ATC Volunteer Leadership Handbook - Appalachian Trail

78 Pages·2013·1.43 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Wynn

Volunteer Leadership Handbook

February 2013
Acknowledgements
The ATC staff wants to commend Barbara Wiemann and the members of the Regional Partnerships and
Volunteerism Committee of the Stewardship Council for their commitment to the revision of this third
edition of the Volunteer Leadership Handbook and for their ardent support for a reconvening of the
leaders of the A.T. club leadership.

ATC staff contributors to this revision include (alphabetically):
Laura Belleville, Susan Daniels, Andy Downs, Carlen Emanuel, Julie Judkins, Karen Lutz, Kelly
McGinley, Hawk Metheny, Joe Parrish, Bob Proudman, Alison Scheiderer, Bob Sickley, and Morgan
Sommerville.

ATC also wishes to recognize and thank the National Park Service staff of the Appalachian Trail Park
Office and former Park Manager Pamela Underhill for their advice, assistance, and review, and the Forest
Service, USDA, for assistance with this Handbook and for expanding its support at a time of limited (and
even diminishing) budgets.
Volunteer Leadership Handbook
Table of Contents

Foreword ......................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction—ATC and the Trail clubs: Where do you fit in? ........................................................... 2

Chapter 1—Roles and Responsibilities .......................................................................................... 6
o Appalachian Trail Conservancy ......................................................................................... 6
o Trail Clubs .......................................................................................................................... 7
o National Park Service Appalachian Trail Park Office ......................................................... 7
o USDA Forest Service .......................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 2—Cooperative Management and Local Management Planning ...................................... 9
o National Trails System Act ................................................................................................. 9
o Planning ........................................................................................................................... 10
o Cooperative Management Agreements ........................................................................... 11

Chapter 3—ATC Governance ........................................................................................................ 14
o Board of Directors ............................................................................................................ 14
o Stewardship Council ........................................................................................................ 16
o Regional Partnership Committees ................................................................................... 17
o Biennial Conferences ....................................................................................................... 18

Chapter 4—Overview of ATC Programs ....................................................................................... 20
o Section One—Trail Management ..................................................................................... 20
 Trail Assessments and Capital Planning ................................................................... 20
 Trail Management Policies ........................................................................................ 21
 Trail Crews ................................................................................................................. 22
 Ridgerunners/Caretakers .......................................................................................... 24
 Training Programs ..................................................................................................... 25
o Section Two—Land and Resource Management ............................................................. 28
 Corridor Monitoring .................................................................................................... 28
 Corridor Boundary Maintenance ............................................................................... 31
 Natural Resources Monitoring and Management ...................................................... 32
 Open Areas ................................................................................................................ 36
 Agricultural Land Management .................................................................................. 37
o Section Three—Cultural Resources ................................................................................ 39
o Section Four—Land Protection ........................................................................................ 40
 Appalachian Trail Corridor Acquisition ....................................................................... 40
 ATC Lands ................................................................................................................. 42
o Section Five—External Threats ....................................................................................... 44
 Protecting the Trail and the Trail Experience ............................................................ 44
 ATC Policies on Protecting the Trail .......................................................................... 45
o Section Six—Outreach and Education ............................................................................. 46
 Youth Engagement .................................................................................................... 46
 Families ...................................................................................................................... 47
 A.T. Communities ...................................................................................................... 47

Chapter 5—Environmental Planning for Successful Projects ....................................................... 50
o Management Plans and Projects Approval Chart ............................................................. 51

Chapter 6—Volunteer Safety and Protection ................................................................................ 52
o Best Management Practices for Safety ............................................................................ 52
o Sawyer Safety Program .................................................................................................... 54
o Federal Volunteer Protection Programs ........................................................................... 55
o Reporting Volunteer Hours .............................................................................................. 58

Chapter 7—Emergency Management and Communications ....................................................... 59

Chapter 8—Funding and Other Support to Clubs ......................................................................... 60
o Management Projects ...................................................................................................... 60
o ATC Grant Programs ....................................................................................................... 60
o Ridgerunners and Caretakers .......................................................................................... 62
o Trail Crews ....................................................................................................................... 63

