Hey Folks,
I’m reaching out to highlight our appreciation for your time and energy in working with the Boise National Forest and our north zone (Cascade, Emmett and Lowman District) trails program.
I’m currently applying for trail grant funding to pay for crews to do work on motorized and non-motorized trials in 2027 and 2028. The reason for this timeline is that I learn whether we are awarded the grant in early summer 2026 and can’t receive funding until the fall of 2026, therefore I use that funding to pay for crew time the following year.
I have attached a draft of our current trail grant; I also send a draft of the grant to the IDPR committee that oversees the awarding of RTP grants.
What I need from your organization if you haven’t already submitted it: Volunteer hours for the 2025 field season. I have attached a volunteer report form, but you can also use a different format, number of volunteers number of hours (8 is the minimum for a day) and where are really helpful. What I need if your group would like to support the Boise NF in it’s grant request for 2026. A letter of support.
I use volunteer hours to make up the %5 non-federal match. Currently IDPR lists that value at $7.25 an hour for the RTP grant. I have made a request to update that amount to match the actual value that volunteers contribute, so hopefully that will change at some point. The letter of support needs to list the number of volunteer hours a group is willing to support us doing trail work during the years we will have the grant. The letter must explicitly state the number of hours, as per IDPR policy. I generally use the previous year’s volunteer hours or take an average. I am happy to help sort out hours and draft a letter or provide examples if needed. If you don’t want to state you will help with hours, just a note that you support the grant is also helpful.
Second, please let me know if there is a time when I could attend a club meeting in January, February or March and what date, time and location the meeting would occur and I can give an update on 2025 trail work and future planning.
Again, thank you so much for the support and help, we covered a lot of ground in 2025 and addressed lots of post fire impacts with help from so many partners. We certainly couldn’t do the work without you.
