This year’s trail season is over, and the numbers are in – we had an amazing season! A BIG thank you to all those who came out for volunteer days, helped to spread the word, and/or supported this program in other ways, including our TrailMix sponsors! We couldn’t do it without all of you.
Some highlights of this season included:
- Clearing brush along the lower 2 miles of the Emerald Canyon Trail
- Completing the reclamation of two unauthorized trails in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park
- Continuing work on the Five Oaks trail at Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, including realigning some turns and building a retaining wall under one of the namesake oaks
- Overhauling the top of Mentally Sensitive
- Dramatically improving the drainage on Stairsteps and Old Emerald Canyon Trail
- Completing the 0.16 mile reroute at the top of Laguna Ridge Trail
Here are the stats for this season’s accomplishments:
| Number of Volunteer Events: | 58 | Over twice last season’s total! |
| Total number of Event Hours: | 200 | Over twice last season’s total! |
| Unique Volunteers: | 171 | Over FOUR TIMES last season’s total! |
| Number of Trails Worked On: | 13 | |
| Total Volunteer Hours: | 1201 | Over twice last season’s total! |
| Total Hours of Trail Work (including LCF staff) | 1700 | Over twice last season’s total! |
| Decompaction and Seeding, sqft | 3000 | |
| Erosion Control Wattles Installed, linear ft | 200 | |
| Naturalization, sqft | 2000 | |
| Plants planted/transplanted | 130 | |
| Erosion Control Features (Dips & Drains): | 85 | Over FOUR TIMES last season’s total! |
| Insloped Turns | 12 | Over twice last season’s total! |
| Switchbacks | 2 | |
| Retaining Wall, block, sq ft | 16 | |
| Retaining Wall, rammed earth, sq ft | 150 | |
| Retaining Wall, rock, sqft | 30 | |
| Retaining Wall, total, sqft | 196 | |
| Tread Armored, block, linear ft | 90 | |
| Tread repaired, linear ft | 250 | |
| Tread, New, Constructed, linear ft | 1700 |
In short, we crushed it!
1,200 hours of volunteer work—according to how the federal government values volunteer work, that’s a value of over $30,000! Of course, you can’t really put a dollar amount on the true value of the work we have done, when you consider the values to the trail users’ experiences, to the plants and animals whose habitat has been protected, and to the relationships that have been built.
Interested in joining us for trail season in the fall? Email Alan to join our trail volunteer email list and get involved!