Bryce Watson, Contributor

The Mountain Bike Capital of the World now offers a college degree in trail building at NorthWest Arkansas Community College. With an $8 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation, NWACC will offer a trade program focused on building and maintaining cycling trails, starting in the fall of 2024. This new program is the first of its kind in the country with goals of international growth. 

The NWACC Trail Trade School will be a credit-bearing certificate that stacks into the AAS in General Technology and the AAS in Construction Technology, school leaders said. It will provide students with “a job-ready certificate in one year or less and go directly into the field, or they can stack that certificate into a two-year degree that we already have,” said Megan Bolinder, executive director. 

The program curriculum hasn’t been decided as of now but will focus on the student experience, according to Bolinder. “We intend for the class structure to allow students to work and go to school, experience trail work in the field, complete the credentials in an efficient/expeditious manner, participate in parts of the program from anywhere in the world, receive internationally recognized accreditation, and find job placement in the trails, construction, and/or outdoor rec jobs if they so desire,” she said. 

The program also will include standardized training and the use of specialized equipment including excavators, chainsaws, welders, and hand tools, along with working with trail building organizations around the globe like IMBA, The Professional Trail Builders Association, and THE DIRTT project from IMBA Europe. 

After the first year of the program, the plan is to implement more programs. The program leaders “will use labor and placement” and “feedback from our Executive Advisory Board and local partners,” Bolinder said. “We will use the first few years of the program to make sure our professional accreditation process is sound, and we are teaching/assessing what will best equip our students for career success in the trail industry.” That will be along with “career-credit” or “non-credit” professional development and continuing education training (like chainsaw certifications) after the first year, she added. 

The Trail Trade School will follow NWACCs goal of providing work and career pathways after graduation and has and will continue to build relationships with local trail-building companies and other companies in the outdoor recreation field. 

Bentonville wasn’t named the Mountain Bike capital of the world for nothing, with access to over 140 miles of off-road trail and 36 miles of paved greenway all within minutes of downtown. The NWA area has seen explosive growth in the outdoor recreation industry and it was only a matter of time before a program like this was going to be developed in NWA. According to Boyd Logan, Superintendent and Co-founder of the Fort Smith Future School, “Northwest Arkansas is not only a hub for outdoor recreation, but we are also positioning ourselves as leaders in infrastructure, industry, and innovation adjacent to recreation.” The accredited trail building program, along with the bicycle mechanic program, ensure that “we have a talent pipeline to continue to lead the way and serve as a model for other communities,” he said. “It’s an exciting time to live in this area!” 

Those interested in joining the NWACC Trail Trade School as students or faculty can email trails@nwacc.edu.