Our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan

Helping communities and landscapes thrive through sustainable trails.

Meet Our New Strategic Plan

The work outlined here builds on our achievements to date and leverages our seat at the table to expand sustainable trails and create transformational change for our community.

Our strategic plan will serve as our guiding light in the coming 5 years so we can make the biggest impact in our community.

We hope you join us as we dig into the future!

- Matt De Young, Executive Director

VISION: We envision a future where outdoor adventures spark collective care for open spaces, helping communities and landscapes thrive together.

MISSION: We build essential connections to our environment through high-quality trails and community-driven stewardship.

Initiative 1: Create and Maintain High-Quality Trails

Expand & Enhance Local Trail Networks
Drive new trail planning efforts, lead the construction of trails, and reimagine existing trails to maximize user experience and sustainability.

Advance Our Offerings as a Regional Trails Leader
Expand our staff's technical skills and enhance our training offerings in trail construction, maintenance, and more.

For over 26 years, we’ve been building and maintaining high-quality trails that help folks get outside and explore nature. Our trails provide much more than ‘just recreation’– they play an essential role in physical and mental health, community and climate resilience, and emergency response. Between 2025 and 2030, we’ll build and upgrade trails that serve all of these critical purposes in our community.

As a trusted partner of agencies like California State Parks, CAL FIRE, the Bureau of Land Management, and the City of Santa Cruz, we can meaningfully contribute to our local Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and initiatives like the California 30 x 30 commitment to improve equitable outdoor access and conserve natural landscapes. To achieve these goals, we’ll invest in our staff’s technical construction capabilities and provide education for the next generation of trail and environmental stewards.

GOAL 1: Expand & enhance local trail networks

GOAL 2: Advance our offerings as a regional trails leader

How we’ll reach the goal:


  • Incorporate forest fuels management into trail work across local networks to improve resilience, safety, and accessibility to open spaces

  • Build Southern and Phase 2 trail networks at Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, including a wheelchair-accessible parking lot and loop

  • Reroute Wilder Ranch State Park trails to boost sustainability and improve year-round access to the park

  • Conduct pilot projects to encourage mountain bike trail development among local land managers

How we’ll reach the goal:


  • Expand Trail Academy classes and professional training curriculum for land managers and other land stewards

  • Invest in advanced Trail Crew training in carpentry, rigging, machine operation, and trail design

  • Launch our Stewardship Corps for underserved youth to earn a living wage while receiving trail and environmental stewardship training

  • Support the development of industry-wide best practices for sustainable trail construction so that builders may reduce impacts on natural resources


Initiative 1 Projects

Cotoni-Coast Dairies

We'll build more CCD Trails

Fire relief

Big basin trail work and more

Wilder Ranch Trail Improvments

We'll fix broken trails

See All Projects

Initiative 2: Foster Community Stewardship

Deepen Collective Stewardship
Increase meaningful community involvement and ownership of trails.

Reach More of Our Diverse Community
Deliver programs and projects to meet our region's recreational and cultural needs so that everyone can access nature.

Over the past 2+ decades, we’ve seen how Dig Days, Trail Academy classes, and events like National Trails Day instill a sense of place and purpose amongst our thousands of annual volunteers. We believe that it takes collective stewardship like this to create a thriving natural environment and community. As part of our strategic plan, we’ll expand our trail programs to reach new communities and ignite more trail users to take action. Through free classes and fun volunteer events, we’ll strengthen neighbors’ connections to one another and to local parks and open spaces.

We want our trails and programs to serve people of all backgrounds and abilities. So we’re going to spend time listening, learning, and working with underserved communities currently detached from open spaces. Our work will bring the joy and benefits of the outdoors to a wider audience and grow a knowledgeable and engaged community that will support local landscapes for generations.

GOAL 1: Deepen collective stewardship

GOAL 2: Reach more of our diverse community

How we’ll reach the goal:


  • Increase participation in public park planning conversations throughout the Peninsula and South Santa Cruz County so more voices are heard at critical decision periods

  • Introduce new advanced skills trainings so volunteers can complete more skilled and in-demand trail work

  • Expand our Trail Sage program to allow more volunteers to lead independent trail work events so we can get more trail work done

  • Expand Senderos para Todos and Trails for All programs throughout Santa Cruz County to introduce more diverse communities to the magic of stewardship

How we’ll reach the goal:


  • Translate all program materials into Spanish and provide Spanish-language Trail Academy courses

  • Perform accessibility assessments on key local trails and champion essential updates to meet more of our community’s diverse needs

  • Advocate for and invest in transportation for volunteers without vehicle access

  • Develop programs that help participation rates mirror Santa Cruz County’s overall demographic spread


Initiative 3: Improve Outdoor Access and Neighborhood Connections

Increase Trail Connectivity
Bring trailheads closer to homes and link open spaces together via new trails.

Improve Access to Trails for Transportation Needs
Help more people leverage recreational trails as key connections for daily commutes.

Trails are a critical connection point for residents to engage with both their environment and one another. While Santa Cruz boasts amazing natural beauty, many neighborhoods in the county are far away from open spaces or are only close to fragmented, tiny trail networks. We want to change that.

Over the next 5 years, we aim to shorten the distance between front doors and trailheads. We will work in partnership with other local organizations to link neighboring open spaces via trails and building trails and pump tracks in communities currently without those amenities. We’ll also integrate recreational trails within key commuting routes to create convenient, enjoyable, and sustainable mobility corridors. Whether seeking a dirt commute or a day-long hiking adventure, we believe that fantastic outdoor access is a cornerstone of our community’s long-term health and happiness.

GOAL 1: Increase trail connectivity

GOAL 2: Improve access to trails for transportation needs

How we’ll reach the goal:


  • Construct the first pump track in the San Lorenzo Valley at Felton’s Covered Bridge County Park

  • Connect isolated neighborhoods throughout Santa Cruz County to nearby open spaces through new trails

  • Link fragmented trail networks and create larger inter-park connections with new trail design and construction

How we’ll reach the goal:


  • Ensure local trails are safe and accessible year-round, so more community members can use them regardless of age or ability

  • Drive regional trail planning efforts with an eye toward both recreation and transportation needs

  • Expand urban trail networks at popular travel destinations across the Santa Cruz Mountains