Volunteers to take to Carlsbad trails

| Wednesday, June 4, 2003 10:00 PM PDT ∞

TIM MAYER
Staff Writer

CARLSBAD ---- City officials are kicking off a long-awaited volunteer trails maintenance program with a training and organizational meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. tonight.

Carlsbad parks planner Liz Ketabian, dubbed the city's "trail boss," said Wednesday she's hoping for a large turnout.

A trail volunteer manual will be distributed and volunteers asked to select areas of Carlsbad in which they'd like to volunteer.

Trail masters will be selected to oversee the volunteer program and trail maintenance in each quadrant of the city.

"We need people just to walk the trails, pick up the trash and keep an eye out just to make sure they are in good shape," she said. Volunteers are also needed to carry out a host of chores from actually building new trails to helping to put out a program newsletter.

More than 10 miles of trails have already opened to the public of what is planned to be a 58-mile citywide recreational system by the time Carlsbad is built out about 2020.

Six more miles built by developers will be accepted into the system next year. A three-quarter-mile, volunteer-built trail in the new Larwin Park in northeast Carlsbad is also planned for this fall. Another five miles of trails surrounding Lake Calavera could be built within a year or two, officials said.

City Public Works Supervisor Fred Burnell said not only will using volunteers save the city money, but officials are also hoping to tap into the pride of ownership volunteers develop as they see the results of their work.

"Volunteers take a lot of pride in what they do and they are avid trail walkers," he said. "If they see something that needs to be fixed, they go ahead and fix it and feel good about it."

Gary Hill, an avid hiker and biker and an official with the Gemological Institute of America, is taking the lead as volunteer coordinator for the program.

Hill led the volunteer effort starting in 1998 to design and build the 2.5-mile trail in Hosp Grove.

If designed correctly, trails are very low maintenance while offering enjoyment for the public, he said. The Hosp Grove trail has needed no maintenance in four years, except for removal of the occasional fallen tree.

Hill said he will be looking for two types of volunteers.

One group is "those who live near the trails and will have the responsibility of keeping their eyes and ears open for issues, such as any type of trail maintenance, or picking up trash," he said.

The second will be trail construction crews, "the more hardy volunteers from each area who would come together when we have construction to do," Hill said. "These will be the ones who are not afraid of a little bit of hard work and dirt and sweat."

Judging by past turnouts at meetings, volunteers will be coming from Encinitas, Oceanside and San Marcos as well as Carlsbad.

"They use the trails and are willing to help," Hill said.

Tonight's meeting will be at the city's Faraday Center, Room 173, 1635 Faraday Ave.

Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com.

6/5/03

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