TAP moves to Trailblazers in 2023

The Trail Adoption Program (TAP) was started in 2016 by FAST (Spearheaded by Charles Williams) to support maintaining the quickly growing miles of soft surface trails in Bentonville and Bella Vista.  The program provides critical support to the trail network by allowing individuals and organizations to adopt sections of trails.  Each adopter is responsible for raking and pruning back vegetation, reporting major washouts and downed trees, and generally keeping an eye on their trail segments. 

As the number of adopters grew, the need for dedicated management of the program increased.  In March of 2022, Trailblazers partnered with FAST by hiring staff (Ciara Logan) to grow and scale the volunteer initiative.  As a result, we saw the number of people adopting trails increase from 200 to over 500. Those adopters spent more than 10,000 hours last year maintaining trails in the Bella Vista, Bentonville, and Rogers areas. We also purchased new tools and storage units in Slaughter Pen in Bentonville and at Lake Atalanta in Rogers to make it easier for volunteers to access tools and workdays.

Last year, we also saw great participation from local clubs and organizations. We had NICA teams from Bentonville and Siloam Springs participate in the program, with the Lincoln Junior High team receiving the year's volunteer group of the year award.  We also saw more engagement from other trails user groups this past year. The Mimostly Hiking club adopted sections of Tunnel Vision in Bella Vista, and the Benton County Running Club adopted trails in Lake Atalanta.

Going forward, we are excited to announce that Trailblazers will fully manage the TAP program. FAST will still be involved as they will host a monthly Trail Maintenance Education series, in partnership with Trailblazers, that encourages more trail stewardship. The move to Trailblazers allows for more resources to be provided for the program to continue its growth. This coming year the program will receive support from Signature Bank and Bike Rack Brewery, allowing us to host quarterly appreciation events and start awarding a Volunteer of the Month. We will also unveil a new system for signing up as an adopter and logging volunteer hours. We would love to work with more NICA teams from Northwest Arkansas schools.  

If you know of a club or organization that walks, hikes, or enjoys trails, please let us know, and we will contact them. TAP is not just for mountain bikers but also hikers, runners, and walkers!

We look forward to expanding the program’s reach further in 2023 by adding more trail systems for volunteers to adopt. So stay tuned for additional announcements!