Trails Stewardship Program
The Work
The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation Trail Crew is a professional trail crew working in collaboration with the US Forest Service’s Salt Lake Ranger District and a variety of volunteer groups. The Trail Crew builds, maintains, and improves trails throughout Millcreek Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Little Cottonwood Canyon, and also maintains trails along the Wasatch Front. Working in both national forest and wilderness areas, the Trail Crew performs annual maintenance, such as erosion device maintenance and construction, trail clearing and brushback, and new trail construction projects. The Crew is focused on making durable structural improvements such as rock staircases and retaining structures that will withstand the growing recreation demands on the forest. See some of CCF’s recent projects.
As the number of recreation visits to the tri-canyons area of the Salt Lake Ranger District surpasses that of Yellowstone National Park, there is increased stress on our recreation systems. It is the goal of the Trails Stewardship Program to increase effective trail usership (limiting off-trail erosion); increasing the resiliency of tread surfaces to erosion events like heavy use and spring flooding; building structures to retain sediment and increase trail drainage; and protecting streams by improving stream crossing infrastructure. Meet this year’s crew.
The Trails Stewardship Program is generously funded by REI Co-op, the Petzl Foundation, American Trails, the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation, and the Central Wasatch Commission. As a principal funder of the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation, the National Forest Foundation works on behalf of the American public to inspire personal and meaningful connections to our National Forests. By directly engaging Americans and leveraging private and public funding, the NFF leads forest conservation efforts and promotes responsible recreation. Each year the NFF restores fish and wildlife habitat, facilitates common ground, plants trees in areas affected by fires, insects and disease and improves recreational opportunities. The NFF believes our National Forests and all they offer are an American treasure and are vital to the health of our communities.
Interested in financially supporting the work of the Trails Stewardship Program? Learn about our Adopt-A-Trail opportunities.
Make an impact: Volunteer with the Trail Crew
The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation strives to continually focus on stewardship, organizing a variety of summer stewardship events which include National Trails Day, Canyon Restoration Day, and National Public Lands Day. During these events, the Foundation utilizes the help of hundreds of volunteers to accomplish large-scale projects. The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation also works to educate the public on the importance and value of our public lands through stewardship. Through our partnerships and community engagement events, our stewardship education program reaches both experienced outdoor enthusiasts as well as first-time trail users. This effort allows anyone using our public lands the opportunity to become stewards of the land themselves.
The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation hosts volunteers during the months of May – September to help with trail stewardship in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Mill creek Canyon.
Sign-up to become a volunteer
Trail Stewardship Volunteer Activity Dates 2024:
- Saturday April 27th: CCF Earth Day
- Saturday June 1: National Trails Day
- Thursday June 13th: Climbing Access
- Thursday June 20th
- Thursday June 27th
- Saturday June 29th: Climbing Access
- Tuesday July 9th: Solitude Trails Day
- Saturday July 20th: Wasatch 100
- Thursday July 25th: Trails at Solitude
- Saturday July 27th: Wasatch 100
- Thursday Aug 1st: Wasatch 100
- Saturday Aug 3rd: Wasatch 100
- Thursday Aug 8th: Wasatch 100
- Saturday Aug 10th: Trail Work
- Thursday Aug 22nd: Trail Work
- Saturday Sept 7th: Climbing Access
- Thursday Sept 19th: East Gate
- Saturday Sept 28th: National Public Lands Day
- Thursday Oct 3rd: East Gate
For more information, please contact us directly using this form