Operation Yellowbird Veterans MTB Trails

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

Operation Yellowbird Veterans Organization partnered with Harris County Precinct 2 to repurpose unused park greenspace that was riddled with drug-users, homelessness, and crime. Operation Yellowbird proposed to build Mountain Bike Trails, a children’s Pump-Track and an adult MTB training course in this predominantly low-income community. Operation Yellowbird Veterans designed and led the building of the MTB trails while Harris County Precinct 2 provided staffing, equipment, and contractors totaling over $400,000 to support the project. The purpose of the Operation Yellowbird Mountain Bike Trail Program was to provide Veterans an alternate way to battle their PTSD through healthy outdoor activities which included veteran fellowship, tons of physical activity, a sense of community purpose and thrills, not pills. The outcome of this MTB Program has been astonishing. In 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Operation Yellowbird Veterans supported by Precinct 2 Parks & Trails, built a children's MTB pump track and an adult MTB training course that is visited daily by children of all ages. They also built several hundred yards of new mountain bike trails that continue to grow daily. Precinct 2 now has a new community of Veterans, their families, and mountain bikers of all ages that visit the Operation Yellowbird Trails at Fonteno Park. Park visitation has increased while crime and other issues have decreased dramatically by the increased presence of mountain biking Veterans. The Operation Yellowbird Facebook Group continues to grow daily with Veterans of all ages that join to participate in developing more local Operation Yellowbird MTB trails and credit this project for giving them a new way to cope with their PTSD.