Thank You for a Phenomenal National Trails Challenge

Your generosity made all the difference, thank you! In the face of federal funding cuts that threatened our Conservation Corps program and critical trail work, our community rallied with incredible strength and support.

During our recent National Trails Challenge, you helped us soar past our $50,000 match goal, raising over $110,000 to keep crews in the field, restore native habitats, and protect the public trail lands we all love. It was our most successful Trails Day challenge yet.

That’s an extraordinary achievement, trail family. Read on for more about this year’s efforts—and how we rose to meet the challenge, together.

A Vital Conservation Program in Jeopardy

In April 2025, the Trail Conference learned that all AmeriCorps operations in New York State had ceased due to federal funding cuts. This sudden loss put our trail lands at risk, and it threatened the future of our Trail Conference Conservation Corps program.

For more than a decade, the Trail Conference Conservation Corps, powered through AmeriCorps, has changed lives, launched careers, and improved public landscapes across the Northeast. Since it began in 2012, over 300 Corps members have dedicated more than 280,000 hours to caring for the trails, habitats, and public lands we all cherish.

The loss of federal AmeriCorps funding meant our partnership with AmeriCorps, at least for now, was over. It cut off crucial funding support and prematurely terminated the AmeriCorps service agreements of members who had planned to join us this year, many of whom were already en route from across the country to begin their work.

The Trail Conference Takes Action

In the wake of these setbacks, the Trail Conference acted swiftly to restructure our 2025 Corps season and transition as many roles as possible into seasonal positions. We made great progress—but to keep our upcoming projects on track, we turned to the strength of our community.

That’s why we launched the National Trails Challenge: to celebrate our beloved trail lands and work together to sustain our trail crews on the ground and mobilize volunteers to fill the gap left by federal funding cuts.

The campaign, which ran from May 20 to June 7—National Trails Day—was a resounding success. Thanks to your generous support, we will:

• Keep essential trail-building crews on high-priority projects identified by our regional partners

• Deploy our restructured Conservation Corps crew on critical habitat restoration efforts

• Provide outreach and education services to popular summits in the Catskill Forest Preserve and Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve

• Empower volunteers and staff to step up where federal support has pulled back

We heard from so many of you during the National Trails Challenge, and your encouragement fueled our resolve. While our 2025 Conservation Corps season now looks very different and more work lies ahead, your commitment empowers us to find bold new solutions that will bridge the funding gap and move our mission forward.

From all of us here at the Trail Conference: thank you for showing up and standing with us. Together, we’re keeping trails open, safe, and thriving for everyone.