Mapping What Matters: Using Ripple Effects Mapping to Reveal the Full Story of Trails Work

Webinar Outline

There are lots of ways to tell the story of the impact of trails— economic impact studies, trail counts, volunteer hours invested in building and maintenance. But some of the most powerful things that happen when communities invest in trails— the civic energy, the unlikely partnerships, the shift in how a town sees itself—are also the least known. Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) is a participatory, story-driven process that can help groups surface and make sense of the full range of effects that trail development and outdoor recreation investments produce. Built on appreciative inquiry and collaborative visual mapping, REM was originally developed as an evaluation tool designed for situations where outcomes are complex, stakeholders are diverse, and the most significant changes are often the ones nobody planned for. Sound familiar?

In this webinar, you'll see REM in action through two real examples: a session that mapped the ripple effects of trails development work across Kansas, and a session with stakeholders of the Wisconsin Office of Outdoor Recreation that examined how state-level investment in outdoor recreation catalyzes community and economic change. Together, these examples illustrate REM's range—from community-level advocacy and trail town development to statewide outdoor recreation ecosystem-building—and show how stories, connections, and unexpected outcomes are themselves data, often making a more complete and compelling case for trails than numbers alone. No matter what kind of trail or outdoor recreation you're focused on, if you're trying to demonstrate the value of your work to funders and policymakers, deepen partnerships, understand what's actually happening in your trail community, or build a culture of learning and reflection in your organization or coalition, REM offers a flexible, energizing alternative to conventional evaluation and reporting.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand what Ripple Effects Mapping is, how a session works, and why it is well-suited to trails advocacy, community development, and outdoor recreation program evaluation.
• Recognize the range of outcomes—planned and unplanned, quantitative and qualitative—that REM can surface in trail and outdoor recreation contexts, drawing from real examples at both community and statewide scales.
• Identify at least two or three ways REM could be applied in your own work—whether for evaluation, partnership building, funder communication, strategic planning, or community engagement—and know the basic steps for getting started.

Trail Competencies

• Project Planning and Design
• • Stakeholder Engagement

• Program Administration
• • Communications
• • Education and Public Outreach

Relevant Trail Types

General. All trail types are relevant.