Grants for hikers benefit birders

If you hike while looking for birds, you know the value of well-maintained hiking trails. In an effort to add, improve and repair access and trails, the American Hiking Society provides National Trails Fund grants to nonprofit groups around the country.

This year's recipients include Friends of Little Pend Oreille, a volunteer group that supports Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Washington and plans to build a wheelchair-accessible trail into a refuge that currently lacks designated trails. In southeast Rhode Island, the Norman Bird Sanctuary will use the grant to improve its trails, used by approximately 15,000 visitors each year.

Northern Goshawk, which visits Little Pend Oreille NWR, courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service