NWTA has grown. We need you in 2027.
We’ve discovered we have a really, really wonderful problem. We have grown — a lot. In the past 18 months, we’ve accomplished more, and doing more requires more resources.
More trails.
- We added two official new trail systems to our stewardship portfolio (Newell Creek, Chehalem Ridge) at the end of 2025, and now NWTA is officially starting work in the Larch Mountain (Columbia River Gorge) region.
- Two new skills areas! The brand-new Sandy Ridge skills area is complete after nearly two years of planning and work, and the new Stub Stewart skills zone is under construction.
- The Orogenesis Collective partnership is now an annual event, where we partner to clear and rehabilitate trails that have largely been unmaintained for decades.
- Our volunteers (and machines!) have been hard at work and rebuilt the majority of trails affected by 2026 harvest projects at Rocky Point in close collaboration and partnership with Oregon State University. Rising costs for diesel and machine parts is no joke, but we know that machines in action means trail work in action.
- We elevated technical trail-building skills for volunteers with nearly a dozen Trail Sustainability Institute classes, including a dedicated two-day carpentry workshop at Stub Stewart State Park for NW Trail Sisters to build wood features in the new skills zone.
More Advocacy.
- NWTA now continuously joins trail advocates, professionals, and volunteers at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem to speak directly with legislators about supporting our trails.
- For the first time ever, NWTA asked candidates for Portland City Council their position on Portlanders lack of access to trails on bikes.
- We monitored local, regional and national issues that affect our local trails, and activated NWTA members and supporters to speak out in favor of advancing mountain biking access.
More people experience mountain biking.
- Our brand-new “Ride with an -ologist” Series was a massive success, and will return in 2027 with a slate of new offerings. We partnered with Oregon State University Extension, the City of Portland, and Metro Parks and Nature to host educational group rides at Rocky Point, Powell Butte, and Chehalem Ridge; blending mountain biking with insights into forest management and ecology.It’s no secret that many of our land management partners — from the federal to the local level — are facing budget challenges and a new landscape of funding priorities.
- Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day 2026 was our largest event since the COVID pause: over 180 young riders and their family members came together to celebrate getting our youth out on bikes.
- Group rides & community clinics: we organized 30 rides, clinics and camps; including 9 sessions of youth after school and summer camp programs (two more than last year!) and 7 women’s specific events with NWTA’s NW Trail Sisters.
Where does my support go?
Membership, sponsorship, and donations fund the vast majority of NWTA trail projects and programming. If it weren’t
for your generosity and the generosity of our community, we wouldn’t have trails and we wouldn’t have a collective voice for trails.
Why support NWTA?
Build! We build and maintain trails with around a dozen different land management partners, and teach the science (and art!) of trail work through our Trail Sustainability Institute (TSI). We use funds to purchase tools for trail work days, maintain our machines, and support TSI classes and clinics. Donors, members, and sponsors are quite literally putting tools in the hands of volunteers to build new trails and maintain our over 250 miles of trails and bike parks we officially steward.
Advocate! Advocacy is a pillar of why NWTA was founded in 1988 as PUMP (Portland United Mountain Pedalers). Over the last 38 years, NWTA has worked with local land managers and community partners to advocate for more for more bike/multi-use trails and access close to home. Membership, donor, and sponsor dollars go to work advocating for cycling access to always be part of the discussion around our parks and open spaces throughout the region.
Ride! We coordinate bike clinics, social rides, and after-school youth classes and camps to promote mountain biking for all. Ride programming is often offered at little to no charge, and supported by a fleet of loaner bikes. We partner with Portland Parks & Recreation to bring meaningful youth programs to communities around the city, and specific programs offer a welcoming space for underserved and underrepresented riders to feel welcome and belong to the greater mountain bike community. Donations and membership directly support the expenses for all of NWTA’s programs, clinics, and social rides.
Other easy ways to support NWTA:
- EMPLOYER MATCHING GIFT PROGRAMS: Many companies offer matching gift programs for their employees, either for monetary contributions or employee volunteer hours. NWTA receives over $3,000 on average each year from employee gift programs! Nike, Intel, The Standard, Kaiser Permanente, Wells Fargo, and Portland General Electric are just a few. NWTA is a registered 501(c)(3) with most large-scale employee giving portals. If you want to learn how your company can match your contributions to NWTA, please contact [email protected].
- DONOR ADVISED FUND: Consider a gift from your Donor Advised Fund to get more people out on mountain bikes! NWTA accepts DAF gifts from all major financial institutions and advisors. If you need supplemental information provided to your institution to execute a gift to NWTA, please contact [email protected].
- FRED MEYER COMMUNITY REWARDS PROGRAM: Help NWTA while you shop! Link your Fred Meyer shopper card to NWTA, and all you have to do is shop at Fred Meyer and swipe your Shopper’s Card. Learn more and link your card at: https://www.fredmeyer.com/i/community/community-rewards
Northwest Trail Alliance is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation (tax ID number 86-1130479). All contributions to Northwest Trail Alliance are tax deductible to the extent permitted by the law.