A New Year Update from Northwest Trail Alliance

Happy New Year!  

As we start 2023, our Board and staff are reflecting on how amazing 2022 was for NWTA.  We now steward over 250 miles of trails — with many more miles on the horizon!  Nearly 100 kids enjoyed our inaugural season of youth programming, and a multitude of members and supporters joined us on social rides, at clinics and BIPOC-led events. Further, our volunteers put in over 12,000 hours of trail work, and we hired our first full-time Executive Director!

As part of this growth, and with the addition of our full-time Executive Director, Bob Lessard has transitioned from his interim Executive Director role to NWTA volunteer.  Many know Bob as a longtime NWTA community member and past member of the NWTA Board of Directors, as well as past Board President. 

In 2020, after six years of Board service, Bob graciously stepped into the part-time Executive Director role. This transitional employment position grew NWTA on many levels, and set us up for a robust and successful future. We have tremendous gratitude for Bob and his dedicated and tireless work to grow the organization alongside our Board of Directors; especially regarding Rocky Point where his leadership has been key over the last few years. 

The mission of NWTA is now as strong as ever. We continue to advocate for new trails; to protect, improve, and build sustainable mountain bike trails; and to create more recreation opportunities for mountain biking.  We execute our mission through our values of stewardship, community, passion, education, advocacy, access, inclusiveness and FUN. We look forward to our goals of 2023, including more miles of trail at Rocky Point, new trails and trail access in Cascade Locks, expanded educational and youth programming, a strong advocacy presence with our partner organizations and land managers — and SO much more.

A heartfelt thanks to Bob, our volunteer Board of Directors, our dedicated trail volunteers and our members for making all of this work possible.