The National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council partnered with the Massachusetts Off-Highway Vehicle Coordinator, Scott Morrill, to bring the Great Trails Workshop series to the State of Massachusetts. This workshop was made possible by funding from the Trail Trust program administered by Fox Factory. NOHVCC is in the final year of an agreement with Trail Trust that sponsors two Great Trails Workshops across the country in locations that may not have access to funding for these types of training. The grant also provides support for the NOHVCC Annual Conference.
The workshop in Massachusetts brought 20 attendees from Massachusetts and surrounding states on June 15-16, 2024, to October Mountain State Park. The attendees represented a diverse group of recreation enthusiasts and land managers. ATV riders, dirt bike riders, snowmobile riders, park staff, trail staff, planners, and coordinators who all gathered to discuss trail issues and management strategies. Topics discussed in the workshop included trail maintenance, trail design, planning, and local permitting procedures. It was fortunate that staff from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation were in attendance to help navigate the permitting procedures.
“This was the first NOHVCC event in Massachusetts in recent history and it was a huge success.” Said Marc Hildesheim, Executive Director for NOHVCC. “The great weather, great people, and open discussion made it a fantastic event.”
Scott Morrill had this to say about the workshop: “The workshop welcomed trail leaders and volunteers from Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Even though our participants represented a wide range of users from the snowmobile, dirt-bike, ATV and side-by-side communities, the workshop managed to provide relevant and extremely useful training to ALL involved. From the hands-on experiences in trail stewardship out in the field to the problem-solving group scenarios, the workshop was received with outstanding reviews and a thankful group of OHV users. Thank you to NOHVCC and Marc Hildesheim for sharing their vast and diverse knowledge base of OHV trail issues and providing our personnel with the training needed to improve our OHV program here in Massachusetts!”
NOHVCC wishes to once again thank Trail Trust for their continued support of the Great Trails Workshops and promoting best practices for OHV trail management across the country. To find out more about NOHVCC and the Great Trails Workshop series please visit www.nohvcc.org.
