Abby Long
Executive Director, Kingdom Trail Association
The Basics
Company Name: Kingdom Trail Association
Location: Northeast Kingdom, Vermont
Founded: 1994
Full-Time Employees: 5
Products: To provide recreation and education opportunities by managing, maintaining, and building trails to foster the health of our community, surrounding environment, and regional economy. We strive to accomplish this mission by offering a 100+ mile network of quality, non-motorized, multi-use trails for all levels of ability, incorporating the best of our local scenery and natural diversity.
Social: Instagram
Claim to Fame: Named “Best Mountain Bike Trail Network in North America.” - Bike Magazine
The Culture
The best thing about working at Kingdom Trails is:
Knowing that the Kingdom Trails network exists on 97 private landowners’ properties. These generous landowners, our own neighbors, allow the Kingdom Trail Association to manage trails on their private property for the good of the entire community. Our landowners play a key role in vitalizing our region, providing a quality experience, and healthy outlet for all.
When we’re not working, we’re:
Soaking up as much sunshine as possible on 2 wheels, 2 feet, or 2 skis!
What we’re reading:
IMBA's Guide to Building Sweet Singletrack during the day and Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance by Bill McKibben at night
What we’re listening to/Watching on Netflix:
Vermont Public Radio’s “Brave Little State” Podcast
If they made a movie about our workplace, it would be called:
Who’s Hummus is in the Fridge? A Mystery.
Inclusion in the outdoors matters because:
As an organization with the mission of offering a safe space to recreate and providing access to trails that are open and welcome to all, Kingdom Trails realize we have a role to play in changing systematic racial injustice.
Five years down the line, it’s our hope that:
Kingdom Trails must commit to listening, learning and taking action. We made this pledge to our community and landowners and we continue to follow through on that promise. With humility and commitment to deeper learning, we will challenge our assumptions and biases to make sure our trails are welcoming and safe for all. Further, we need to better understand how to actively participate in building a just organization, which could then contribute to a just experience for all, especially in the outdoors.
We are seeking resources and support to strive to become more inclusive. With support from the In Solidarity Project’s Outdoor Diversity Pledge we must identify steps we can take as an organization in creating a plan to establish programs and initiatives around diversity and inclusion in the greater outdoor community. These action items will range from exploring diversity, equity, and inclusion education for our team to presenting representative marketing that welcomes and comforts new users to KTA and into the outdoors. We commit to sharing our progress with the Outdoor Diversity Pledge Team to hold ourselves accountable to the goals we have set through this pledge.
We will also look forward to taking part in discussions with fellow Vermont outdoor organizations in their pursuit of inclusion. Kingdom Trails will also seek guidance from regional organizations as they share opportunities for reflection and dialogue in our immediate Northeast Kingdom area. We recognize that our commitment won’t solve our challenges overnight, but it is the first step toward building a more inclusive organization, hopefully leading toward a more inclusive and representative outdoor recreation community.