Structures with a history
Bridges, boardwalks, gates, kiosks and signs as records rather than as pins — with condition, install date, inspection dates and photographs that stay attached to the asset.
For land trusts and conservation organizations
Stewardship with a record behind it
Access is the part of conservation the public sees, and the part that creates obligations. TrailsIQ keeps the inventory, the condition history and the evidence in one place, so what you tell a board, a funder or an attorney comes from the same source.
What it has to handle
What has to be true years from now
A trail club can rebuild its knowledge from the people who have it. A land trust often cannot: the person who inspected that bridge in 2021 has moved on, and the question being asked is what was found.
Inspections that are findable later
The point of an inspection is the one time somebody asks for it. Dated entries against the structure, not in a folder named after the month it happened.
Every parcel, every trail, one map
Group trails into preserves or networks, each with its own access rules, seasonal closures and condition. Points of interest carry trailheads, parking and viewpoints.
Visitors reporting what they find
A downed tree across a preserve trail reaches you the day it happens, from whoever walked into it, with a photo and a position — and waits for your approval before it goes anywhere.
Volunteer hours, as they happen
Hours logged against the preserve and the task while the work is being done. That is the match figure on a grant report, and the number hardest to reconstruct afterwards.
Public information you control
A page per preserve with conditions, closures, a map and the rules — published by you, on your own domain, without a developer in the loop.
Where the paper trail lives
Two things a steward cannot afford to lose
Both are unglamorous, and both are the reason this kind of organization ends up with four systems instead of one.
Infrastructure
The bridge file, without the filing
Every structure carries its own dimensions, its condition, its install date and its inspection history — and for timber bridges, a materials calculator that sizes stringers and decking from the span you enter, so a replacement can be costed before anyone drives out to measure it again.
- Photos attached to the asset Not to a message thread, and not to somebody's phone.
- Dated condition history What it was, what it is, and when it changed.
- Work raised against the structure A deck that needs replacing is an item on the bridge itself, so the record and the job stay together.
Contractors
Hire a builder without handing over the org
A contractor working two of your preserve trails needs those two trails. Lend them exactly that: they see the trail and can work its maintenance items from their own account, and nothing else of yours is reachable. Take it back whenever you like.
- One trail, not a membership The trail stays yours. They get a read-only view and, if you allow it, its maintenance.
- Their work is labeled as theirs Items a contractor files carry their company on the record — so a year later you can still tell your crew's work from theirs.
- Withdrawal is immediate End the share and the trail stops being viewable and downloadable at the same moment.
Getting started
Get the inventory down first
The trails are the quick part. The assets on them are what pays off in year three.
01
Import the trails
Bulk GPX, KML or GeoJSON, grouped into preserves or networks.
02
Walk the structures in
Bridges, gates, kiosks and signs from the field app, with photos and condition, on the phone at the structure.
03
Set the access rules
Seasonal closures, permitted uses and which trails accept public reports.
04
Publish what visitors need
Conditions and closures on a public page, so the call about whether the north loop is open stops coming.
Build the record while the work is happening
Start free and get the first preserve in. The inventory that is worth having is the one that was captured as the work was done.