As a keystone component of the Park’s 75th Anniversary, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Friends of the Smokies are working to create a $4 million “Trails Forever” Endowment. The annual proceeds from the Endowment will be used to fund an annual trails improvement program which will undertake high-priority trail projects throughout the Park. Examples are major trail reconstruction and relocation of trails, building trails elevated on logs – i.e. “turnpiking” to carry them across wetlands, or installing new foot-logs and bridges across streams.

The work would be accomplished by a dedicated workforce, in coordination with the Park’s existing Tennessee and North Carolina Trail Maintenance Crews who continue to conduct the recurring routine maintenance tasks needed to keep trails from deteriorating. The Trails Forever Crew will be created each season from a combination of paid trail seasonal workers, volunteers, Student Conservation Association Crews and others, with the composition of the workforce to vary each year depending upon the type and complexity of the projects selected.

The first $2 million towards the $4 million Endowment has been committed by the Knoxville-based ASLAN Foundation which was founded by a Friends Charter Board Member, the late Lindsay Young. The Friends plans to undertake a $2 million capital campaign to raise the $2 million in matching funds needed to create the Endowment and will then manage the funds in perpetuity.

Volunteering for Trails Forever

We are currently seeking energetic volunteers to work on the Trails Forever Crew. Volunteers will have the opportunity to do a variety of rewarding and challenging work. We invite you to come and experience the Great Smoky Mountains and take part in this new and exciting program. The Trails Forever crew will be working on the Forney Ridge and Ramsey Cascades Trails beginning on October 6, 2008.

To volunteer on the Trails Forever crew or for more information, contact Jeremy Sweat.

We would like to thank the following people for volunteering on the 2008 Trails Forever Crew: