with dozens of outdoor exhibitors and gear companies and attending workshops on everything from predicting mountain weather to hiking with kids.

WTA’s Families go Hiking program and youth outreach introduce new hikers to the outdoors. By Deborah Davis.
The event targets both novice and avid hikers of all ages, offering a little something for everyone who enjoys exploring outside. Next year, WTA’s
15th TrailsFest takes place Saturday, July 19.

In addition to TrailsFest, Washington Trails Association offers several ways for children and teenagers to learn about hiking, including trail maintenance Vacations for Youth, the Families Go Hiking guided hike series, and through partnerships with schools and other youth organizations.

Our mountains and forests are big enough to provide us with a lifetime of outdoor adventure and exploration, but we need trails to get us there. Washington Trails Association plays a unique role in Washington’s environmental community, bringing enthusiasts for recreation and conservation together to protect the awesome wild places we love to explore, and to protect the opportunities for people to enjoy them.