The Laguna Foundation is in the midst of their first ever Tree-A-Thon fundraiser and volunteer tree planting event. On January 9th over 100 volunteers will meet at Sebastopol’s Meadowlark Field (next to Chevron Station on Hwy. 12) to plant over 750 valley oak and other trees and plants. This is an exciting project on so many levels. The Foundation is stretching tight dollars to restore a riparian forest in a highly visible field adjacent to the Laguna. A restoration of this kind has multiple benefits: increasing biodiversity and habitat connectivity, mitigating global climate change and let’s not forget restoring natural beauty!
If you would like to volunteer or pledge for this effort, please see the Foundations’ Tree-A-Thon pages.
The Sonoma Land Trust announced on Dec. 17 that escrow closed on the stunning 5,630-acre Jenner Headlands — a nationally significant project and the single largest conservation land acquisition in Sonoma County. This $36 million purchase from willing sellers Sonoma Coast Associates, Gualala Redwoods, Inc., and Russian River Redwoods was completed due to the extraordinary efforts and collaboration of 10 public and private funding partners. Sonoma Land Trust is now the proud steward of this incredible coastal property.
Eventually the property will include a section of the California Coastal Trail as well as other trails. While the interim public access plan is being developed, the Land Trust will begin conducting guided hikes in January 2010. From January–March, SLT will offer a hike each month along the coastal headlands. This strenuous 3.5-mile roundtrip hike will ascend more than 700 feet in elevation to a rocky hilltop within the coastal prairie portion of the Headlands. Along the way, hikers will be greeted with dazzling views of the Sonoma Coast (on clear days!). Although this route will follow old ranch roads, some sections are especially rough with uneven footing. This hike is not for inexperienced hikers — you must be in good physical condition and sturdyhiking boots with ankle support are strongly recommended.
See the Land Trust Jenner Headlands pages for more information on hikes and the property.
Mark Your Calendar –Wild Steelhead Festival, February 6 & 7, 2010.
Stop by the Healdsburg Plaza on Saturday, Feb. 6 and see the Lake Sonoma booths sponsored by the Friends of Lake Sonoma (FOLS). Be sure to check out the Department of Fish and Game – Steelhead Demo Tank. Sunday, take the beautiful dive up Dry Creek Road to Lake Sonoma; enjoy free family-friendly activities from 10 till 3, including: hatchery sortings at 10, 11:30, 1:30 and 3, a fish maze, Gyotaku Fish Painting, bird and reptile demonstrations and Ranger led tours.
A big thanks to everyone who came out for The Trails Council’s annual membership meeting on Nov.17! Attendance on Nov. 17 was a little lower than we’d hope — perhaps due to the heavy rain — but those who made it had a good food and drink, great door prizes and heard an excellent presentation, “Maximizing the Community Value of Trails” by Randy Martin, professional trail designer and builder.
Swoopy Trails
Randy’s firm, Trailscape, has completed trail projects in the Sierra foothills, Susanville, CA, and most recently, Jamaica. Randy spoke on how well designed and built trails provide value to communities as they satisfy the growing demand for outdoor recreation while providing an experience with nature that feeds the heart and soul. In Randy’s experience, trails with a relatively low overall grade (4-6%) and short, steeper grade reversals create undulating trails that are durable and more enjoyable for all users. Through slides and videos, he demonstrated how this design worked in a number of settings, with a focus on a single track trail recently completed near Susanville and his project in Jamaica.
Randy has more videos from these and other projects on YouTube.
Elections and Swag
After a brief presentation of the year’s accomplishments and events, accompanied by trail project photos courtesy of Tim Mayer, the entire Board of Directors was reelected (thank you!). And thanks to our sponsors, REI, Sonoma Bicycle Company and Fly Goat Coffee, almost all attendees came away with a door prize, including a Giro helmet and Sonoma Bicycle Company gift certificates, a sleeping bag, backpack, jackets, premium coffee and more. Finally, a big thanks to all the members of the Board for putting together a great evening!
