With over 40 miles of scenic trails winding through our beautiful natural areas, keeping them well-maintained is no small feat and we need your help! Our Adopt-a-Trail Volunteer Program is a great way for individuals, families, community groups to get involved. When you sign up, you’ll “adopt” one of our trails for a month of your choosing. During that time, you’ll be responsible for walking your assigned trail at least once, helping to care for it by cutting back vegetation, pulling invasives, picking up trash, and reporting trail infrastructure problems to our Land Stewardship team.

Together, we can ensure that our trails remain a safe, beautiful, and accessible part of life in Willowsford. Whether you’re a long-time resident or new to the neighborhood, we welcome your support and stewardship. Ready to get started? Sign up today to adopt your favorite trail and become a part of our growing team of volunteers working together to keep Willowsford beautiful!

How it Works

  • 1

    Sign up for the trail of your choice at our SignUpGenius page here. All Volunteers must fill out our waiver which can be electronically signed here. Volunteers under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

  • 2
    Hike your trail at least once during your chosen month! When you do it is up to you. If you are signed up for one of our longer trails, feel free to break it up into multiple hikes and submit multiple reports if that is easier.
  • 3

    While you hike, please do the following:

    – Bring a pair of loppers and cut back any vegetation that is growing onto the trails. If you do not have loppers, borrow some from us by emailing info@WillowsfordConservancy.org!

    – Keep an eye out for invasive plants and pull any that you come across. Click here for some resources to get familiar with invasive plants. Along our trails, Garlic mustard is common and very easy to pull.

    – Note any larger issues on the trail that may require our Land Stewardship team’s attention to repair. This includes damage to bridges and other man made trail features and dead trees that could fall and pose a risk to trail goers. When noting these issues, please include approximate location along the trail.

    – Bring a trash bag and collect any trash you may see. The Conservancy is happy to provide a trash bag and trash grabber, just email us.

  • 4
    Once you finish your hike, please fill out our Report Form! This helps our team track that work that is being done on our trails and stay aware of areas that may need their attention. Pictures of issues can be incredibly helpful so please upload photos.

Student Volunteering

We happily welcome student volunteers to “Adopt a Trail” to receive volunteer hours for their school. Students under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult when volunteering. Students under the age of 18 must have an adult sign our waiver prior to volunteering which is available electronically here.

Since this is a flexible volunteer opportunity that is not completed under the oversight of our team, we require student volunteers to submit thorough and detailed reports in order for our team to validate their hours. This means including at least 5 photos of their work on the trail MUST that include the following:

  • Photos of verifiable trail features that prove you were on the trail. This could be signage or trail features like a bridge or walkway.
  • Photos of the work you completed, this may include vegetation you lopped back, trash you collected, or invasives you pulled.
  • A detailed text report that includes your findings and experience on the trail.

Your report that includes the above photos must be submitted within 7 days of your work so that our team has the opportunity to verify and inspect any work done along the trails. Failure to provide an detailed report that includes the above requirements means our team may not be able to verify your hours.

Have questions? Email us at info@WillowsfordConservancy.org.