Trails Fund

Now stretching more than 42 miles, Bainbridge Island’s public trails network offers the best in hiking, biking and walking, and new trails are being added each year. The network’s growth reflects islanders’ strong interest in outdoor recreation and non-motorized connections between neighborhoods, coupled with an aggressive land conservation strategy – some 1,100 acres have been saved from development over the last 25 years. This sustained community effort has been remarkably successful in setting aside the island’s last major tracts of undeveloped land, with the construction of new, publicly accessible trails following in every new park and open space tract.

As infill development continues across the island (the island’s population has increased by 50 percent, from 17,000 to 24,000, in that same 25-year period), the process of developing new trails, and connecting existing trails with one another, becomes more challenging and expensive.

The Parks Foundation’s Trails Fund addresses this challenge. Dedicated exclusively to trails development, it funds the “hidden” costs – legal fees, surveys, title searches, permits, staff time, and the purchase cost of trail easements – incurred in the lead-up to actual trail construction.

The Trails Fund was seeded with a generous $50,000 donation from anonymous donors. With a major campaign in 2021, we hope to triple this fund to support development of another 10 miles of island trails over the next five years.

Do you love trails? Do you walk, run, or exercise your dog by hitting the trails in your neighborhood or on longer excursions? Do you like to be in touch with the natural beauty of our Island?

Support the Parks Foundation’s new Trails Fund and help us plan, build and support an exceptional public trail system.