The Santa Barbara County Trails Council (SBTC) is a broad based trails advocacy group consisting of hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers.  The Trails Council was formed in 1969 as an advocate for trails and to lobby the public agencies on behalf of them.

Over the last 40 years, the Trails Council has also worked cooperatively with the local, state and federal agencies to develop, improve and maintain the trail systems in Santa Barbara County for all types of users — hikers, mountain bikers, equestrian groups, trail runners and many others.

The SBTC has five major goals that define itself as an organization:

• Collaboration. By its nature, SBTC serves as an umbrella organization to help support trail education, trail volunteer programs and trail care among the many local trail-related groups in our community.
• Trail Volunteerism. Through our leader's certification program, trail calendar, and email lists, SBTC provides the tools needed to support a robust trail care program.
• Planning. SBTC is in the process of developing a county-wide GIS project that will allow us to support trail planning, advocate for new trails and support trail management needs.
• Trail Management. Though its Front Country Community Trail Plan, SBTC is working to support comprehensive trail plans for Santa Barbara area trails to ensure the trails are managed on a sustainable, long-range basis.
• Agency Partnerships. SBTC is actively pursuing partnerships with a variety of local public agencies, including Los Padres Forest, Santa Barbara County Parks, City of Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation and the City of Goleta.