adopt-a-trail

SVAT Adopt-A-Trail

The Sussex Valley All-Terrain Club (your club) has embarked on a new initiative which we believe will not only help out our club but also instill some pride and ownership into our trail system. The SVAT Adopt-A-Trail is designed to allow members to become involved and take part in activities improving the longevity and safety of the trails we all enjoy. Members involved with the program will monitor and report on trail conditions, to ensure any issue can be reported and acted on as needed. We are not trying to re-invent the wheel here, this has been happening in other jurisdictions in Canada with great success. This program will be open to SVAT members only.

How it Works

Individuals can volunteer to adopt a trail and take care of it as if it were their own. Much like the Adopt-a-Highway program the province of New Brunswick use to have, adoptees will ride the trail a minimum of three times a year, at the beginning, near the middle and end of the season. Participants will gather and record information, in a simple form reporting pictures, trail conditions and possible problem areas with concerns to the environment or safety issues.
Information will be submitted to your executive who will take the necessary steps to rectify the problem. This may be something as simple as replacing a damaged sign or more seriously the hiring an excavator to repair a washout on the trail. We would like to see pictures of the trouble area along with gps coordinates to know exactly where it is located. If the issue is something that you can easily repair (such as a fallen tree on the trail) and are willing to take that on I would ask you to be sure to document this with pictures. Some of these pictures may be posted on our Facebook page congratulating you for a job well done.

Things to look for and report on:

• Trail surface condition: Is there any significant rutting? Is the rutting getting worse? Can the
ruts be filled?
• Rock climb conditions: Is there a lot of erosion? Are the rocks coming apart? Are the rocks
becoming so exposed that other user groups could not use the trail?
• Water crossings: are there culverts, bridges or underwater log bridges? What is their
condition? Do they need repair?
• Vegetation: are there fallen trees/branches across the trail? Does it look like someone has cut
it down or is likely natural storm damage/dead fall? Is the trail becoming over grown?
• Detours: Are detours being created around obstacles, e.g. water holes, fallen trees etc? Can
this be fixed to get users back in the trail?
• Garbage: Is there a lot of garbage? If so, is it from trail users such as oil containers or food
wrapping or has the area become a dumping ground for locals?
• Alterations: Is there alterations of the trail/landscape that could be viewed as damage? Can
you tell if the alteration is due to natural effects or is due to trail usage?
• Are there signs of widespread vandalism caused by different user groups?

Benefits

• Meet new people in the sport
• Contribute to the sustainability of the trail system for off-road use
• Protect the environment
• Help other trail user groups enhance their riding experience
• Interact with other trail users
• Help all off-roaders have an enjoyable ride on safe and well maintained trails.
• Excellent opportunity for the family or friends to get together

Sign Me Up

If this sounds like something you would be interested in doing simply send an email to contact@sussexvalleyatvclub.com and if you have a trail in mind, specify which trail number you would like to adopt (see below for our trails with a brief description of each). If you find after a period of time you can no longer perform this service simply send an email to the same address and ask to be removed.

SVAT Google Map

It is worth noting that a couple of our trails are quite long so we have split them in two sections. This does not mean you cannot take the whole trail, just indicate that you would like the part 1 and part 2 section together. Also if you would like to take ownership of more than one trail you can also ask to do that and depending on the response we get you may be given this second trail. Our trails are all prefixed with the number 34 which is our club number in the ATV Federation. The only exception is Trail # 18 which is the Provincial trail.