Preserving and enhancing trails with a local community-based organization
Abstract
Multiple-use trails are a viable solution to the problem of increased demand for recreational access to a limited amount of public land in Northern California. In Santa Cruz, California, volunteers with Trailworkers.com help support their county's trail system and build a sense of community among groups who use the trails. Trailworkers.com encourages volunteers to sign up beforehand on their website, and information about monthly workdays is posted in advance.Issue
Supporting a county's trail system and building a sense of community among groups who use the trails.Action
Trailworkers.com is a volunteer organization based in Santa Cruz County, California, dedicated to preserving and enhancing the system of trails in public parks in the county. Trailworkers.com volunteer crews are made up of cyclists, equestrians, hikers, and runners from all over the Bay Area. Trail workers help maintain three main sites in Santa Cruz County: Wilder Ranch, Nisene Marks State Park, and Soquel Demonstration State Forest.Trailworkers.com promotes trail work by:
- Maintaining and building trails for use by all: typical projects include trail drainage, pushing back poison oak in the summer, and other general maintenance
- Educating all park users in the value of land stewardship
- Acting as an information center for trail work, trail users. and supporting organizations
- Helping to plan and coordinate projects with land managers and partners
- Consulting with land managers on the mitigation of problems
- Recruiting volunteers
- Trailworkers.com encourages volunteers to sign up beforehand on their website.
- Information about monthly workdays for all three sites is posted in advance. This is important so that crew leaders can plan with land managers, and prepare tools and transportation to the work site. Additionally, crews are better organized and spend more time working on the trails and less time waiting around.
- Also the founder of the organization maintains a database of over 350 people—from land managers in high levels of administration to past volunteer participants. Before each workday, he sends a reminder e-mail to everyone in the database.
- Posting reports and photos of all trail projects on the website as soon as each project is completed
- Volunteers are recognized immediately for the service they have performed
- Project details, including total volunteer hours worked, are included to keep land use managers and others well informed
- Providing training for volunteer crews and crew leaders
- Training days have been held for crew leaders at the trail sites; training is an ongoing event
- At the start of each work day, volunteers are given safety training and told what to expect
- Volunteers are paired with more experienced trail workers so that they learn from hands-on experience
- Training tips are posted on the website and are archived by topic
- Striving to build cooperation among various trail use groups
- Although some sites typically draw runners, and others are used more by mountain bikers, a camaraderie of volunteers has developed so that it is no longer uncommon to see bikers, runners, and hikers all working together at any of the three work sites.
- Providing trail work celebrations and get-togethers to promote good feelings among the trail workers, supporters, and those in the community who use the trails.
- Continuing to find ways to educate and train others in trail use and maintenance issues
- In 2002, Trailworkers.com received funding from the California State Parks Commission to develop a training video and DVD. The target audience is those who have done some trail work but would like to know more. The video will cover such topics as types of tools used, how to dress for a workday, what to bring, safety issues, as well as how to make the experience fun for everybody. The video will be shown on training days; parts of it will be streamed onto the website.
Context
Trailworkers.com officially began in 2000 when a dedicated mountain biker with over 14 years of volunteer trail work experience in Wilder State Park (California) decided it was time to train other volunteers and promote their efforts to keep public trails well-maintained and accessible to all.
Trailworkers.com is sponsored by a number of local and statewide organizations, businesses, and individuals. These include, but are not limited to, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, the California State Parks Foundation, and the Advocates for Nisene Marks. Platinum sponsors provide Trailworkers.com with at least \$5,000 in contributions, gold sponsors provide at least \$2,500 in contributions, and silver sponsors provide at least \$1,000 in contributions. Park sponsors such as Stewards of Soquel Forest, Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, and the Advocates for Nisene Marks, promote, facilitate, and perform trail work in parks in the county.
Outcome
- Existing trails are kept open and well maintained, with larger and more experienced volunteer crews.
- New trails in parklands are opened whenever possible.
- Friendships and relationships among trail users are developed and maintained, as this community of volunteers continues to grow.
Wilder Ranch Twin Oaks re-alignment project April 6, 2003 (ongoing since November 2002)
- Goal: Prevent erosion problems and move the trail out of the wettest and most sensitive part of the meadow.
Trail workers decommissioned the old Twin Oaks trail and extended the diversion ditch near the creek further up the hill to catch more seepage. According to the website account of the activity, the old trail bed leading up the steep sand hill is well underway to being reclaimed (evidenced by the fact that ferns are already growing in the middle of the trail). Now that much of the steep section is broken up, the water will percolate into the soil better instead of staying on the surface and eroding the old trail. The rougher ground will also collect seeds faster to speed re-growth. A little further down towards the creek, the existing ditch was widened and deepened to improve the water flow.
Nisene Marks State Park April 27, 2003 (annual project)
- Goal: Reinstall the two seasonal stream crossings
"Bridge A" team took on the task of installing the bridge crossing over Aptos Creek to Marcel's Forest.
For "Bridge B," a tree had fallen right where their bridge needed to go. Before anything could happen, the tree had to be chainsawed. Crews also weeded the native garden and swept around the information kiosk.
Evidence
The total number of hours of trail work was 1135 for the first half of 2003. When Trailworkers.com first began holding monthly volunteer workdays, typically two to five volunteers would show up for a workday. In 2003 the average number is ten to 15.Posted On
May 23, 2003For More Information