International Mountain Bicycling Association

Community
Trail Care School

Trail Care Schools are full-day or multi-day events taught by the IMBA Trail Education Team in coordination with THOR. These workshops teach the basics of sustainable trails, user experience, and trail maintenance.

2025 Dates Announced Soon

Community Field Session Trail Maintenance

FAQs

    • You Must be 18 Years of Age or Older to Attend Workshops

    • Volunteers supporting the development and maintenance of natural surface trails and outdoor recreation.

    • Professionals in trail, community,  or recreational planning and development.

    • Professionals in outdoor retail and recreation.

    • A willingness to learn, engage, and discuss in a group setting.

    • A notebook and writing utensil.

    • You must attend the classroom sessions to attend the field events.

    • The field events will be hands-on learning involving manual labor outdoors using shovels, rakes, picks, and other tools often used in trail maintenance and landscaping. Experience using these types of tools is preferred.

    • Field events are probably not for you if you cannot lift 25 lbs, work outside comfortably for several hours, or have other serious health conditions.

    • A willingness to learn, engage, and discuss in a group setting.

    • Closed-toe shoes, ideally a work or hiking boot.

    • Clothes appropriate for the weather and working outdoors.

    • Sunscreen or other skin care appropriate for the conditions.

    • Water and a water container.

    • Foundational trail knowledge and sustainability

    • Trail User Experience

    • The National Best Management Practices (BMP) of grade, contour, meander, positive/negative control points

    • Existing Trail Triage: Terms, Vegetation Clearing, Erosion Control, Risk Management

    • Community Trail Work: Discuss water management and sustainable grades on the trail. Applying topics taught in the

Build Foundational Knowledge

This practical workshop brings together volunteers and organizations to maintain modern mountain bike trails in partnership with local land management. These skills will help you develop trail-wise eyes before heading out into the field to assess maintenance needs and appropriate solutions. The course will equip you with sustainable trail design principles, maintenance needs assessment, solution identification, and effective technique implementation. 

Making Trails Last

Maintenance is an important component of what makes trails sustainable. As trails and trail building techniques become more advanced, so too does the need for skilled trail maintenance crews.

Our mission is to create and share the natural surface trail experience in Nebraska and Western Iowa through advocacy, education, and the building of sustainable and accessible trails.

THOR is the IMBA Local Partner for Nebraska and Western Iowa.

Let’s meet up in real life and do something awesome.

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