MBOSC Partners with Earth Stewards to Rebuild Eroded Pogonip Hiking Trail
March 14, 2018
Words by Guy Lasnier
You just knew Isaac Lincoln would try to unearth the biggest rock he could find. And he did.
Isaac, a 16-year-old junior at Ponderosa High School and Career Training Center in Ben Lomond, started a February Friday morning showing his nine classmates how to use a pry bar to “harvest” rocks from a spot along the Rincon Trail in Pogonip. The students gathered a truckload and later ferried them by wheelbarrow to a portion of the Lookout Trail they are helping rebuild after severe erosion from the 2017 rains.
The hiking trail rerouting and restoration is a partnership between Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, Ponderosa High, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, and City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation.
MBOSC provides leadership, and trail-building expertise and equipment, including a fleet of heavy-duty wheelbarrows.
The project is part of the Earth Stewards Program, a museum initiative the city has funded for the past five years to perform restoration and stewardship projects on city-owned open spaces. This year, the museum received grant funding from Captain Planet Foundation and Project Learning Tree, a project of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, said Meredith Jacobson, museum education coordinator, who oversees the Earth Stewards Project. “These grants are helping us expand the program and purchase supplies for future projects,” she said.
The students get practical experience and an opportunity to work outdoors. “The goal is to foster environmental stewardship,” said Spencer Klinefelter, an education assistant for field programs with the museum. Klinefelter has been accompanying the group during its fieldwork.
“The bigger the better,” Isaac said as the rolled his eventual prize toward the parks department pickup provided by Akoma Culver, senior parks maintenance worker for Harvey West Park, who was overseeing the morning’s work. Culver needed to lower the pickup’s hydraulic tailgate in order to hoist Isaac’s boulder into the bed.
The Ponderosa students are enrolled in the alternative high school’s Green Career Training Center, explains Paul Garcia, who teaches economics and organic gardening at the school and accompanied the students.
Jacob Hyde, trails specialist with MBOSC, explained how the Lookout Trail, a popular hiking trail, had become degraded from erosion. The route was also straight and steep in several sections, making it not only treacherous but arduous. Hyde, who goes by the nickname “Cob,” designed and created the reroute that adds gentle switchbacks around the steep, eroded sections.
“We’re going to make it a pleasant trail,” said Culver from city parks. “Before it wasn’t so pleasant. It’s one of the steepest trails, and is part of a city effort to improve trails,” he said. “The point is to make it more enjoyable and get more people on them.”
Hyde, Klinefelter, Garcia and Culver didn’t just supervise. They got down and dirty helping the teenagers gather, transport and dump the rocks that will be used to armor the new trail section.
Later, after Culver drove to the top of the trail, Isaac, who lives in Boulder Creek, managed to get his limestone beast into an MBOSC wheelbarrow and down the 50 to 60 yards to the section being rebuilt.
Georgia Raabe, 17, also a junior, loaded more than her share of rocks and dumped them along the trail. She said she likes being outside and “getting my hands dirty” even though she plans to be a makeup artist after graduation.
A week later, Isaac, Georgia and their classmates returned to place the rocks in the right spots to support and protect the reconstructed trail.
Matt De Young, MBOSC’s Executive Director, said the group began working with Ponderosa High School students through the Earth Stewards program during construction of the Emma McCrary Trail in 2012.
“Earth Stewards helped out harvesting rock from the old limestone quarry in Pogonip, building rock walls, and doing finish work on the trail,” he said. “Since then the Earth Stewards have helped out with trail maintenance throughout Pogonip, including the recent Lookout reroute.”
MBOSC has partnered with the City of Santa Cruz on many trail construction and trail maintenance projects including pedestrian-only trails, De Young said. “We try to get a broad spectrum of different people out working in nature and stewarding their public open spaces.
“Working with the Earth Stewards has been an excellent way to engage a younger demographic and educate them about trail work,” De Young said.
“I like working hard,” said Isaac, who turns 17 in a couple of months.
What comes next after graduation? “Marine Corps,” he said with a smile.
The hiking trail rerouting and restoration is a partnership between Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, Ponderosa High, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, and City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation.
MBOSC provides leadership, and trail-building expertise and equipment, including a fleet of heavy-duty wheelbarrows.
The project is part of the Earth Stewards Program, a museum initiative the city has funded for the past five years to perform restoration and stewardship projects on city-owned open spaces. This year, the museum received grant funding from Captain Planet Foundation and Project Learning Tree, a project of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, said Meredith Jacobson, museum education coordinator, who oversees the Earth Stewards Project. “These grants are helping us expand the program and purchase supplies for future projects,” she said.
The students get practical experience and an opportunity to work outdoors. “The goal is to foster environmental stewardship,” said Spencer Klinefelter, an education assistant for field programs with the museum. Klinefelter has been accompanying the group during its fieldwork.
“The bigger the better,” Isaac said as the rolled his eventual prize toward the parks department pickup provided by Akoma Culver, senior parks maintenance worker for Harvey West Park, who was overseeing the morning’s work. Culver needed to lower the pickup’s hydraulic tailgate in order to hoist Isaac’s boulder into the bed.
The Ponderosa students are enrolled in the alternative high school’s Green Career Training Center, explains Paul Garcia, who teaches economics and organic gardening at the school and accompanied the students.
Jacob Hyde, trails specialist with MBOSC, explained how the Lookout Trail, a popular hiking trail, had become degraded from erosion. The route was also straight and steep in several sections, making it not only treacherous but arduous. Hyde, who goes by the nickname “Cob,” designed and created the reroute that adds gentle switchbacks around the steep, eroded sections.
“We’re going to make it a pleasant trail,” said Culver from city parks. “Before it wasn’t so pleasant. It’s one of the steepest trails, and is part of a city effort to improve trails,” he said. “The point is to make it more enjoyable and get more people on them.”
Hyde, Klinefelter, Garcia and Culver didn’t just supervise. They got down and dirty helping the teenagers gather, transport and dump the rocks that will be used to armor the new trail section.
Later, after Culver drove to the top of the trail, Isaac, who lives in Boulder Creek, managed to get his limestone beast into an MBOSC wheelbarrow and down the 50 to 60 yards to the section being rebuilt.
Georgia Raabe, 17, also a junior, loaded more than her share of rocks and dumped them along the trail. She said she likes being outside and “getting my hands dirty” even though she plans to be a makeup artist after graduation.
A week later, Isaac, Georgia and their classmates returned to place the rocks in the right spots to support and protect the reconstructed trail.
Matt De Young, MBOSC’s Executive Director, said the group began working with Ponderosa High School students through the Earth Stewards program during construction of the Emma McCrary Trail in 2012.
“Earth Stewards helped out harvesting rock from the old limestone quarry in Pogonip, building rock walls, and doing finish work on the trail,” he said. “Since then the Earth Stewards have helped out with trail maintenance throughout Pogonip, including the recent Lookout reroute.”
MBOSC has partnered with the City of Santa Cruz on many trail construction and trail maintenance projects including pedestrian-only trails, De Young said. “We try to get a broad spectrum of different people out working in nature and stewarding their public open spaces.
“Working with the Earth Stewards has been an excellent way to engage a younger demographic and educate them about trail work,” De Young said.
“I like working hard,” said Isaac, who turns 17 in a couple of months.
What comes next after graduation? “Marine Corps,” he said with a smile.
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