2025 FOSS4G NA | Trails Stewardship Initiative - Jake Low
In this session from FOSS4G NA 2025, Jake Low of OpenStreetMap US presents the Trails Stewardship Initiative: Improving Outdoor Recreation Data. The presenters discuss the critical role of OpenStreetMap (OSM) as the primary data source for popular recreation apps like AllTrails and Strava, and the real-world safety and environmental challenges caused by missing or inaccurate trail metadata.
Jake and Maggie detail the collaborative efforts of the Trails Stewardship Initiative, a working group bringing together land managers (NPS, USFS, BLM), app companies, and the mapping community to standardize trail schemas and rendering guidelines. They showcase pilot projects in Washington and Utah that improved data for over 300,000 miles of trails, and introduce new tools like "Layercake"—which republishes OSM data as GeoParquet for traditional GIS workflows—and the Digital Trail Ambassador program designed to bridge the gap between volunteer mappers and professional land managers.
Highlights:
🛰️ The OSM Foundation & US Chapter: An overview of how the global geo-database is organized, from the servers in Ireland to the only US chapter with paid staff
🔄 The "Blue Dot" Problem: How post-COVID surges in outdoor recreation led to search-and-rescue issues and irresponsible use of unofficial "social trails"
🧩 Schema Standardization: Navigating the complex needs of different federal agencies to create high-priority tags for trail operators, closure status, and private access
⚙️ Rendering Guidelines: Encouraging app companies to distinguish between official trails and unofficial social paths to prevent environmental degradation
🌐 Pilot Success: A look at the pilot mapping campaign in Utah’s Bryce County and its impact on responsible recreation and land management
🏢 Layercake & Open Trail Map: New tools for exporting OSM data into cloud-native formats like GeoParquet and visualizing trail data gaps
🏗️ Digital Trail Ambassadors: A new program recruiting volunteers to act as liaisons between local park rangers and the global mapping community
For more content like this check out www.projectgeospatial.com
#OpenStreetMap #FOSS4G #Trails #OutdoorRecreation #OSM #GIS #NationalParks #PublicLands #GeoParquet #CommunityMapping #Safety #OpenSource #ProjectGeospatial #DataStewardship #Conservation
