17 STATEWIDE SNOWMOBILE TRAILS PROGRAM (SSTP) REPORT Submitted by Matt Tetreault, Trails Administrator FY 2018 was once again a season that kept us guessing. Overall, many areas had some great riding throughout the majority of the season, but some warm temperatures, rain and freeze/thaw cycles made for some interesting grooming challenges. We even had a few icing events that pulled down tree limbs. March was a heavy snow month, enabling some late season grooming and riding when the sun was warm and the weather was nice! A special thanks once again to all of the volunteers who created a well maintained and signed trail system, the great landowners who allow the volunteers and riders access, and the membership for sticking with us for another season. As we prepare for the winter of 2019, I will leave you with some statistics that recap what happened on the Statewide Snowmobile Trail System (SSTS) during the 2018 season. Trail Construction & Maintenance There are approximately 4,688 miles of groomed trails and 1500 miles of secondary trails maintained by 128 VAST Snowmobile Clubs. During the 2018 construction season, there were 145 regular construction projects funded at a total cost of $385,984 and 27 debrushing projects funded at a cost of $16,692. Based on these figures, he average cost per mile to construct/maintain the VAST Trail system this past season was $85.90/mile as opposed to a figure of $47.06/mile during the 2017 season.