Trail work highlights 2023

We’re proud of the work MATR members and friends contributed to maintaining the Centennial Trail in Whiteshell Provincial Park in 2023.

The stats

When we add up our collective kilometres covered during MATR trail work parties and snowshoe stomps last year, we covered 881.3km!

As a group, we spent 372 hours together, making the trail a better place by improving signage, clearing deadfall, snowshoe packing, pruning to improve sight lines, and collecting garbage.

We had 45 individuals join us for 10 trail work parties and snowshoe stomps. Many of the volunteers who joined us for trail work in 2023 came to more than one work party.

Equipment purchases

In late 2022 and early 2023, we used a grant from Trails Manitoba to establish gear for trail work, which includes essential hand tools like loppers, folding saws, and pruners, which we use to get the bulk of the work done when we’re on the trail doing work. We also purchased a number of snowshoes that we can lend to people joining us for winter trail maintenance who don’t own their own pair.

We also purchased a number of essential safety items, like first aid kits to deal with any minor injuries, and two emergency shelters in case our group ever needs to use them. These are essential items our trailwork coordinator carries at every event.

Mid-year, we purchased a battery-powered electric chainsaw to add to our tool library. This saw assists us with clearing deadfall on trail work parties. We developed a safety protocol for using the electric saw, and only people with the correct training use the saw at events. This was a crucial addition to our gear when cleaning up the trail after major weather events, like the storms in the Whiteshell in July that brought down hundreds of trees that needed to be cleared.

Coordinating efforts

Special shoutout to our trail work coordinator, Adam, for making these days a reality. Between leading most of our snowshoe stomps last winter and ALL our trail work days, Adam covered 108.05 of those kilometers himself!

Behind the scenes, we’re always working on making more opportunities available for you to help maintain the trails we love in 2024. We can’t wait to host you for one (or more) of our trail work parties in 2024

Support for our work

We’re grateful to The North Face for continuing to recognize the efforts of our volunteers with special discounts on gear as a thank-you for giving back to the local trail community.

Our partnership with Urban Trail Canada also allowed us to invest in crucial equipment for trail work.