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Southeast Trails Program

  

STP Image 1  AHS STP image 2  AHS STP image 3
A HIKING TRAIL NETWORK IN THE SOUTHEAST     

In 2004, American Hiking Society launched the Southeast Trails Program (SETP) to help build capacity among trail and hiking organizations in the Southeastern states - including fundraising, volunteerism, advocacy, environmental education, marketing, and organizational development assistance.  Over the past 5 years, American Hiking helped launch the Southeast Foot Trails Coalition (SEFTC), which helps communities to develop a 5,000-mile interconnected network of trails throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and southern Virginia.  The SEFTC seeks to promote and protect the long distance foot trails of the Southeast and to connect trails and their natural trail corridors by building a regional trail system and an active network of hiking organizations.

 

Recent successes

  • New SEFTC President, Rick Harris, outlines organizational goals 
  • SEFTC hosted their Annual Conference in Monteagle, Tennessee
  • American Hiking drafted letters to Senators Alexander and Corker, and to Representative Duncan in support of proposed wilderness additions in the Cherokee National Forest - Upper Bald River Wilderness, Little Frog Wilderness, Big Frog Wilderness, Bald River Gorge Wilderness and Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness areas to Tennessee delegation on behalf of the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition  
  • Nature Valley's video film crew captured a day-long trail volunteer project on May 4, 2008 at Chickamauga National Military Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which included the participation of American Hiking staff and 15 SEFTC leadership council volunteers.  Check out this popular video stream on YouTube.
  • Assisted in the facilitation of a new strategic plan for the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail.

 

Check out American Hiking accomplishments in the Southeast Trails Community from 2003-2008 here. 

 

Jeff Brewer“We’re part of a bigger picture now. We had blinders on before American Hiking established its Chattanooga office. Now I can get the answers to my questions with one quick email…to American Hiking Society’s Chattanooga office, or to any of my trail colleagues out there in the Southeast. It’s been a win-win situation.”
- Jeff Brewer, Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail 
/uploadedImages/Our_Work/Shad Baker IMG 1.jpg“Not only did we get assistance with our first strategic plan, but networking with organizations that have been around longer has been both inspiring and instructional. As part of our five-year strategic plan, we decided to focus on increasing visibility for our trail, which hadn’t even occurred to us until Jeffrey Hunter came out and hiked it with us. Since then, the state has invested in a parking area for us for $100,000. We’ve also secured a grant of $105,000 to construct parking, signage, and other improvements. We constructed a kiosk at the crossing on US23 and use is already up 500%. And we received a $10,000 National Trails Fund grant from American Hiking, which we used to build several miles of trail and a shelter at a historic site.”
- Shad Baker, Pine Mountain Trail Conference