The Trail Companion

In 1983, the Trail Information and Volunteer Center (TIVC) was born as a "forum in which the public, land managers and land owners work as partners, to maintain and expand our area trail network, [and to] open new opportunities for citizens to participate in recreational activities on public lands they helped to purchase."

In December of 1981, the Appalachian Mountain Club began work on a proposal to the Richard King Mellon Foundation for a national program aimed at increasing volunteerism in the outdoors. Out of this proposal came the National Volunteer Project and the Trail Center.

Volunteers were backbone of the Trail Center's activities when it was founded and continue to be today (especially now that we are an all-volunteer organization). Volunteerism has, however, changed dramatically since 1983. Some of the methods for recruiting volunteers haven't changed-public service announcements, fliers and newspaper stories still attract attention, but the majority of our new volunteers see us first on the Internet.

To illustrate the changes that have occurred between the time the Trail Center was founded and today, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) reported that in 1983, POST had helped to protect approximately 7,000 acres, by Jan. 2000 they had protected nearly 40,000 acres. In addition, POST has transferred around 29,000 acres to public agencies.

Trail Center trail projects by the numbers...from number of volunteers to number of separate projects and from cows to snow.

The complete index of Trail Center trail projects by park and trail, including volunteer hours.

Californians will vote for a parks bond act on March 7th for the first time since 1988 with Proposition 12, the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2000. As the state's population continues to grow-at a rate of 600,000 people a year-the need to support our parks and environment has become even more crucial.

On May 15th, 1999, Trail Center and Bay Area Ridge Trail Council supporter Dinesh Desai and hiking partner Bob Cowell set off from the Presidio's Arguello Gate in San Francisco. Five weeks later, they arrived back at the Presidio after following the 220 miles of completed Ridge Trail sections and the gaps between them. The Hike for the Ridge Trail was the first organized walk to cover the entire proposed route entirely on foot.

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of former Crew Leader Will Rudge. Will was active with the Trail Center for many years from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, particularly on our Stile Ranch Trail in Santa Teresa County Park near IBM's Santa Teresa facility, where he worked as a physicist, and the Todd Quick Trail in Alum Rock Park in San Jose.

You can discover an infinite variety of textures on several different scales in the Santa Cruz. The fine-scale textures are obvious-the smoothness of madrone bark, the crunch of dry leaves underfoot, the softness of a larkspur blossom, and the coarseness of wild grass. The mosaic of grasslands, forests, and chaparral that you walk through form a middle range of textures, while the ridges and canyons themselves fit together to form textures at the largest, geographic or geologic, scale. You can experience all of these textures by climbing up Rhus Ridge to Black Mountain from the Rhus Road trailhead in Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve. By Richard Allsop.

In this issue, new poems from three California poets.

A Note from the Literary Editor

Bear Following Birds - Maya Khosla

Union Valley Reservoir - Crystal Koch

Circles - Janice Dabney

Master plan for Arastradero Preserve (Palo Alto) to be developed...Trail Center participates in developing a trails master plan for Castle Rock State Park...Final hearing for Castle Rock General Plan scheduled for March 8th...Trail access in San Francisco watershed lands under consideration...Pinnacles National Monument expansion official.

Final touches on Peninsula Parklands, 3rd ed. and the Trail Map of the Central Peninsula...Castle Rock Trail nearly complete...Trail work at Jasper Ridge...A great tool party with lots of tools sharpened and cleaned in record time...Board of Directors gains a new member and new officers.

California Trail Days/Earth Day 2000 and National Trails Day events at Arastradero Preserve...Ridge Trail survey in Sanborn-Skyline County Park...New trail at Cloverdale Coastal Ranch.

News of Trail Center members' and volunteers' activities both inside and outside of the Trail Center.

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