In Partnership With WeConservePA

Workshop Description and Project Key Accomplishments:

The Southwestern PA Climbers Coalition (SWPACC), in partnership with Access Fund, the national climbing advocacy group, hosted this one-day workshop, which provided in-depth technical skills training for sustainable trail management in a “train the trainer” format. Originally planned to be a 3-day workshop over a weekend, we pivoted to a one-day training to accommodate multiple requests from interested participants. The workshop featured both classroom and field work, and covered key concepts including site evaluation, trail design, required maintenance, and stone work, among others. Given this was the first time SWPACC had ever hosted an event like this, we were pleased by the final result. The workshop participants were an extremely engaged group, and the smaller number allowed for deeper connections with each other and the trainer.

A positive outcome that we did not anticipate from this is the demonstration of SWPACC’s leadership in providing helpful resources to trail stakeholders in southwestern Pennsylvania. Our outreach extended to more than a dozen organizations, including PA state park and forest staff, Game Commission staff, land and trail stewardship organizations, and local climbing organizations across the state and beyond. We had relationships with some, but not all the organizations. Our work in promoting the workshop established SWPACC as a credible resource and positioned us as a strong partner for future projects. We are grateful to the staff at Ohiopyle State Park for their help in executing this training. They worked with us to coordinate logistics, offered recommendations on restaurants, and donated space at the Visitors Center and campground to support this project.

Evaluation Results:

SWPACC implemented a survey at the conclusion of the training to which 80% of participants responded. Of the responses, 100% indicated the workshop met expectations; they learned something new; and they plan to apply things they’ve learned toward future efforts. When asked if there were suggestions for improvement, one person responded no, and the other person who responded said, “I really enjoyed the training. It was super informative and I will be a lot more comfortable taking a leadership roll [sic] at our next stewardship / trail work day.” When asked what participants found most valuable about the training, they shared the following:

“The information in the classroom. And on [sic] the hands on lesson”
“I knew nothing, so all of the information about trail maintenance and sustainability was valuable.”
“It was thorough and helped me understand why certain things work and others don’t.”
“water drainage is key; rip-rap steps are awesome; figure out ways to spread climbers out so they aren’t all in one spot; study the location and determine what people do where in order to come up with a good solution; pay attention to the ‘trail corridor’”

Feedback was positive across the board.

From an organizational perspective, overall the planning and coordination of the event went well. The staff at Access Fund and Ohiopyle State Park were helpful partners. In the future, we may work to promote the event farther in advance. For this training, we began outreach six weeks before the training. Several people expressed interest in attending but had prior commitments. Some of these cases included requests for us to host a one-day training rather than over a weekend. Perhaps if we had begun our outreach eight or 10 weeks in advance, we would have seen higher registrations. Another consideration is time of year. We could speculate that during the fall, individuals who would benefit from this training are away for the weekend, climbing or doing other recreational activities. A weekend in mid-summer, or later in the fall could be something to try next time.

Finally, the location was a great site for the training. The trails we used for the site assessment have seen years of erosion, with evidence of mitigation efforts that were perfect for participant evaluation. Further, participants were able to build off trailwork SWPACC had conducted with Ohiopyle staff previously; at that time, volunteers had begun to build a stone staircase to access the climbing area. The work we were able to do during this training, from learning how to split and shape stone, to moving stone weighing hundreds of pounds, to setting it in place, provided meaningful, hands-on learning opportunities for the participants, and contributed to the continued building of the sustainable staircase.

We are excited to build off the success of this workshop and grow the number of educated trail stewards here in our region.