The Trail Companion

As we hack away at a hillside and build rock walls on yet another trail project, are we doing more harm to the environment than good? Is building trails an environmentally-sound activity or are we committing ecodestruction? Are we encouraging stewardship and support for the natural world with our work or are we encouraging overuse (and abuse)? Can we build trails and support the environment at the same time? By Geoffrey Skinner

California Dept. of Parks and Recreation has released the Preliminary General Plan for Castle Rock State Park. The Department has prepared the general plan with input from a citizen's advisory committee and the public from the series of meetings held in 1998 to discuss options for the park. The plan discusses existing conditions, including natural history and historic features of the park.

Each year, UC Irvine's Humanities Research Institute facilitates seminars where an academic is invited to organize a semester-long seminar on a particular subject. He or she then assembles a group that holds weekly day-long meetings open to students. Ultimately the group produces a book on what they have learned together. Professor William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was invited to convene a seminar on "Reinventing Nature". This book is the result. By Bob Kelly

Interested in helping out but don't want to get poison oak? We're looking for people to help with our activities schedule and our web pages.

Find out how you can help as we rebuild the Perimeter Trail.

Farewell to Dea Smith, our outgoing president and to Janet Clark, our office coordinator.

Our reroute of the Castle Rock Trail at Castle Rock State Park gets underway with hundreds of feet of rock wall...upcoming projects at Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto and in Stanford University's Jasper Ridge.

Copyright © Trail Center. All rights reserved.

Please contact the Web Manager for corrections or comments.