Volunteers help restore Cuyamaca Rancho

By: TANYA RODRIGUES - Staff Writer | Saturday, April 24, 2004 10:56 PM PDT ∞

CUYAMACA ---- Every weekend, visitors to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park ask the same question: "Where can I hike?"

In the months since the Cedar fire roared across 98 percent of the park's 26,000 acres, the answer has been the same: "No place, yet." But thanks to a crew of 500 helpers who made it their Earth Day project on Saturday, the answer will change on May 1.

In the midst of Saturday's work, state parks officials announced they will soon reopen roughly 35 miles of trails, representing a third of the trails in the park. They are on the south and east end of the park, which is in the Peninsular Range of mountains about 40 miles east of San Diego.

Green Valley Campground and Picnic Area will also reopen, and the rest of the park will follow suit when declared safe, they said.

Saturday's announcement from state parks Acting Director Ruth Coleman and state parks foundation Acting Director Barbara Hill was brief. They and Colorado Desert District Superintendent Mat Fuzie mostly spent time with the volunteers in action.

Officials have said that cleaning and rebuilding the park will cost as much as $30 million. The state agency has applied to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but must match 25 percent of the federal dollars it gets, they have said.

Severe cuts in the parks system's budget ---- a result of the state budget crisis ---- is keeping parks officials from hiring seasonal employees as well as extra workers to help with fire damage. This means volunteers are critical to the parks' recovery, officials said Saturday.

At Green Valley that day, Carlsbad resident Steve Delaney and other crew members removed charred split-rail fencing. They used hoes to loosen dirt around the fence stumps, removed the dirt as deep as they could, then buried what they couldn't take out.

"It's great," said Delaney, an engineering director at a San Diego high-tech company. "I like the sense of community spirit. I like to see the volunteers out there."

Nearby, some benches and trees were spared. To spruce up the benches, a group of children and some parents were using paint stamps to decorate them in bright colors.

"It just picked and chose and burned sporadically," noted Fuzie, referring to the wildfire's path.

Fuzie, who also oversees Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Palomar Mountain State Park, Picacho State Park and the Salton Sea Recreation Park, said he was pleased to see the Cuyamaca park reopen.

"We need it," he said. "People, they come up here to connect to nature and reconnect to the most important things in their lives, like one-on-one time with family."

Several miles away, at Cuyamaca Outdoor School, Hidden Meadows resident Tom Foulds and another group of volunteers were putting up cedar fences.

Foulds, manager of a grocery store in Vista, has volunteered with the park's mountain bike patrol for 2-plus years.

"This park has a lot of people who love it," he said, taking a brief break. "It's a big turnout. I am very impressed."

In the same group, Temecula resident Nancy Gaire said she and her husband were at the park for the first time. They were also learning a lot about digging fence posts, she said.

"There's a certain level that is hard soil, and then you can get to the softer stuff," she reported. "A lot of hands makes it easy."

Other volunteers removed debris, picked up litter, cleared fallen trees from trails, and chopped firewood for future campers. The work warmed the heart of Laura Itogawa, superintendent of the Cuyamaca park and Palomar State Park.

"It's tremendous," Itogawa said. "It's the spirit of San Diego and it's love people have for the park, turned into something physical that people can do." There is more to be done as the park recovers and more areas reopen, she said.

"It's an ongoing effort," Itogawa said.

Work parties are organized every weekend, for people of varying talents and physical abilities, she said.

More information is available on the park's Web site, www.cuyamaca.us.

Staff writer Andrea Moss contributed to this report.

Contact staff writer Tanya Rodrigues at (760)740-5420 or trodrigues@nctimes.com.

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