Recreational trails for Washington State as gathered by the state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO), circa 2017This layer was downloaded from RCO on 8/19/2021. The data have not been modified in any way, apart from shortening field text fields lengths (down from 8,000 characters) and re-projection to NAD_1983_HARN_StatePlane_Washington_South_FIPS_4602_Feet.

From RCO:

The 2017 Washington State Trails Database contains line features and use attributes which have been aggregated and standardized from many public (federal, state, and local entities) and some approved private sources. This database spans multiple time periods and has been collected and developed by management authorities using different methods, scales, and technologies.

In 2007, Washington State legislators requested a trails database, but funding to complete that statewide project was not made available at the time.

In 2009, the Federal Government outlined the need for trails database schema in their Data Standards Review Committee, stressing the efficiency in management decisions that a streamlined database can provide.

“The collection, storage and management of trail related data are important components of everyday business activities in many federal and state land-managing agencies, trail organizations and businesses. From a management perspective, trails data must often mesh closely with other types of infrastructure, resource and facility enterprise data.”

In 2014, the Washington State Office of the Chief Information Officer's (OCIO) Geospatial Program Office acquired a Non-highway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities (NOVA) Program grant through the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) giving the OCIO initial funding to develop a statewide trails database based on Federal Geographic Data Committee standards. Using the same standard for all trails data will allow land managers and recreational users throughout the state to access and use the data regardless of administrative boundary.

"Data standards will make it easier for trail information to be accessed and exchanged and used by more than one individual agency or group…Ease in sharing data increases the capability for enhanced and consistent mapping, inventory, monitoring, conditions assessment, maintenance, costing, budgeting, information retrieval, and summary reporting for internal and external needs.”

Along with streamlining data and facilitating efficiency in management practices across agencies, the database will provide a source of trails information that is open and free to the public.

Additional details about the project can be found here:

https://rco.wa.gov/recreation-and-conservation/maps-and-data/

Original Source:https://data-wa-geoservices.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/22fdf62dc5234354940862c42d8626a7_9/data

DNR Data Steward (i.e., updated by):

Hilary Browning

Forest Resources Division

Hilary.Browning@dnr.wa.gov