Statewide Land Manager Training in North Dakota a Success

The hardy group of state park planners and park managers.
Hard at work building sweet new trail. Ever since a visit by IMBA's Joey Klein last year, the Turtle River folks have been busy adding to their singletrack network.
Ron Luethe, IMBA's North Dakota rep, shows us how to ride the finished trail.
Ron poses in front of the IMBAru with his wife Aileen and his well-deserved award. Way to go Ron!

In June, Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner of the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew shared their trailbuilding wisdom with land managers from all of North Dakota's state parks.

The two-day IMBA Trailbuilding School at Turtle River State Park started with an indoor classroom session in the morning, followed by a layout and assessment workshop in the afternoon. After a peaceful night's sleep in the park's cozy little cabins, everyone picked up tools and started cutting new singletrack and reclaiming old trail.

They say that turtles are slow, but not these guys! At Turtle River State Park, the land managers and planners were quick to learn the key steps to trail layout and construction. The result was some awesome new mileage.

Jesse Hanson, manager of the Planning and Natural Resources Division, summed up the school: "IMBA's presentation was a real eye-opener for us. We learned that you could shape trails into the hillside to reduce erosion to almost nothing, blend the trail into the natural environment, and include multiple user groups in the same trail."

At the end of the IMBA Trailbuilding School, Ron Luethe, IMBA's North Dakota rep, was honored with a plaque for his role in organizing top-notch trail workshops for North Dakota State Parks. With the help of Ron, we look forward to seeing lots of great new trails in North Dakota.