Sep 16, 2026 · 23 min · 9 segments
Cinda Waldbuesser recently took time to talk with us. She joined Appalachian Trail Conservancy as President and CEO in January, 2026. We talked about what attracted her to this position, her…
Cinda WaldbuesserGuest
Jim FosterHost
What do you see as the major challenges and opportunities for ATC and the same question for the AT itself? The major challenges for both ATC and the AT itself and opportunities as well.
I think the first thing I would say is that I think some of the biggest challenges that the AT and ATC faces are also some of our greatest opportunities.
And I think for just about all of them, data is going to be central to how we understand the challenges, how we make the best decisions, and how we work to build a more resilient trail for the future and resilient on all the levels of resiliency, physical and otherwise.
So I'd say the biggest kind of concrete challenges I would highlight are development pressures, increasingly intense weather events.
And then, you know, the other challenge and opportunity I think is making sure we're developing that next generation of trail stores.
So development threats have always been an issue, but I think they're coming at us a little more rapidly right now.
I think one of the things those of us in Pennsylvania are certainly very well aware of is data centers.
We have, with any issue that arises, we really try to look at the individual proposal, so for an individual data center proposal or another proposal, and really assess the concrete impact it will have on the trail, on hikers, on the habitat on the trail.
One of the most important things being what's the visual impact since it is a national scenic trail.
And the good news here is we have been undertaking a view shed inventory and have completed about 62% of the trail.
So for example, with one of the proposed data centers in Cumberland, we were able to look at the visual information and really assess very concretely what the impact would be to that portion of the trail.
And I think that makes us much stronger advocates and puts us in a much stronger position to advocate for the trail when one of those proposals come up.
So there's a challenge and then there's a big opportunity to invest in that data that will allow us to be the best stewards we can be.
um the next one of course is weather events first in front of all of our minds coming out of a couple of years post uh hurricane helene where we saw 800 miles of the trail impacted and we're down to at least as of august it was 12.8 miles are is all that is still closed and i think that's really extraordinary it shows how strong the community is and how strong the cooperative management system is I also think that that storm showed that the communities and the partners and ATC was not looking to just rebuild what was there, but looking to make smart decisions to rebuild stronger so that the trail was ready for the next event.
And I've seen that even in places that were not impacted by Hurricane Helene.
A great example from some of my travels was I got to spend time and visited Agony Grind, spent time with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, and got to see firsthand the amazing work their trail crews has done.
in looking at a very eroded and heavily used section of the trail, and they're rebuilding it with sustainable steps, with better drainage, not only fixing the problem, but thinking, how do we make this stronger for the future? How do we make sure it can withstand heavy use, it can withstand weather events? And it was a great example of work in progress where it wasn't necessarily in response to some big event like Hurricane Helene, but looking at the future of resiliency for the trail itself.
What do you see as the major challenges and opportunities for ATC and the same question for the AT itself? The major challenges for both ATC and the AT itself and opportunities as well.
I think the first thing I would say is that I think some of the biggest challenges that the AT and ATC faces are also some of our greatest opportunities.
And I think for just about all of them, data is going to be central to how we understand the challenges, how we make the best decisions, and how we work to build a more resilient trail for the future and resilient on all the levels of resiliency, physical and otherwise.
So I'd say the biggest kind of concrete challenges I would highlight are development pressures, increasingly intense weather events.
And then, you know, the other challenge and opportunity I think is making sure we're developing that next generation of trail stores.
So development threats have always been an issue, but I think they're coming at us a little more rapidly right now.
I think one of the things those of us in Pennsylvania are certainly very well aware of is data centers.
We have, with any issue that arises, we really try to look at the individual proposal, so for an individual data center proposal or another proposal, and really assess the concrete impact it will have on the trail, on hikers, on the habitat on the trail.
One of the most important things being what's the visual impact since it is a national scenic trail.
And the good news here is we have been undertaking a view shed inventory and have completed about 62% of the trail.
So for example, with one of the proposed data centers in Cumberland, we were able to look at the visual information and really assess very concretely what the impact would be to that portion of the trail.
And I think that makes us much stronger advocates and puts us in a much stronger position to advocate for the trail when one of those proposals come up.
So there's a challenge and then there's a big opportunity to invest in that data that will allow us to be the best stewards we can be.
um the next one of course is weather events first in front of all of our minds coming out of a couple of years post uh hurricane helene where we saw 800 miles of the trail impacted and we're down to at least as of august it was 12.8 miles are is all that is still closed and i think that's really extraordinary it shows how strong the community is and how strong the cooperative management system is I also think that that storm showed that the communities and the partners and ATC was not looking to just rebuild what was there, but looking to make smart decisions to rebuild stronger so that the trail was ready for the next event.
And I've seen that even in places that were not impacted by Hurricane Helene.
A great example from some of my travels was I got to spend time and visited Agony Grind, spent time with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, and got to see firsthand the amazing work their trail crews has done.
in looking at a very eroded and heavily used section of the trail, and they're rebuilding it with sustainable steps, with better drainage, not only fixing the problem, but thinking, how do we make this stronger for the future? How do we make sure it can withstand heavy use, it can withstand weather events? And it was a great example of work in progress where it wasn't necessarily in response to some big event like Hurricane Helene, but looking at the future of resiliency for the trail itself.
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