September 13, 2018 – Building Trails Together
Paul Norris, President, Central Arkansas Trail Alliance
Paul will give us an overview and history of the Central Arkansas Trail Alliance (CATA). He’ll discuss their current projects plus future plans. He’ll touch on the expected and unexpected benefits of working together.
Paul Norris is the current president of Central Arkansas Trail Alliance. Growing up in Little Rock, he built his first trail in 1972 when he was 10, and his first legal trail in 1992. In 2005, he started building mountain bike trails in Growlers Gulch on a tree farm in Southwest Washington. After a heartbreaking timber harvest destroyed the forest and many of the trails he switched focus to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Mt. St. Helens National Monument. He formed Friends of Coldwater in order to unify the many trail groups working on the mountain. He quit his job as COO in 2010 and began volunteering full-time. Since returning to Arkansas in 2015, he has been busy with FOFC, TNC and now as president of CATA. He and his wife Melanie love to travel and take part in most outdoor activities.