Chapter 9—Tips and Techniques from around the Trail .............................................................. 64

Abbreviations Related to the Appalachian Trail ............................................................................. 72
Forward
Foreword to Third Edition
First published in 2000 as the Club Presidents Handbook, this third edition has been has been
renamed the Volunteer Leadership Handbook and updated in light of the transformations that the
Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) has gone through in the past decade, from the adoption of the
“Strategic Planning Report” in November 2003 that formally began our transformation from a
“conference” into a conservancy, to our actual name change on July 4, 2005 at the ATC biennial
conference at East Tennessee State University.

While continuing to focus on the on-the-ground maintenance and management of the Trail and its
facilities, we have undertaken a host of new, ambitious programs—including a Trail to Every
Classroom, environmental monitoring and management, and the Appalachian Trail CommunityTM
program, all of which better position the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the A.T.-maintaining
clubs to rise to the challenges that face us in managing the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. As a
conservancy, we have our work cut out for us in this second millennium.

Supporting the Trail's volunteer leaders and managers, volunteer recruitment and development, and
youth engagement are critical issues for all of the partners in the cooperative management of the
Trail, indeed to the future of the Trail itself. ATC is committed to working with the clubs and
developing programs and resources to help.

The most comprehensive resource ATC is developing is the Volunteer Toolkit at
www.appalachiantrail.org/toolkit. We have created a webpage within the Toolkit where this handbook
and many of the documents referenced in it are posted. The direct link to the Volunteer Leadership
Handbook page is www.appalachiantrail.org/handbook. Since the handbook was first distributed at
the Volunteer Leadership Meeting in August 2012, we've added graphics, made minor corrections
and updates and added links to documents that are posted on ATC's website.

We encourage you to think of the Toolkit as the central place for A.T. club leaders, Trail managers,
and A.T. volunteers to find information on managing volunteers, training and workshops, local
management planning, ATC policies, and resources for Trail maintainers and corridor boundary
workers. We are continuing to update and post documents to the Toolkit and will provide periodic
updates on our progress in The Register (ATC’s Trail stewardship e-newsletter) and by e-mail.

The "What We Do" section of ATC's website at www.appalachiantrail.org includes information on our
conservation, trail management, youth and education, and community outreach programs.

ATC staff can assist your A.T. club with project planning and approvals, trail assessments, setting up
training and workshops, grant proposals, outreach efforts, and more.

Information on contacting ATC, including directions to our offices, can be found at
www.appalachiantrail.org/who-we-are/locations.

Laura Belleville, Conservation Director
and the Conservation Staff of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

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Introduction
INTRODUCTION
ATC and the Trail Clubs: Where Do You Fit In?

About ATC and Its Purposes—In 1925, at the request of the
Regional Planning Association, the Federated Societies on
Planning and Parks convened “an Appalachian Trail conference” in
Washington, D.C. The meeting was called “for the purpose of
organizing a body of workers (representative of outdoor living and
of the regions adjacent to the Appalachian Range)” to complete the
building of the Appalachian Trail, as proposed by a Massachusetts
forester and planner named Benton MacKaye (pictured at left) in a
1921 article in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects
and a series of meetings with New England and New York hiking
clubs.

By the conclusion of the meeting, the Appalachian Trail Conference
(ATC) was formed. A provisional constitution was adopted after a
luncheon speech by Stephen Mather, first director of the National
Park Service (NPS). That constitution, which MacKaye wrote along with a general work plan,
provided for management of ATC affairs by a 15-member executive committee.

The composition of that initial executive committee underscores a key tradition of the Trail project:
what some have viewed as an experiment in participatory democracy, what others call cooperative
management of an almost 2,200 mile-long national resource, and what still others describe as a
unique partnership between the public and private sectors. In addition to the then-five regional
divisions of the Conference (at the beginning, a federation of club organizations without individual
members), seats on the committee were specifically allocated to the U.S. Forest Service and the
National Park Service. A number of state officials also were included.

