CONTINENTAL DIVIDE TRAIL COALITION

Our goals are to: protect the Great Divide and its nationally significant scenic, historic, natural and cultural features, provide information and encourage people to experience the trail in safe and ways, and complete and permanently protect all 3,100 miles of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail for future generations.

Continental Divide Trail Coalition pursues activities aligned with our four strategic pillars: to enhance the stewardship of the CDT, to build a strong community of CDT supporters, to promote the CDT to the broader public, and to strengthen our own organizational effectiveness. As we deliver services and implement activities along the CDT that are designed to meet our short and long term goals, we strive to ensure that our actions build and cultivate strong and mutually beneficial relationships with the agencies, stewardship organizations, funding partners, rural communities and other stakeholders along the CDT. We continue to think regionally in terms of specific strategies and activities, but ensure this regional and community-driven focus supports our National goals. While CDTC operates in landscape conservation space, we have strong commitments to expanding justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) in the outdoors. We focus on this work internally and also incorporate these principles into every single aspect of our programmatic and organizational work. We will continue to work to develop collaborations that respect these efforts, and leverage them in the best way possible to ensure that our work is reflective of the diverse communities and cultures that we serve. We will assist all partners in developing the appropriate framework to support their long term plans for the CDT. In addition, we will continue to provide resources and information that generate awareness and support dozens of rural communities' outdoor recreation industries.

In 2020, CDTC signed an Interagency Memorandum of Understanding with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service, which recognizes CDTC as the lead national organization working to organize the stewardship of the CDT. Our audience since 2012 has grown from a few hundred to over 60,000, and collectively with our partners along the trail, our Field Programs volunteer projects contribute a value of over $800,000 in stewardship labor on the trail each year. We have also implemented and grown our Trail Adopter program, and as of 2020 58% of the adoptable sections of the CDT have been adopted by long-term and place-based volunteers. Established in 2014, our Gateway Community Program (which is 100% community-driven) has grown from 1 community to 18, and CDTC has invested in these mutually beneficial partnerships to grow the vast and diverse network of stewards along the trail's length committed to protecting the resource. CDTC's advocacy program has also been actively involved in policy creation and adoption to expand equity in the outdoors, as well as the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act which permanently and fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Lastly, our Information Services and Trail Completion programs continue to provide outstanding resources to the public and move the efforts to permanently protect and complete the CDT one step closer to completion.

CDTC has had significant accomplishments since our grassroots founding in 2012. We have grown from 1 full time staff member to 12+, and expanded the capabilities of our programmatic work. In 2020, CDTC signed an Interagency Memorandum of Understanding with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service, which recognizes CDTC as the lead national organization working to organize the stewardship of the CDT. Our audience since 2012 has grown from a few hundred to over 60,000, and collectively with our partners along the trail, our Field Programs volunteer projects contribute a value of over $800,000 in stewardship labor on the trail each year. We have also implemented and grown our Trail Adopter program, and as of 2020 58% of the adoptable sections of the CDT have been adopted by long-term and place-based volunteers. Established in 2014, our Gateway Community Program (which is 100% community-driven) has grown from 1 community to 20, and CDTC has invested in these mutually beneficial partnerships to grow the vast and diverse network of stewards along the trail's length committed to protecting the resource. CDTC's advocacy program has also been actively involved in policy creation and adoption to expand equity in the outdoors, as well as the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act which permanently and fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Lastly, our Information Services and Trail Completion programs continue to provide outstanding resources to the public and move the efforts to permanently protect and complete the CDT one step closer to completion. In 2023, as a result of CDTC and dozens of other organizations work on the Great American Outdoors Act, we expect significant funding to be allocated to Americas National Trails, including the CDT. This will significantly expand our work to address deferred maintenance along the CDT corridor, and to complete the gaps along the trail that remain unprotected and incomplete. We will also be expanding our representation and support for communities trail wide with new regional Liaisons, and we will remain deeply committed to expanding justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in the outdoors by incorporating these principles and commitments into every single aspect of our organizational and programmatic work.