Smokies Trails Forever

Welcome to Smokies Trails Forever

Trails Forever is the signature fundraising initiative connected to Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s 75th anniversary celebration. The Trails Foreverendowment will fund an additional permanent trail maintenance work crew to support trail improvement projects along the 800+ miles of hiking trails inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Trails Forever is for ALL of the trails in the Smokies for ALL TIME.

Friends of the Smokies is the beneficiary of a $2 million challenge grant from the Aslan Foundation of Knoxville. The Aslan Foundation is the legacy of avid Smokies hiker and founding Friends board member Lindsay Young. Because it is a $2 million pledge to be matched by Friends of the Smokies over the next 2 to 3 years, Trails Forever is a unique opportunity for anyone who loves the Smokies to contribute to its lasting preservation.

Since 1997, the Aslan Foundation has given more than $240,000 to Friends of the Smokies to aid in the preservation and protection of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Previously the foundation provided $5,000 for restoring historic log cabins in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and $170,000 to aid in the fight to save the Park’s hemlocks from the destructive hemlock woolly adelgid. The latter grant supported the expansion of a laboratory at the University of Tennessee where scientists rear insects are reared that feed upon the hemlock wooly adelgid. Because of the Aslan Foundation’s great support, the facility was named the Lindsay Young Beneficial Insects Laboratory.

Following Mr. Young’s passing in 2006, the Aslan Foundation has continued to build upon his history of philanthropy. The Aslan Foundation board and the Young family feel confident that because of his love for the Smokies and the people of East Tennessee, Lindsay Young would feel proud that he established the Trails Forever endowment for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We are very grateful to the Aslan Foundation and the Young Family for establishing the Trails Forever endowment as a way to acknowledge Mr. Young’s love for the Smokies for all time. No legacy could be more deserving or more fitting.

College Students Spend Break Working In National Park

4/19/2010

Six different groups of students, from University of Virginia, Truman University, New York University, University of Colorado, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Warren Wilson College, spent their spring break doing trail work in Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of the Trails Forever program during the month of March 2010.

Lending the Smokies a hand

4/8/2009

My husband, Lenny, and I first visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park back in 1974. We were on a driving vacation from New Jersey and thought we could “do” both Shenandoah National Park and the Smokies in a mere two weeks.

University of Virginia Students Volunteer Spring Break Time for Trails Forever!

3/16/2009

While college spring break often evokes images of young people in sun-drenched locales such as Cancun or Acapulco, each year students from colleges and universities across the nation spend their spring breaks doing volunteer service projects.

Welcome to Smokies Trails Forever

Trails Forever is for ALL of the trails in the Smokies for ALL TIME.

We need your support to make Trails Forever a lasting success and an enduring legacy for both Lindsay Young and the 75th Anniversary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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