Skip to main content
Search MLTPA

Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance

Project Description: Six National Park Service (NPS) units—Death Valley National Park, Devils Postpile National Monument, Manzanar National Historic Site, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, and Yosemite National Park—share common destinies with their gateway communities here in the Eastern Sierra. These communities and their counties established a unique public-public partnership with the U.S. Forest Service called the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership whose goals are to “...design, plan, implement, and report out projects to improve and maintain recreational opportunities as well as restore ecosystems to their natural resiliency and functions...”  In June of 2019, MLTPA submitted a grant application to the National Park Service and their “Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program” to convene, facilitate and report on a gathering of the superintendents of the above-identified National Park Service units, and to determine their willingness, either as individual units or as a group, to join the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership and to work with local communities to benefit America’s public-lands experience in Eastern California.  MLTPA’s grant application was awarded in November of 2019.

Project Update:  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has not been possible to arrange in-person meetings between the National Park Service Superintendents and their staffs and representative of the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership as called for in the RTCA Grant Applicaion.  The grant remains in effect and efforts are underway to see it implemented.

Grant Application to the National Park Service

On June 17, 2019, MLTPA submitted a grant application to the “Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Grant Program” that is administered by the National Park Service to explore opportunities for regional partnership. Click above to download and review the complete application.

Letter of Award from the National Park Service

On November 22, 2019, the RTCA program notified MLTPA that its grant application had been awarded, “… one of over 40 projects that will receive assistance… We are excited to collaborate with you in support of this effort.” Click above to download and review the letter of award.

RTCA Grant Program Webpage

“Our national network of conservation and recreation planning professionals partners with community groups, nonprofits, tribes, and state and local governments to design trails and parks, conserve and improve access to rivers, protect special places, and create recreation opportunities.”

Last updated on February 27, 2024