Volunteer Story: Ice Age Trail Alliance

The Ice Age Trail Alliance team working diligently on trail construction.

NPS

Staff and volunteers of the Ice Age Trail Alliance were the National Park Service winners of the 2020 George and Helen Hartzog Award in the “Volunteer Group” category. They also won the award in the Midwest region of the National Park Service (Regions 3, 4, and 5). The George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service recognize the exemplary contributions of volunteers across the National Park System.

The Ice Age Trail Alliance is the long-standing major partner of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The Alliance, and its thousands-strong volunteer workforce, have been amazing innovators in trail construction, tireless protectors of the resource, story tellers of Wisconsin’s nationally significant geologic history, and true champions in public engagement of every description. The Ice Age National Scenic Trail spans more than 1,000 linear miles, cared for by volunteers across every inch. Even in a year like 2020 when COVID-19 shook the nation and the world, the Alliance stood tall.

Ice Age Trail Alliance members constructed 663 feet of boardwalk over a frozen pond.

Courtesy of the Ice Age Trail Alliance / Dave Caliebe

The Alliance executes numerous large and small-scale trail projects each year. Much of the significant work in 2020 revolved around reimagining these projects to conform to mandated group size limits, social distancing protocols, and providing for logistical support and safety mitigations throughout the uncertainties of the pandemic. Because the Alliance took decisive action in adjusting work plans early on and creatively reorganized for success, they finished Fiscal Year 2020 with 53,297 hours of mission-critical volunteer service which safely engaged 1,499 volunteers, resulting in a total of 1,277 feet of boardwalk and 1.3 miles of new trail constructed.

The Alliance truly embraced its “Ice Age” identity by successfully building boardwalk even in the dead of winter. In February 2020, the group constructed 663 feet of boardwalk by sawing through 36 inches of ice in a 4-ft. deep wetland pond. They sank a series of foundation posts upon which the rest of the above-water structure was built later in the season.

Learn more about volunteering with Ice Age National Scenic Trail and with the National Park Service. Discover other volunteer stories from Midwest national parks.