Our Stories

New Trail Progress Report Celebrates Accomplishments on the North Country Trail

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Andrea Ketchmark

2015 was an incredible year on the North Country National Scenic Trail.

Through innovative and collaborative partnerships and the dedication thousands of volunteers, our trail miles and amenities continue to grow, one year and one project at a time.

Without all of these partners, there would be no North Country Trail, but because there are so many partners, the full picture of what’s happening can be difficult to grasp.

1,095 volunteers worked 66,166 hours, valued at $1.5 million by the independent sector!

This Trail Progress report is our newest tool to communicate the accomplishments of this vast and varied partnership. It summarizes our new trail miles, improvements, volunteer hours and money invested directly in the trail in 2015.

We’ve captured not only the North Country Trail Association accomplishments but those of our Affiliates, Partners and the Federal and State agencies that manage the trail and we’ll continue to strive for better and more complete information each year. This is only the beginning!

In 2015, our volunteers and partners built 23 miles of new North Country Trail giving us 2,880 miles of the NCT that are open for use!

The highlighted projects we’ve chosen give a representative look at accomplishments in several categories: construction and maintenance, planning and protection.

But they are only a sampling of the work by volunteers and agencies across seven states. With the accompanying online story map, we’ll be able to list many more projects which will only add to your sense of awe at all we can accomplish when working toward a common goal.

$398,155 was spent on construction, maintenance, supplies and labor.

With this report, our partners and volunteers will be able to answer the questions:

What did we collectively accomplish on the North Country National Scenic Trail in 2015?
How much have we built in the past decade?
How many resources are we putting directly into the trail?

Spreading that message is a reminder to all of us to celebrate what we do and it’s an invitation to new people to join us in this quest to build the longest National Scenic Trail in America.