Outfitter & Guide Trail Stewardship Credit Program
The Outfitter & Guide Trail Stewardship Program, established by the National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act, strives to help address the Forest Service’s trail maintenance backlog. Commercial Outfitter & Guides are helping the Agency accomplish trail maintenance on National Forest trails and related facilities through innovative public-private partnerships.
Outfitter and guide companies help people access their public lands for activities like hunting, fishing, and rafting. Outfitter and guides typically pay annual fees to utilize public land that is managed by the Forest Service. Local Forest Service officials on forests and grasslands work together with permitted outfitter and guides to identify agreed-upon work, associated standards, and fee offset. This innovative Outfitter & Guide Trail Stewardship Credit Program is an opportunity for participating outfitter and guides to construct, improve, or maintain trails, trailheads, and developed sites that support public use in exchange for paying all or part of their land use fee. Outfitter and guide companies are joining the Forest Service as part of a learning culture to find innovative ways to share in caring for trails and improving on-the-ground trail conditions.
An experimental pilot was launched in in 2019 with 20 forests and grasslands participating in the program. From 2019-2022, outfitters and guides maintained or improved over 800 miles of National Forest System trails. The Forest Service expanded the program in late 2022 to invite all forests and grasslands and their respective outfitter and guide partners to participate. Participation in the program is at the discretion of local authorized officers.
Outfitters and guides who are interested in participating in the program should contact their local Forest Service office.