S TA F F I N S I G H T S
View From the Rim Well shoot! As an organization, we have contingency plans for an array of different events– severe weather, injury on the trail, too much snow, too little snow, bear by Morgan Steel markets, wildfire, Executive Director etc. Unfortunately, a global pandemic was not on our radar. Our past contingency plans varied based on the crisis but always included access to the trail and opportunities to come together to make big change. That is not currently the case and that fact has thrown us for a loop. Fortunately, our various planning efforts were not in vain. Our normal crisis response rulebook still works, albeit slightly modified. We will still come together to make big changes and accomplish great things just in new and creative ways. Our first step was to take a breath, connect, and evaluate. We joined the virtual revolution and our Board of Directors has been meeting via video chat consistently over the past month to discuss the situation and evaluate our next steps. Our priority is the health and wellbeing of our trail community including our trail users, staff, and volunteers. With this in mind, we closed our office on March 16th. Our staff is now working from home to keep our
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summer programs on track. We canceled our slate of spring outreach events, trainings, and fundraisers. The big question now is what the summer will bring. Our trail season stretches from late spring through the fall and is brimming with projects and programs. We plan with assiduity throughout the winter so that on the first of May we can hit the ground running. The looming prospect of canceling a portion or even the entire trail season is heartbreaking. We are holding out hope and planning so that w can move forward with our projects in June but we would be shirking our responsibility if we did not plan for the worst as well. For the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, the worst would be our programs exposing our community to the virus and its potentially life-threatening complications. To avoid this we’re evaluating different scenarios for the summer which may include canceling our guided hiking program (that provides vital funding for our organization), canceling our youth backcountry camps (during a time when programming for kids away from the home is more vital than ever), and falling behind an entire year on urgent trail construction and maintenance projects. It’s not all doom and gloom though! There is an upside to a year in which we toss out the
TRAIL BLAZER | Spring 2020 | Tahoe Rim Trail Association
normal plans. Our organization has a slew of projects that need attention that we’ve never had time to complete. We are excited to move forward creating new proposals for reroutes, connections, and other trail improvements. We will also continue to push forward on finalizing plans for our multi-year trailhead kiosk redevelopment project. Another bright side is our incredible volunteers who have been joining video chats and strategizing how we will reach our goals in 2020. As soon as it is safe to resume working on the trail they are ready to spring into action. In the end, we are planning for the worst and hoping for the best. We look forward to basking in the normal sights and sounds of summer on the TRT – mellifluous giggles radiating from our kiddo’s tents, the afterglow at an alpine lake, the high pitched rattle of hammer drills splitting granite. This year will test the resolve of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association but we are confident that the incredible organization built over the past 39 years will persevere and continue with great success inspiring stewards and preserving the trail. Onward and upward,
Morgan Steel Executive Director
