Trails Training: The National Digital Trails Project

Presented By:

U.S. Geological Survey

Elizabeth McCartney, Cartographer

U.S. Geological Survey

Tatyana DiMascio, Technical Lead

Trail Core Competencies

No skills listed.

Webinar Outline

Our Nation is home to thousands of miles of trails maintained by many different land management agencies and organizations. Since January 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Digital Trails (NDT) project has been supporting the U.S. Department of the Interior’s priority of improving access to our nation’s public lands. The first objective was to help improve connectivity between existing trails and trail networks by developing a trail planning support tool for assisting land managers in identifying and prioritizing candidate trails. Utilizing geospatial analysis, the web-based Trail Routing, Analysis, and Information Linkage System (TRAILS) enables land managers to visualize optimal connector routes between existing trails based on slope, land ownership, transportation, surface water, and user-defined custom areas. Secondly, the project was tasked with the creation of a nationwide, public domain, geospatial trail dataset which includes trails from key federal land management agencies and many states. A robust trail network supports increased access and expands recreational opportunities over public lands. This presentation discusses project accomplishments, future steps, and provides a demonstration of the TRAILS tool.

Learning Objectives:

Overview of the National Digital Trails (NDT) project.
Benefits of the National Digital Trails project.
How you or your organization can help build the nationwide trails dataset.
Introduction to the trail planning support tool (TRAILS).

Webinar Partners

Presenter Bios

U.S. Geological Survey

Elizabeth McCartney, Cartographer

Elizabeth McCartney is a cartographer with the US Geological Survey (USGS), National Geospatial Program, in Rolla Missouri. Currently Elizabeth serves as the Project Manager for the National Digital Trails Project. Her past roles include Applied Research at the USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center, team leader for the USGS Volunteered Geographic Information project known as The National Map Corps, and regional Point of Contact for the USGS National Hydrography Dataset.

See Elizabeth's full profile

U.S. Geological Survey

Tatyana DiMascio, Technical Lead

Tatyana DiMascio is a cartographer with the US Geological Survey’s National Geospatial Technical Operations Center in Denver, Colorado. She received her MS in Environmental Management from Duke University and has dedicated the last 15 years as a GIS professional in environmental planning, hydrography, and recreation in both private and public sectors.

See Tatyana's full profile

Closed Captioning

We are offering closed captioning for our webinars, thanks to a partnership with VZP Digital. If you are in need of this service, please email us prior to the webinar. An unedited transcript will be sent to all attendees following the webinar.

Learning Credits and CEUs

American Trails is proud to be a certified provider of the following learning credits and continuing education opportunities:

American Institute of Certified Planners Continuing Maintenance (AICP CM)
Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System (LA CES PDH)
National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) CEU equivalency petition
CEU/PDH equivalency petition for other accepting organizations

Learning credits are free for attendees for American Trails webinars and the International Trails Symposium, as well as for other conferences, webinars, and workshops we offer credits for. Learn more.