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What if a trail is on my private property?

  • Updated

If you're a landowner and see a trail on AllTrails that is trespassing on your private property, please don't hesitate to contact our support team. Please familiarize yourself with the following before contacting us:

  • If the trail is marked by a thick green line and has an individual trail page (like this one), the trail is considered a verified route in the AllTrails database. If the trail route isn't open to the general public, please email us via our contact form with the following information:
      1. Name of Trail
      2. Web URL
      3. Detailed description of the access issue
  • If the trail is marked by a black-dashed line segment only, you're referring to the trail segment data on the AllTrails map type. For reference, the trail segment data comes directly through OpenStreetMap (OSM), a collaborative mapping project that offers a free editable map of the world. In certain areas, these trail segments shouldn't be accessed by the public, or they may have inaccuracies. We recommend that you use OSM's online platform to edit the attributes of trail segments so that the changes will then be reflected in the AllTrails database. Please follow the instructions below to make edits on OSM:
      1. Visit https://www.openstreetmap.org/ 
      2. Use the search bar to enter a nearby city or other geographical feature to narrow your view
      3. Click the arrow next to 'Edit' and select 'Edit with iD' from the dropdown
      4. Zoom into the segment that needs to be edited, then click the segment to highlight it
      5. In the left column, edit the segment's attributes as follows:
        • highway=path
        • access=private
      6. When finished editing, click 'Save' at the upper right corner of the map

Note: When making edits on OSM, please do not delete the trail segments — doing this runs the risk of another OSM member adding back the segments with misleading attributes. Instead, please follow the above steps to mark the segment as private; learn more about setting attributes on OpenStreetMap. Once updated on AllTrails, these segments will be clearly marked as private to warn members not to follow the paths.

Edits made to OSM aren't immediately applied to the AllTrails map type. These edits are applied to the AllTrails map type periodically throughout the year.

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