In 2019, Colin Marthaller joined the NWTA Board of Directors as our Stewardship Director and Quartermaster. This month marked the end of his tenure on the Board, and we couldn’t be more grateful for all he brought to NWTA!
Colin is an active member of the Sandy Ridge Local Stewardship Team (LST), and is an experienced crew leader who often transported the NWTA tool trailer to Sandy Ridge work parties. With 15 areas of stewardship, keeping our tools and equipment stocked and prepared for volunteer use is no easy feat. We were fortunate to have Colin’s strategic and tactical skills to keep our tools housed, organized, and ready for volunteer teams to utilize. If you have participated in a dig day, you likely crossed paths with Colin arriving early with his van full of trail stewardship tools! He also kept tabs on our LST’s projects and provided updates to our members & leadership.
With his experience managing trail crews, Colin helped establish NWTA’s Crew Leader training program. This is one of the essential trainings offered by our Trail Sustainability Institute. He was also a part of the team who championed the formation of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and served as a 2023 Board Nomination Committee member.
In the Spring of 2020, we along with the rest of the world were faced with the challenge of navigating a new reality due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Colin spearheaded the new process for our NWTA community to gather together and continue our stewardship work safely. He attended many, many weeks of online meetings with our public land partners, and collaborated with our fellow trail organizations to establish safety protocols and procedures. We marked the success of Colin’s dedication and hard work in September 2020, when we had our first pandemic-era work party at Gateway Green.
All of us at NWTA owe Colin a debt of gratitude. His positive impact on our community and organizational skills will be felt for years. Thank you, Colin, for your Board service. We look forward to your continued volunteer efforts and seeing you on the trails!