Spending time on the trails of Gig Harbor’s parks, trimming leaves and clearing brush, was something that Vernon Young always liked to do.

Now, as president of the nonprofit organization EnviroCorps and a leader of the new Sponsor-A-Trail program at McCormick Forest Park, Young works to bring other members of the community in to help him.

“We’ve been doing this all, for free, for a number of years,” Young said of himself and his fellow EnviroCorps volunteers, who include some longtime trail maintenance volunteers, from church groups, school groups and sometimes those in trouble with the law, looking to perform community service.

Young said while EnviroCorps has been successful working in parks and with its Adopt-A-Road program for many years, he was interested in growing the organization – and maybe even raising enough money to hire a paid executive director. EnviroCorps is currently run by the volunteer efforts of Young and others.

To that end, he enlisted the services of Delphis Creative Business Solutions, the marketing and project-management firm run by Jason and Shannon Faulkner from their Gig Harbor home. Delphis has consulted on promotion strategies for a number of local nonprofits, Shannon Faulkner said.

“We always want our marketing to be as community-oriented as possible,” she said.

Jason Faulkner approached Young about a consulting project to raise money for EnviroCorps. The Adopt-A-Road program served as something of a model – while individuals and organizations can sponsor sections of road for free through county licensing, they must either provide the maintenance themselves or contract with EnviroCorps to provide it.

The Sponsor-A-Trail program puts a company or individual’s name on a small sign in front of one of the 18 sections of trail at McCormick Forest Park. For $600 a year, with a guaranteed commitment of at least two years, the sponsorships ensures EnviroCorps volunteers will keep the sponsored trail clearly maintained, and Young hopes the program can bring in many new volunteers and participants to help work on trails.

“It’s something that’s been in the back of my head for a long time,” Young said of the new program, which requires sponsors to work closely with EnviroCorps and their partner, PenMet Parks, to select a trail.

The volunteers’ work to provide trail maintenance is more important than ever, said Terry Lee, the executive director of PenMet Parks. Lee’s agency manages and provides park upkeep at McCormick Forest Park and many others around the Gig Harbor and Key peninsulas, but it increasingly relies on volunteers to clear trails, especially in an era of budget cuts and agency cutbacks.

“And it’s not just at (McCormick Forest Park),” Lee said, mentioning the many miles of trails that connect parks throughout the Rosedale area. “Mother Nature keeps trying to close those trails in. We couldn’t do it with our maintenance staff if we didn’t have (Young) and his volunteers.”

Lee said it was an easy decision to partner with EnviroCorps on the Sponsor-A-Trail program.

“You get user groups out in our parks who might not have had trail experience,” he said. “You get community sponsors to get their names out there. And it brings more exposure to our parks.”
The program was officially launched in January, and while the process of bringing in sponsors has been somewhat slow – only four outside sponsors had signed their names to trails at press time – Young and the Faulkners are confident all 18 trails will have sponsors in the next month or two. EnviroCorps will host its first trail maintenance work party from 9 a.m. to noon March 23.

Young said work parties, which he hopes to hold quarterly, are a good way to bring new volunteers, who might not otherwise have time to devote to trail maintenance, into the park. Unlike road maintenance that requires volunteers to be 18 years or older, park stewardship is safe for the whole family, he added.

“Here, you can bring your 1-year-old,” Young said. “Bring everybody and enjoy the park.”

Eventually, the Sponsor-A-Trail program could expand to include sponsorship of many other facets of public parks around the area, from trails in other parks to the concrete dock on Fox Island, Lee said.

“It has untold benefit for the entire community,” he said.

For now, Young said he’s aware that getting volunteers out to clear trails on a regular basis is no easy task. He’s been maintaining trails by himself, or with just a few volunteers, for a long time, and he wants to give more people the tools to join in.

Young said he hopes work parties or organized service eventually won’t be the way to bring volunteers out to McCormick Forest and other parks. He pictures dozens of people just like him, spending their free time, helping out on their public lands.

“I can see 30 or 40 people out here on a weekend, volunteering and clearing trails on their own,” he said, gesturing at the tall trees and trailheads of McCormick Forest. “A lot of people enjoy these trails, and I’m not sure they know just how much work goes into them.”