Smile You're On Camera....Out On The Trail

To try and get an idea of trail user demographics, the Front Country Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force is using game cameras(like the one pictured below) to get an exact count of user types and numbers. This topic was discussed and approved by the Task Force in June 2010 at a public hearing. Read the Independent article.

December 2nd Front Country Trails Task Force Meeting Re-Cap

Dear Trail Users,



Yesterdays Front Country Trails Task Force Meeting covered the most recent update on Jesusita Fire winter preparations, UTAP trail survey updates and introduced the first FCT Coordinator, Rebecca Mordini to the public.

Jon Frye from the County Flood Control stopped by to review hydromulching operations done after the Jesusita Fire. 1020 acres were covered with hydromulch, and approximately 2000 pounds of mulch were dropped on each acre. The total cost was around 3 million dollars and it took approximately 3 weeks to complete. “Test plots” of mulched and unmulched earth side by side indicate the mulch is making a difference in reducing erosion following the recent rain.

Phase 1 of the UTAP trail assessment is underway on Cold Spring Trail. Phase 1 will take place until mid January covering Cold Spring and Romero Trails. Phase II will take place in the Spring of 2010 and cover trails affected by the Jesusita Fire. The lower portion of Cold Spring Trail has been surveyed by roughly 20 volunteers and staff is still looking for people willing to take a hike for a good cause. The following dates have some openings, December 9th(1 person),10th(2 people), and 17th(2 people), January 6th(1 person), 7th(2 people), and 14th(2 people) _ get in on the action before it's all booked up! If you are able to help out on any of the above dates or for more on the survey process please contact Kathy Frye @ City Parks, (805) 897-1976 or kfrye@santabarbaraca.gov

Recent trail maintenance projects were reviewed on trails affected by the Jesusita Fire. Kerry Kellogg from the USFS provided a slide show of volunteer efforts along with California Conservation Corps, USFS, and County Heli Crew all working to prepare the trails for winter storms. Garrett Villanueva, an USFS engineer from the Lake Tahoe region led the trail preparation efforts for a two week period starting mid October. With his training, all trails affected by the Jesusita Fire were "retrofitted" with drainage dips, rolling grade dips, and other water drainage features to better hold up through the winter. Kerry also noted that all trails starting at the Tunnel Trail Head including Tunnel, Jesusita(to Inspiration Pt) and Rattlesnake Connector will remain closed until Spring 2010.

Rebecca Mordini was introduced as the FCT Coordinator. She beat out some 20 people for the job and is eager to hear from the people out there about our trails.

Next FCT Task Force Meeting will take place March 3rd, 2010, look for a big trail opening announcement then.

Front Country Trail Assessment Volunteers Needed

The Task Force is looking for help in surveying our Front Country Trails. As part of the recommendations designed by the Task Force and approved by the City Council and Board of Supervisors, one of the first steps is to assess the trails using the UTAP method. Below is the official announcement from the agencies with dates of assessment. Please Contact Kathy Frye at(805) 897-1976 or email kfrye@santabarbaraca.gov to help or find out more info.

9/2/09 FCT Task Force Meeting Re-Cap -- Trail Closure Information And More....

Dear Trail Users,

Last night's Front Country Trails Task Force meeting was informative and revealed future trail closure dates on trails affected by the Jesusita Fire. Other topics included: information about the Front Country Trails Coordinator Position, everything you wanted to know about hydromulch, and the September 26th National Public Lands Day event.

The agencies are on the lookout for someone coordinated! The Front Country Trails Coordinator position is now open and the agencies want you to help pass the word. A description of the position can be found by clicking the following link. Other updates regarding the FCT recommendations included a UTAP Trail Assessment update--no known date or specifics could be given to the Task Force regarding the implementation of the UTAP. Trail signs, as previously mentioned, have gone up at most trail heads and 4 more are on the way.

An agency sponsored trail maintenance event will be taking place September 26th. Originally scheduled for the trails affected by the Jesusita Fire, this event has been moved to San Ysidro Trail (and possibly others). Montecito’s trails will be seeing a high volume of use over the next six months and need to be in tip top shape. Volunteers are the key to this happening and people like you can make this a reality. More info can be found by visiting our Volunteer Page.

Some trails affected by the Jesusita Fire will be closing mid September for hydromulching. Agency staff announced the following trail closures and dates.

Jesusita Trail (San Roque TH) -- Closed September 15 - November 12 + future wet weather closures.

Jesusita, Tunnel Trail, and Tunnel Connector (Tunnel TH) -- Currently closed and to remain closed till Spring ‘10.

Rattlesnake Trail -- Closed September 15 - October 12 + future wet weather closures.

Cold Springs Trail -- Not in hydromulch area, no closures planned; possible wet weather closures.

San Ysidro and Romero -- No closures planned.

Reasons for the trail closures include safety and ensuring success of the hydromulch project. Hydromulch is a proven method to prevent massive erosion and sedimentation of fire damaged soils. Hydromulch creates a very thin “seal” over these burnt soils that needs to stay intact for it to be effective. People using the trails may break the “seals” and create catastrophic damage.

FAQ’s About Hydromulch:

Q: Does Hydromulch contain garbage?
A: No, hydromulch is 40% paper fiber, 60% wood fiber + tack and water. Unlike hydromulch that was used in the Gap Fire which did contain small amounts of plastic and other waste products, this new mulch is 100% organic, made to careful environmental standards.

Q: Does Hydromulch contain seeds?
A: No there are no seeds in mulch, it is designed to promote native plants to regrow in burnt areas.

Q: Can I walk or ride on hydromulched ground?
A: As stated previously, hydromulch is applied as a thin continuous layer that needs to stay intact to be effective. Breaking the seal will allow water to get underneath and the mulch will lose effectiveness.