Thanks to the great efforts of Tim Mayer and the State Parks staff, we successfully repaired a portion of the Spring Creek Trail located about one half mile up from the Spring Creek/Canyon trail intersection. For this project, completed the weekend of Oct. 31/Nov. 1, we built two sections of causeway to elevate the trail through particularly muddy spots. Over the course of the two days, a dozen volunteers prepared the trail bed with McLeods and mattocks, laid down geotextile to prevent materials from sinking into the muck, and moved rock and tread mix in wheelbarrows to create the raised surface before a final compaction.
A few large boulders hid under the tread with only a small portion cropping out — a few volunteers valiantly excavated and moved them out of the way. The other challenge was the amount of traffic on the trail while we worked, which had the benefit of forcing the crew to take frequent breaks.
Check out the rest of Tim’s photos from the project, then take a ride, hike or run to see the finished project. The causeways are located about 1/2 mi. south of the intersection of Spring Creek and Canyon trails; they are roughly 100 yards north of the Ilsanjo spillway drainage.
An evening of Food, Beer, Beverages, Board Elections, and a presentation, “Maximizing the Community Value of Trails” by Randy Martin, professional trail designer and builder.
Randy’s firm, Trailscape, has completed trail projects in the Sierra foothills, Susanville, CA, and most recently, Jamaica. Randy will explain how well designed and built trails provide value to communities as they satisfy the growing demand for outdoor recreation while providing an experience with nature that feeds the heart and soul.
Open to all Sonoma County Trails Council Members – Renew or join at the door!
Now that we have had some rain and the soil is workable we want to begin the long-awaited Spring Creek Trail project. The site, which is about half a mile up the trail from the intersection of the Spring Creek and Canyon trails, is a wet muddy mess in the winter, and we hope to build a long-lasting repair with short sections of causeways.
This summer we hauled rock and tread mix up to the project site, so some of the heavy work has already been done. Now we would like to get together a crew of 6 or 8 to actually build the project. The work will consist of preparing the trail bed with McLeods and mattocks, moving rock and tread mix in wheelbarrows for a short distance (50 to 100 feet, generally downhill), placing materials (fabric, border rocks, drain rock, and tread mix), and finally compacting the surface. We plan to begin work on Saturday, October 31. This trail is gets a lot of use, and we don’t want to leave the project unfinished, so those who can will work on Sunday, Nov 1 as well.
If the weather doesn’t cooperate for the 31st or 1st, we’ll try again the following weekend, Nov. 7th and/or 8th.
Leader for this project is Tim Mayer. Please contact Tim directly to sign up for either (or both) days.
Sonoma County Regional Park recently announced a new day-use permit program to increase access to Tolay Lake Regional Park. The program, similar to that implemented at the Willow Creek addition to Sonoma Coast State Park, allows the public to visit the park during posted hours once they’ve completed an hour-long orientation and obtained a permit. Tolay Lake Regional Park will be open to permit holders for hiking, bicycling, horseback riding and picnicking starting September 18th. See below for a list of upcoming orientations For information on these and future orientations visit the Regional Parks Tolay Interim Plan page. Hats-off to the park staff, volunteers and community members who supported the access planning for this south-county jewel.
Orientation sessions:
ORIENTATIONS START PROMPTLY – LATE ARRIVALS WILL NOT BE ADMITTED
Though November is still a little ways off, mark your calendars for the Trails Council Annual Membership Meeting. Meet your fellow Council members (you can join at the door) and enjoy a evening of good food, doorprizes and more.
The Trails Council completed our second contract job with the Sonoma Land Trust. We cleared a temporary two mile trail system at the Glen Oaks Ranch in Glen Ellen. The two trails wind through oak woodland above Glen Ellen and offer a great view of the east slopes of Sonoma Mountain. Although it was hot on Glen Oaks Ranch in late August, the small crew blazed through the project. Surprisingly enough, we only found one rattlesnake…
A special thanks to Rob Helms and especially Tim Mayer for a fair amount of legwork both before and after the workday.
Our small contract jobs raise money for our stewardship efforts on more popular public lands. For more information about this property or go on a hike, please visit the SLT website.
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