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The Coos Regional Trails Partnership Background The embryonic stages of the Coos Regional Trails Partnership can be traced back to Coos County's Tourism Strategic and Implementation Plan of 1996 which outlined how Coos County could benefit by increasing the role of tourism while continuing to support the traditional resource-based economic sectors. The Tourism Plan highlighted the diverse environment of the area as a major asset for developing outdoor oriented recreation and tourism. In particular, trail and waterway related activities were singled out as having great potential in bringing additional destination visitors to the region. A loose consortium of land management agencies and economic development entities decided to follow up on the recommendations in the tourism plan and were able to commission the University of Oregon's Community Planning Workshop to study the feasibility of developing mountain biking trails and tourism. The assessment, Coos County Mountain Bike Destination Planning Assessment (October 1997) concluded that mountain biking development in the region made sense and that trail development efforts should continue. It was recognized that in order to proceed with implementing the recommendations, a more formalized and expanded (both in numbers of participants and in scope of size) planning group would need to form. A Memorandum of Understanding was developed and the Coos Regional Trails Partnership (CRTP) was born. Today, the CRTP is over thirty entities strong, hold regular planning meetings, focuses on mountain biking, hiking, equestrian, OHV and aquatic trails and has been geographically expanded to cover an area from Florence south to Port Orford and as far east as Dora and Sitkum. This region was selected because of similarities and ties both in the natural and socio-political environments. CRTP Accomplishments
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