On July 4, 2005, following a 2003 strategic planning summit meeting attended by more than 200
stakeholders, including Trail club members and agency representatives) the organization’s name was
changed to Appalachian Trail Conservancy (italics added for emphasis)

Today, the Conservancy is a private, nonprofit, educational organization with a 2013 budget of $7.2
million. It is composed of approximately 42,000 individual and family members (including more than
2,500 life members), 31 Trail-maintaining organizations, and more than 80 corporate members. ATC
is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Day-to-day operations are carried out by a 48-member
staff in its headquarters and four regional offices, expanding to approximately 70 staff including
seasonal employees, all under the direction of its executive director and chief operating officer.

The basic purposes of ATC have remained essentially the same since its creation in 1925:

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a volunteer-based organization dedicated to
the preservation and management of the natural, scenic, historic, and cultural
resources associated with the Appalachian Trail in order to provide primitive outdoor-
recreation and educational opportunities for Trail visitors.

Our mission statement says it differently today, mindful of our broader audience and future time
horizon:

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s mission is to preserve and manage the
Appalachian Trail – ensuring that its vast natural beauty and priceless cultural
heritage can be shared and enjoyed today, tomorrow, and for centuries to come.

As the organization has evolved and matured, the vision has broadened and, while the core tasks of
trail maintenance remain central to the mission, stewardship of the Trail corridor, engagement with
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Introduction
the communities through which the Trail passes, and involvement of new partners have gained
prominence.

Introduction to the Trail Maintaining Clubs—The Trail clubs of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy
are the envy of the national trails system. Among the 30 national scenic and historic trails, ATC
reports more than twice the volunteer hours than any other trails. The 2012 report of 239,109
volunteer hours performed by 6,033 individuals was the greatest number of work hours ever reported
by A.T. volunteers. Most of those volunteers are from the Trail clubs. What are the clubs, and how do
they inspire such devotion?

Today, 31 private, volunteer-based organizations maintain ATC-assigned sections of the Appalachian
Trail from Georgia to Maine. Remarkably stable over many decades, these clubs are the “institutional
memory” of the Trail, able to recollect and act on long-range lessons. They are also the bedrock upon
which the creation and continuing maintenance and stewardship of the Appalachian Trail has been
based for more than eight decades. Run by people who are dedicated to the outdoors and to the
perpetuation of the Appalachian Trail as a volunteer-based enterprise, the clubs represent a built-in
constituency that carries out basic construction, maintenance, and marking of the Trail and
associated shelters; implements other land-management programs related to the Trail and
surrounding lands and resources; and tackles critical Trail priorities or combats threats to the A.T.
where they are seen and felt most acutely, at the local level.

Trail-club sections are as short as the 2.2 miles in New Hampshire maintained by the Randolph
Mountain Club, the most recent A.T. maintaining club, and as long as the more than 280-mile section
maintained by the Maine Appalachian Trail Club since 1935. Other venerable maintaining clubs
include the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), founded in 1876, and the New York-New Jersey Trail
Conference, founded in 1920. These older groups maintained trails that predated the Appalachian
Trail. In fact, the N.Y.-N.J. Trail Conference opened the very first component of the A.T.—from the
then-new Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River to the Ramapo River south of Arden—in
October 1923, while AMC provided about 120 preexisting miles of paths for the A.T. through New
Hampshire’s White Mountains.

During those early years before the Trail was a continuous footpath,
many new Trail clubs were formed, in large part to build it—hence the
“A.T.” in their names. Myron Avery (pictured at right), ATC chair from
1931 to 1952 and a founder of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club,
inspired the formation and work of many of these clubs in the mid-Atlantic
states, in the South, and in Maine. For providing the tireless leadership
and motivation to build the Trail—initially completed on Maine’s Spaulding
Mountain in 1937—Avery is known as the “architect” of the A.T. We
proudly celebrated the 75th anniversary of the initial completion of the
Trail in 2012.

