Calling All Outfitters and Guides Operating on Forest Service Land!

Do you guide and work on US Forest Service trails? Have you felt the impact of the USFS trail maintenance backlog while out with clients?

Well now there’s a pilot program to address that issue, through the Outfitter & Guide Trail Stewardship Pilot Program. This program is one requirement from the National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act, a bipartisan effort signed into law by congress in 2016.

The Forest Service manages the largest trail system in the country, a whopping 159,000 miles! These trails offer a vast array of opportunities to recreate, to connect with public lands, and foster healthy communities. As they say, it takes a village, which is the case for the massive amounts of land managed by the Forest Service which is why the Outfitter & Guide Stewardship Pilot Program was introduced. The Outfitter & Guide Trail Stewardship Pilot Program encourages partnership between local outfitters and guides and U.S. Forest Service officials to reduce fees incurred by outfitters and guides by offsetting permit fees through mutually agreed upon work and standards. We are stoked to hear about this awesome program that encourages collaboration and teamwork to take care of the trails we love and enjoy.

National Forests selected for the pilot program are:

• Bitterroot National Forest
• Kootenai National Forest
• Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests
• Bighorn National Forests(Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland
• San Juan National Forest
• Shoshone National Forest
• Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests
• Gila National Forest
• Salmon-Challis National Forest
• Gifford Pinchot National Forest
• Siuslaw National Forest
• Umpqua National Forest
• Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
• Willamette National Forest
• National Forests of Mississippi
• Ouachita National Forest
• Mark Twain National Forest
• Wayne National Forest
• Tongass National Forest

If you operate in any of these National Forests reach out to your Regional Office for more information.