Q: Will the mulch be dropped in creeks and on fire roads?
A: No, agencies revealed that creeks, power lines, roads, and orchards are not to be sprayed with mulch.

Following the fire a "BAER" assessment of the burnt areas was conducted and options to prevent erosion problems and recovery have been identified. All these preventative measures are to ensure those who live in and below the fire area are safe come winter. A study done by UCSB last year examined the effects of erosion and possible flooding in the Mission Canyon area following a fire. View the results HERE.

Next FCT Task Force meeting will take place December 2nd, at the County Board of Supervisors Hearing Room.

Please pass this information on to anyone you know that uses the trails.

7/1/09 Task Force Public Hearing/ Jesusita Fire Trails Re-opening Recommendations

Dear Trail Users,

If you were one of the 20 or so people who attended the public hearing at City Hall yesterday, you missed a long but informative 2 1/2 hour meeting. The opening and most anticipated subject was the trails affected by the Jesusita Fire and when they might be re-opened. The Task Force designated the agency staff from the USFS, County, and City to make recommendations, since they have the most recent information. Staff then recommended that Rattlesnake Canyon Trail and West Fork of Cold Springs Trail be re-opened. They recommended that Jesusita Trail to Inspiration Point from the San Roque TH be re-opened after fixing some problem areas. Because of sensitivity of neighbors in the Mission Canyon area, and construction work, trails accessed by the Tunnel Trail Head at the end of Tunnel Road were recommended to remain closed for now. The Task Force will revisit this issue at the September 2nd meeting and may make more recommendations then.

Note: The trails affected by the Jesusita Fire including Jesusita, Tunnel, Rattlesnake, and West Fork of Cold Springs are still closed but some are recommended to re-open.

2nd Note: Because of loss of vegetation on hillsides in the burn area, trails may be subject to future closures due to water runoff issues come winter.

We will post any trail openings on our website and of course will send out emails when those openings are to occur. It is without saying that these recommendations to re-open trails closed by the Jesusita Fire could not have been made had it not been for the large amount of volunteers that came out on June 13th to help clear the trails- Thank You!

Other topics of this public hearing included status of the FCT Recommendations. The Task Force spent a long time discussing the management aspects of the rec's which include assessing current trail conditions, developing a trail classification system, trails planning, policy, regulations and trail use designation. Staff also unveiled new trail head signage to be installed at all the local trail heads. See the new signage HERE.

Trail maintenance including the June 13th event was summarized as were other recent trail work events. The Task Force unanimously approved use of the UTAP trail assessment system but recommended that the company who created UTAP, Beneficial Designs, do the assessment. Several public speakers shared their opinion that volunteers not take part in the trail assessment. We agree this should be done by professionals as some of this data may be used for future trail access issues and we want this information to be as accurate as possible. Trail surveying may begin as early as October 2009 but some discussion remains on what data will be collected during the survey process.

Finally a schedule of public hearings was announced for the rest of the year. There will be two more meetings this year, September 2nd and December 2nd, both at 5:30 PM to be held in the city council chambers.

*Task Force Changes: The Task Force welcomed new members City Parks Commissioner Scott Burns and County Parks Commissioner Judith Dale who replaced Chair Steve Forsell and Commissioner James Hickling. Suzanne Perkins is now the chair and Beebe Longstreet is the vice chair.

Thank you,

The Multiuse Trails Coalition,

http://www.multiuse.org/

New Santa Barbara Front Country Trail Head Signage Unveiled

At this weeks FCTMJ Task Force meeting, newly designed trail head signage was shown to the public for the first time. These 2' x 3' (approx) signs will be mounted at all of the local trail heads and give information about trail use etiquette. These signs are part of the FCT Recommendations that are now being implemented. Look for these new signs at your favorite trail head soon!

Trail Volunteering/Trail Crew Leader Training 3/14/09

Dear Trail User,

Spring is coming up quick and so is the brush all around our trails. We are going to be sending the Front Country Trail Crew out to do cleanups very soon and would like you to be part it. Trail maintenance begins with the small stuff like clearing brush, cleaning out water bars, and repairing small damaged areas so that they do not become big repairs later. As simple as those tasks seem they have been difficult to accomplish over the years due to lack of groups doing trail work and organization of those doing it. Overgrown trails, aside from not being very fun to use, effect where a person uses a trail and can push people to use the outside edge, breaking it down and thereby narrowing the trail. The opposite is also possible, moving away from the edge and widening the trail to avoid brush. Water bars slow the erosion that water causes and direct water to exit the trail where it will not erode the trail prematurely. Other small fixes like preventing switchback cutting also helps prevent premature narrowing of the trails. These three steps are simple to do yet until now they have not been done adequately on our trails system. What is needed to help maintain our trails are people willing to work and lead work crews in efforts to battle the natural elements.

Saturday the 14th of March, the City, County, and USFS are sponsoring a "Trail Crew Leader Training" event to get people ready to lead trail clean ups. This event is free and will last from approximately 9am until 1pm at Stevens Park. We plan on attending and following this event will be sending out the Front Country Trail Crew many times over the next few months to help maintain the trails.

Is this event for you? If you plan on leading a crew to do work or individually plan on going out and doing work then the answer is YES. If at some point in the future you are going to attend trail maintenance project but not lead, you do not need to attend this event. If you know of anyone who might be interested please forward this to them. Interested parties need to get back to us by March 1st as we need to submit names to the agencies. More info about this event will be posted on our website.

Task Force Recommendations Progress Report

As reported earlier new kiosks will be going up on all the trails in town. Soon to follow are the informational/interpretive signs for these kiosks. This first kiosk was spotted on Tunnel near the fire road.