Trailblazers is seeking dependable and hardworking Trail Builders to support the construction, maintenance, and stewardship of soft-surface, multi-use trails throughout Northwest Arkansas. This field-based role helps ensure trails remain safe, sustainable, and accessible for the community.

Trail Builders perform hands-on outdoor work using hand tools and small motorized equipment, including weed eaters, mowers, pruning shears, rakes, shovels, mattocks, McLeods, backpack blowers, and brush-hog equipment. Work takes place on varied terrain and in changing weather conditions and requires consistent attention to safety, quality workmanship, and teamwork.

This position serves as an entry-level pathway into professional trail building. Team members begin by learning trail maintenance and construction fundamentals and can increase their responsibilities and compensation over time by developing skills in areas such as trail construction techniques, woodworking for trail features, welding and metal fabrication, rock work, and heavy equipment operation.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform routine maintenance on soft-surface, multi-use trails, including weed-eating, raking, and clearing vegetation
• Maintain trail corridors by trimming trees, removing branches, and managing overgrowth
• Assist with trail construction activities such as hand-cutting tread, finishing trail surfaces, and supporting feature installation
• Remove sediment and debris from drainage features to maintain proper water flow and trail sustainability
• Operate and maintain hand tools and small motorized equipment, including weed eaters, mowers, backpack blowers, and brush-hog equipment
• Mow and maintain Trailblazers-owned properties and trail access areas
• Identify and report safety hazards, erosion issues, fallen trees, or other trail concerns to crew leadership
• Follow safety protocols and maintain tools and equipment according to established standards
• Support trail construction and maintenance projects as assigned by crew leadership
• Perform additional duties as assigned

 

Qualifications

• Strong work ethic and reliability
• Ability to follow directions and work effectively as part of a team
• Willingness to perform physically demanding outdoor work in varying weather conditions
• Ability to safely use, or willingness to learn to use, hand tools and small motorized equipment
• Interest in learning trail construction and maintenance techniques
• Commitment to safety and quality workmanship
• Clean driving record required

 

Physical Requirements

• Independently lift, carry, lower, and move tools, materials, equipment, rock, stone, fuel containers, and other objects weighing up to 60 pounds.
• Safely participate in team lifting and movement of heavier materials and equipment.
• Carry approximately 35 to 40 pounds of personal gear and hand tools while walking or hiking up to approximately one half mile to access project locations.
• Walk, stand, and work on loose, steep, rugged, and uneven terrain, including slopes and surfaces where footing and elevation vary.
• Perform sustained and repetitive strenuous physical work throughout the workday, including lifting, carrying, digging, raking, trimming, pushing, pulling, and operating hand and motorized tools.
• Regularly bend, crouch, squat, kneel, work from one knee, twist, and reach uphill, downhill, and around obstacles while maintaining sufficient balance and control to work safely.
• Work in restricted or tight spaces, including underneath bridges and around natural or constructed obstacles.
• Carry and operate hand tools and motorized equipment used in trail construction, maintenance, and vegetation management, including equipment weighing approximately 10 to 25 pounds, for repeated periods throughout the workday.
• Safely reach, grip, manipulate, control, balance, and maneuver the controls, handles, brakes, and other mechanisms of assigned tools, machinery, and equipment through their normal range of operation.
• Safely load and unload tools, equipment, materials, and supplies from trucks, trailers, and other vehicles.
• Work outdoors throughout the workday in changing and potentially extreme environmental conditions, including heat, cold, rain, snow, sun exposure, mud, and other conditions commonly encountered in trail work.

 

Benefits & Perks*

• 33 days of paid time off annually
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life, AD&D, short-term and long-term disability coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan with a 6% employer match
• Access to outdoor industry discounts

*for Full-Time Employees