North American Trail Sector Survey
The North American Trail Sector Survey was the first of its kind and was conducted through a partnership between Trans Canada Trail and American Trails. This report details the responses received from more than 500 people who volunteer or work in the trail sector in Canada and the United States of America.
The survey aimed to capture the state of the trail sector at that moment in time, with the results being used to inform new resources and funding opportunities that better support trails.
Respondents included people connected to not-for-profit trail groups, Indigenous communities, as well as municipal, county, district, state, provincial, territorial, and federal departments responsible for trails.
The survey covered the following eight topic areas and results about each topic are included in the report, organized by the respondent country:
- Accessibility and inclusion
- Nature and climate
- Demographics
- Organizational capacity
- Projects and investment
- Staffing and volunteers
- Tourism
- Trail maintenance
Results include:
- Most respondents represented community-based, non-governmental trail organizations, and of them 74% (Canada) and 59% (USA) had fewer than 20 people involved in managing or operating trails
- 57% (Canada) and 42% (USA) of respondents indicated that they regularly collaborate with Indigenous groups for projects
- 51% (Canada) and 45% (USA) of respondents report that their trails are accessible for people with disabilities
- 16% (Canada) and 15% (USA) of respondents believe their organization has the capacity to manage the impacts of climate change
- Most groups seek the assistance of volunteers – 85% (Canada) and 90% (USA)
- 66% (Canada) and 77% (USA) of respondents have websites with trail maps
- 32% (Canada) and 42% (USA) of respondents indicated that they could soon see trail closures due to major infrastructure failures
