Thousands of volunteers help maintain WA trails each year

SNOHOMISH COUNTY - Biking on the Centennial Trail, it would be easy to miss the short loop branching off into wetlands just north of Lake Cassidy.

Designed as a quieter forest respite from the busy former rail corridor, the loop trail is just 500 feet long. Right now, parts of it are still a path carved into raw dirt; others are beginning to take clearer shape, with layers of rock topped by compacted gravel.

When it opens this summer, it will be the result of hundreds of hours of volunteer labor from the Washington Trails Association, which has worked with Snohomish County Parks to carve it out of the forest.

For more than 30 years, WTA has marshaled volunteers to help maintain Washington's beloved trails, which stretch across federal, state and local parks and forests. An average of 3,500 volunteers each year help support 160,000 hours of maintenance work, trail program director Jen Gradisher said.

This spring, a number of projects are helping clear damage caused by flooding and storms in December. Others, like the Centennial Trail project, are part of contracts with local, state and federal agencies. In the wake of federal cuts to Forest Service and National Park Service staff, volunteers' work has become even more important, Gradisher said.

Snohomish County has had a long relationship with WTA, said parks division Director Sharon Walker, who called the organization "fantastic partners."

"They bring trail-building expertise and volunteers to the site," she said. "It's just a great way to get some of these projects done."

On the trail with volunteers

On a recent April day, dappled sunlight filtered through the trees as volunteers walked through the forest next to the Centennial Trail, learning what they'd be working on that day.

Many volunteer "work parties" are just one day, especially in lower elevations closer to the Interstate 5 corridor. In the summer when mountain snow melts, groups travel into the backcountry for multiday volunteer trips at higher elevations.

When the project began in February, volunteers were focused on sawing and removing fallen logs and several tons of rock, crew leader Andy James said. Now, after about 20 days of work, there was the clear skeleton of a trail.

When Snohomish County purchased a parcel of land adjacent to the Centennial Trail in 1992, it received a grant from the state Recreation and Conservation Office. The trail will fulfill the grant's requirement that the public can access the parcel of land regardless of mobility limitations.

The county aims for the trail to be certified as compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, ready for use by wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Requirements mandate that a trail be 36 inches wide, with sections that are 5 feet wide to enable passing. The trail also has to have a firm, stable surface (like asphalt or compacted gravel) and an average grade of 5% or less.

At one section of the trail, Cindy Ferraro measured to ensure the width of the trail as it twisted and turned around cedar and spruce trees. At points where the trail was too narrow, she used a grub hoe to clear dirt and small roots.

Ferraro started volunteering last year when she retired from working as a therapist. After five days of work, volunteers earn their own green WTA hard hat with their name on it. Ferraro's hat has stickers spelling out "Cindy" on one side and "Lopper" on the other - a nod to singer Cyndi Lauper and also one of the most common tools used in trail work.

She's hoping to work her way up to being an assistant crew leader - volunteers that have gone through specialized training and an interview process - but first needs to memorize the names and uses of the many trail work tools - the Pulaski tool, the McLeod, the pick mattock. "That's the hardest part," she said.

Another group worked together using an extendible pole saw to trim low-hanging branches. As one person held the end of a branch to stabilize it, others took turns maneuvering the saw high above their head.

"It's tough," said WTA chief program officer Kindra Ramos, who had joined the volunteer crew for the day. "I tell people (trail work) is like extreme gardening, and I felt that today."

There's a lot of work happening, evidenced by the progress made on the trail in just one day. But core to WTA's volunteer policy, James said, is fun. The whole group took a break to munch on candy at 10:30 a.m., and volunteers joked that WTA's acronym also stands for "We Talk A Lot" or "Walking Tools Around."

As volunteers pounded rebar into wood to solidify a turnpike, assistant crew leader Bob Adler - a seasoned volunteer who's put in more than 700 days of WTA volunteering over 28 years - sang railroad songs and clapped to the beat of the jackhammer.

Individual work parties often have a waitlist, but people often get called off the waitlist and new volunteers shouldn't be discouraged, James said. Another variation on WTA: "We Take Anybody."

Recovering from storms and cuts

After intense flooding in December, WTA is working to assess damage to trails across Western Washington and prioritize where they work this spring and summer. It's hard to know the extent of the damage until snow melts, Gradisher said, but the floods caused landslides, washouts and toppled trees.

The Mount Baker/Snoqualmie and Okonagan/Wenatchee national forests have seen the most damage, Gradisher said; in the Mount Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest, more than 40% of roads were affected by the floods.

Working with local, state and federal agencies is a key part of flooding recovery and general trail maintenance. WTA coordinates with agencies like the Forest Service year-round to prioritize projects, Gradisher said.

But as the Trump administration sought to revamp the federal government and offered buyouts, the U.S. Forest Service lost more than 5,800 employees in the first half of 2025 - about 16% of its staff, according to a report from the Office of Inspector General. The National Park Service has lost nearly a quarter of its staff since Trump took office last year, the National Parks Conservation Association estimated.

Washington state's Department of Natural Resources recently announced cuts to its recreation services, which include trail maintenance. As the state faces a budget crunch, more than $8 million has been cut from DNR's recreation program in less than two years, the state agency said.

Even though volunteers provide much of the manpower for trail work, staff at public lands agencies have specialized technical skills and work with WTA for permitting and partnership agreements.

Cuts to federal forestry staff can stall projects, "not to mention the loss of knowledge taking place across the nation as we're losing folks who have been tenured in roles," Gradisher said. "We heavily depend on our federal partners to help get the work done."

In the meantime, the work of volunteers is critical in filling gaps, and anyone interested can contribute in some way, WTA staff said.

"There's such a huge appetite for folks to come out and do this stuff, that just amazes me," James said. "People cannot wait to get out and come be part of something positive in the world."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 4:54 PM.