Although many of the Trail-maintaining clubs were formed in the 1920s
and 30s, a number of younger clubs received their maintenance-section
assignments relatively recently. The Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers and the Old Dominion A.T.
Club began their work in 1965 and 1969, respectively, with the Tidewater A.T. Club following shortly
thereafter, in 1972. The Cumberland Valley A.T. Club (CVATC) and the Wilmington Trail Club
received their assignments in Pennsylvania in 1991 and 1994. The CVATC was fashioned in the
crucible of controversy surrounding the National Park Service’s A.T. land-acquisition program in the
Cumberland valley. Its work is strongly influenced by the unusual circumstances surrounding the Trail
in that area, where it passes through almost 20 miles of open farm lands bordered by fast-growing
suburban communities and includes regular mowing, coordination with area farmers, adept neighbor
relations, tackling invasive-exotic species, and unique land-use arrangements.

The Trail clubs represent the “vigilant citizenry” of the Trail, capable of responding dynamically to Trail
needs as they arise. An excellent example of club-based stewardship occurred in October 1995 when
Hurricane Opal devastated the A.T. in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. While a new
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Introduction
backcountry ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was telling National Public Radio
listeners that the A.T. and other park lands probably would be closed “until the spring of 1996,”
volunteer activists in the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club were busy working alongside park rangers
removing thousands of blowdowns that blocked the high-country route. The A.T. in the Smokies were
opened in three weeks. In Georgia, where the Forest Service did not permit the use of chainsaws in
designated wilderness areas, the Georgia A.T. Club managed to open the A.T. in less than two
months with hand labor—an astonishing feat that passed almost unnoticed by the general public.
There are countless similar examples.

The Trail clubs also are a built-in “early warning system” that is the only effective way
to monitor the narrow A.T. corridor. In 1998, an AMC day-hiker discovered loggers
and bulldozers on the A.T. corridor in Dutchess County, N.Y. He called the N.Y-N.J.
Trail Conference, which, in turn, called ever-ready monitor Jane Geisler (pictured at
left). Armed with a segment map, Jane stood in front of the bulldozer operator to stop
the devastation. Unfortunately, more than 30,000 board feet of timber had been
harvested and a new road built within the corridor, but it could have been much
worse. NPS investigators discovered that those overseeing the logging project had
“misread” the NPS segment map.

Still, the most traditional responsibilities of the Trail clubs—maintenance of the treadway, including
blazing and signage, and of the shelters, campsites, and sanitary systems—remain the most
important. Without the performance of these critical tasks, the Trail would soon grow obscure and be
lost as a physical entity.

In that sense, the clubs often are viewed as the cornerstone of the A.T. “cooperative management
system,” the partnership of the three or four organizations—the club, ATC, and one or more public
land-managing agencies, such as the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, or state natural-
resource agencies—that must be active on each section to ensure a protected and well-managed
Appalachian Trail.

That system was formalized in 1984 in a cooperative agreement (renewed most recently in 2004)
delegating certain management responsibilities for NPS-acquired land along the Trail from NPS to
ATC, and the “redelegation” from ATC to the Trail clubs in 1987 (see Chapter 2). In 1985, at the first
ATC-sponsored meeting specifically for A.T. maintaining-club presidents, ATC and club leaders were
reminded of the significant challenges embodied in the delegation agreement by Bob Jacobsen, then
superintendent of Shenandoah National Park, who provided the keynote address. Noting that he had
consulted with several park superintendents before appearing before the group, Jacobsen conveyed
the sense of his colleagues by sharing an alarming prediction:

We fully expect that half of you, perhaps even more, will fail in your custodianship of these
[delegated] properties and that the delegation agreement will need to be revoked and that
other land-management alternatives will need to be sought. Indeed, it is possible that the
federal government will ultimately be called upon to do many of the duties that are currently
assigned to you. Such action would not please either of us, or any of us, as it would break the
commitment by the Appalachian Trail Conference and Appalachian Trail community to
Congress that they could and would manage the Trail properties that were purchased with
public funds. It would break the intent of Congress and of the Secretary of the Interior that the
Trail would be operated and managed without a continuing need for more than a few federal
employees and a few tax dollars. It would break the spirit of volunteerism that is so
marvelously exemplified in the Appalachian Trail community, and it would impose the
burdens of the costly workload on the various government partners and land-managing
agencies along the Trail’s length.

