TTC Captain Spotlight: Becket Pottinger
Improving Trail Safety at Boyce Park
For Becket Pottinger, trail stewardship became personal.
A junior at Franklin Regional High School and a six-year member of the Franklin Regional PICL team, Becket has spent years giving back to the trails he loves. As a former Team Trail Corps Captain, he already understood the value of stewardship, but one experience inspired him to take his leadership even further.
After a collision with another trail user around a blind corner at Boyce Park, Becket recognized an opportunity to make the trails safer for everyone. His Teen Trail Corps Captain Project focused on improving sight lines by carefully removing overgrown brush around sharp corners, allowing riders, hikers, and horseback riders to better see one another before entering blind turns.
Working alongside Allegheny County Parks maintenance staff, park rangers, Trail Pittsburgh, and his coaches, Becket identified priority locations throughout the park and used thoughtful cutting techniques to improve visibility while preserving the surrounding forest. His teammates also contributed by identifying additional areas where visibility was limited.
"The main takeaway from the whole thing is ensuring the safety of everybody," Becket said. "I don't want what happened to me to happen to somebody else."
One of the biggest challenges was deciding where to focus his efforts and determining how much vegetation to remove. Through the project, Becket learned that even small details - like a clear line of sight around a corner - can have a major impact on the trail experience.
His advice to future TTC Captains is simple: if you see something that could make your local trails better, take the initiative to improve it.
"Trail stewardship means more than just earning an award," Becket said. "It fulfills a deeper meaning of citizenship by improving trails not only for yourself, but for the entire community."
Thanks to Becket's leadership, Boyce Park is safer and more enjoyable for everyone who visits.