| One of the largest conservation and preservation efforts in the history of the United States, the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) is much more than just a line on a map: it is a living museum of the American West, a place to reconnect with nature and a unifying force bringing people of all walks of life together.
Extending 3,100 miles from Canada to Mexico, the CDT encounters ecosystems ranging from tundra to desert, hosts a rich variety of wildlife and preserves nearly 2,000 natural, cultural and historical assets. Considered one of the greatest long-distance trails in the world, it is the highest and most remote of our National Scenic Trails.
2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the National Trails System Act, the legislation that officially designated the better-known Appalachian and Pacific Crest National Scenic Trails. The CDT was designated 10 years later by Congress, but was largely overlooked until the formation of the nonprofit Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA) in 1995.
The Importance of Trails
The National Scenic and National
Historic Trails created by the 1968 National Trail System Act and augmented by subsequent legislation serve not only to preserve the surrounding land in largely the same condition as encountered by early explorers, but also allow new generations to make discoveries of their own as they journey along these approximately 46,000 miles of trails.
Trails are a way for people to experience pristine wilderness settings while minimizing their impact to the environment. If Americans never have the opportunity to experience the wonders of these remaining wild places, why would they care about protecting them? Today more than ever, private citizens need to be involved with our public lands.
The diminishing funding for recreation allotted to the federal land managers necessitates the use of volunteers to construct and maintain recreational resources such as trails. Trails connect people not only to the environment but to the foresight of the legendary conservationists who created these public lands for the use of future generations.
The Continental Divide Trail
Picture yourself on one of the CDT’s longest roadless sections, right in the middle of the half-million-acre Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado, where the Trail tracks through high glacial valleys and offers views of the craggy Needle Mountains. Or on the Trail in central New Mexico, where the desert meets the mountains, and the span of one day’s hike offers an immense diversity of scenery and wildlife.
Ranging from desert to tundra from 4,000 to 14,000 feet , the completed sections of the CDT provide a variety of recreational activities to many hundreds of thousands of people each year, including hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, wildlife viewing, fishing, hunting and sight-seeing. For the long-distance hiking and horse packing community, the CDT is one-third of the “Triple Crown” and each year up to 100 ambitious travelers successfully complete an end-to-end hike.
Parts of the CDT are still in the planning phases and trail users must bushwhack through, or road walk around, incomplete stretches of the Trail. A completed CDT will make the backcountry of our public lands accessible to more people and will reduce the impact of trail users by concentrating them on a well-marked and resilient pathway.
The Trail links a breathtaking array of public lands: 25 national forests, 21 wilderness areas (including the first designated wilderness area, the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico), three national parks: Glacier, Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone, one national monument and eight Bureau of Land Management resource areas.
The Continental Divide Trail protects the unique natural history of the Divide for future generations and provides the opportunity for more Americans to access and enjoy remote Wilderness areas, experience Native American cultures and view abundant wildlife. The CDT offers a primitive backcountry experience where Trail users can follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, explore old mining sites and gain more of an appreciation for our public lands.
The Continental Divide Trail Alliance
The U.S. Forest Service is charged with the overall responsibility for the coordination, planning, location, development and management of the CDT in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.
As the leading non-governmental partner in the creation, management and protection of the CDT, the nonprofit Continental Divide Trail Alliance organizes volunteer efforts, secures private sector funding and educates the public about the Trail. While 67 percent of the CDT has been completed, serious challenges remain for the final 1,043 miles.
Volunteers have been the lifeblood of the CDT, donating their time to be a vital part of this historic undertaking, and devoting themselves to the hard physical labor necessary to build a trail mile-by-mile. Often times trekking miles into the backcountry to arrive at a project site, CDTA volunteers build new tread, construct bridges and trailheads, repair eroded and damaged stretches of trail and scout potential CDT locations.
To date, CDTA has organized more than 9,000 volunteers to help complete the Trail.
Since 1995, more than $4 million in volunteer labor has been coordinated by the CDTA. In 2007, more than 1,000 volunteers completed nearly 60 projects in all five Trail states: New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. CDTA volunteers ranged in age from 8 to 82 and represented 33 states and four countries.
CDTA volunteers have also been engaged in completing two border-to-border surveys of the CDT, presenting a clear picture of the progress that has been made.
Involving Young People with a National Treasure
One unique initiative developed for the 2007 trail building season was the CDTA Family Volunteer Adventures program funded by Coleman. Through the program, families with children 10 years of age and older participated in select CDTA volunteer projects
"CDTA Family Volunteer Adventures represents another way Coleman is working to get kids outside and recreating," says Sam Solomon of Coleman. “A completed CDT will make the outdoors accessible to more people and will encourage a variety of recreation opportunities. This program also helps to further Coleman’s mission to get more people involved with stewardship of our public lands and teaches young people to enjoy and protect it for future generations.”
A follow up piece will discuss the CDTA Youth Corps program, another way CDTA is engaging youth with public land stewardship.
Present and Future Challenges
Private land issues, diminishing federal land manager recreation budgets and a lack of public awareness are three of the most serious roadblocks in completing the Trail. A major victory for the Trail came in May 2007, when Anadarko Petroleum Corporation granted 18 miles of recreation easements near Rawlins, Wyoming, taking the Trail off the side of a highway and opening up a 40 mile-long stretch of the CDT.
CDTA leverages federal funding for the CDT through utilizing volunteer labor, assisting with the trail-planning process and raising private sector contributions.
Engaging the public with free guided “Get on the Divide” adventures at CDTA’s annual TrailFest celebration in Buena Vista, Colorado, making presentations at various events and through media outreach, CDTA is building national awareness for the project. Recently featured on the Esquire list of emerging ideas, the Trail is becoming better known even by those outside the long-distance hiking community.
Josh Shusko is communications coordinator for the Continental Divide
Trail Alliance. He has more than five years of experience in nonprofit
public relations. Previously, Josh served as Communications Associate
for America's Community Bankers, a Washington, D.C.-based trade
association. His experience includes media relations, website
coordination, e-communications, client/member relationship management
and strategic planning. Josh has an extensive writing and editing
background that includes press releases, newsletters, articles and
marketing materials. In 2006, he fulfilled a lifelong dream when he
thru-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, a journey more than five months
and 2,100 miles in length. Josh has a Bachelor's Degree in Political
Science from Virginia Tech. |