At virtually every meeting of A.T. maintaining-club presidents from 1985–2002, and at meetings
during ATC restructuring, participants have reflected on Jacobsen’s “land-management challenge”
and attempted to gauge our successes and failures in meeting that challenge. With respect to many
facets of Appalachian Trail management, the achievements of the past years range from
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Introduction
“disappointing,” to “promising,” to “remarkable.” Still, many challenges remain. Less responsible
public use has impacted the footpath and its facilities, such as shelters, campsites, and privies.
Vandalism, crime, and vagrancy occasionally plague some Trail sections. Hundreds of miles of
exterior corridor boundaries are exposed to trespass. New development pressures for roads, utilities,
communications towers, landfills, etc., routinely surface. Recruiting and organizing volunteers to
undertake not only the more traditional roles of Trail maintenance, but also newer roles related to
corridor and natural-diversity site-monitoring, local-management planning, Trail assessments, and
youth and community engagement to help develop the next generation of A.T. stewards, are
perennial issues.

Perhaps most importantly, sustaining effective communications and strong, well-coordinated, working
relationships among a diverse and broadly distributed “family” of agencies, organizations,
communities, and individuals engaged in the Trail project represents a persistent challenge. It is this
last challenge that is our continuing focus.

—Bob Proudman, Director of Conservation Operations
–5–
Chapter 1—Roles and Responsibilities
Chapter 1
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The grand undertaking to build, maintain, and manage the Appalachian Trail has been a cooperative
effort involving local Trail clubs, ATC, state and federal agencies, and others from the Trail’s very
beginning.

Appalachian Trail Conservancy—“Caretaker of the Appalachian Trail.”
www.appalachiantrail.org

When MacKaye (rhymes with “sky”) conceived the Appalachian
Trail, he recognized a need for “some form of federated control”
to coordinate the efforts of local groups interested in the
concept. He and others formed the Appalachian Trail
Conference in 1925. Renamed a “Conservancy” on July 4,
2005, today the ATC is a vigorous nationwide organization
dedicated to the preservation, stewardship, and management
of the Appalachian Trail. With headquarters just off the A.T. in
historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and four regional offices,
the Conservancy serves as the umbrella organization for 31
affiliated Trail-maintaining clubs and organizations (“Trail
clubs”) from Maine to Georgia that form the volunteer foundation of the A.T. project. ATC’s role as
caretaker of the Appalachian Trail is shaped by its bylaws, policies adopted by its Board of Directors,
and agreements and understandings with the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, states,
and Trail clubs. ATC is responsible for oversight and support of its member organizations by
providing the following:
 Trail- and land-management programs
 regional staff
 financial assistance for Trail club projects and programs
 information and training for volunteers, members, and the general public
 land-management services (external threat mitigation, natural-heritage inventories, exotic
species control, etc.)
 an ATC lands program that works with local partners to identify and protect land near the A.T.
corridor.

ATC also serves in a back-up capacity to the Trail clubs to guarantee adequate maintenance and
management of the Appalachian Trail and its corridor lands. The Conservancy’s approach to Trail
clubs is supportive and respectful of each club’s volunteer traditions. ATC has numerous programs to
enhance volunteer management, including grants, workshops, and organized volunteer Trail and
boundary and natural-resource crews. Each of these programs is further described in this handbook.

ATC’s Appalachian Trail Design, Construction, and Maintenance, (second edition, 2000) is available
from ATC. Its 237 pages and numerous photographs and illustrations will provide club officers with
important information on A.T. management. ATC’s Appalachian Trail Fieldbook (2003) provides a
helpful, pocket-size summary for Trail-maintaining volunteers. These stewardship manuals are
available to A.T. maintainers at wholesale cost if ordered by telephone at 800-282-8677. The A.T.
Corridor Stewardship Field Book (2009, available online at www.appalachiantrail.org/docs/boundary-
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