MBOSC Hires Drew Perkins as Trails Program Manager
March 16, 2018
There are no words to describe how excited and proud we are to announce the hire of Drew Perkins as our Trails Program Director. Drew is a world-renowned trail design expert and builder, with a decade of experience from Alaska to Austria. Drew has been working with MBOSC on and off since 2013, leading all of our major successful projects.
“I grew up in the East Bay suburbs where I began mountain biking and then promptly quit after having generally horrible experiences on rutted, steep, cow-trodden fire roads. While in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I discovered mountain biking was actually fun so I joined the cycling team and lost 30 pounds. I also started attending the excellent trail maintenance days put on by the Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers. My new-found love of the outdoors led me to switch majors from engineering to Natural Resource Management. I eventually came to Santa Cruz to pursue a master’s degree in Forest Hydrology while working at Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch. While in Santa Cruz, I occasionally joined the monthly trail-work crew at Wilder Ranch, and also helped my neighbors Bud and Emma McCrary build some trails in Swanton right around the time the City of Santa Cruz proposed the Pogonip Multi-use Trail. Armed with a bit of experience and knowledge of trail building, I decided to volunteer to help the City’s Parks Department with planning the trail. After many, many hours hiking around Pogonip and even more learning everything about trail design and construction, I ended up being hired by the City to oversee construction of the trail.”
Drew became MBOSC’s first employee after the Emma McCrary Trail was built in 2013, when he supervised the design and construction of the wildly successful Soquel Demonstration State Forest Flow Trail. MBOSC partnered with land manager California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to build a four-mile flow trail with the objective to promote mountain biking by creating a progressive trail that can be enjoyed by riders of all ages and abilities, and to increase the diversity of riding opportunities, demonstrate innovative and sustainable trail building design and techniques, and provide a model for other land managers. MBOSC raised over $220,000 for the project and volunteers contributed over 6,000 hours of labor. Construction began in the winter of 2014; the full trail opened in summer 2015.
In 2015, Drew brought his talent to Wilder Ranch State Park, where he designed and led construction of the Enchanted Loop reroute and restoration project. Drew and MBOSC Executive Director, Matt De Young, worked closely with California State Parks’ trail crew to decommission a badly eroded and entrenched section and construct a sustainable reroute bypassing the steep fall line section. This project marked the first time the two organizations teamed up on a trail project of this magnitude, and showed the way for future collaboration on maintenance and construction.
His next big project was leading the design and construction of the Harvey West Pumptrack in 2016. The project was completed through a cost-share between the City of Santa Cruz and MBOSC, and has served to activate a portion of the park that had become a hangout for transients who often engaged in less than legal activities. MBOSC staff continue to maintain the track on a bi-monthly basis.
Currently, Drew is working with the Land Trust of Santa Cruz to design and construct the Glenwood Trail Project in Glenwood Open Space Preserve. You can see the full press-release on the Land Trust’s website for more information here.
In his time with MBOSC, Drew has cultivated our connections with land managers, introduced new and exciting opportunities to expand our work, and broaden our perspective on what is possible. We know Drew will raise the bar for sustainable trail-building in Santa Cruz and beyond.
“I grew up in the East Bay suburbs where I began mountain biking and then promptly quit after having generally horrible experiences on rutted, steep, cow-trodden fire roads. While in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I discovered mountain biking was actually fun so I joined the cycling team and lost 30 pounds. I also started attending the excellent trail maintenance days put on by the Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers. My new-found love of the outdoors led me to switch majors from engineering to Natural Resource Management. I eventually came to Santa Cruz to pursue a master’s degree in Forest Hydrology while working at Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch. While in Santa Cruz, I occasionally joined the monthly trail-work crew at Wilder Ranch, and also helped my neighbors Bud and Emma McCrary build some trails in Swanton right around the time the City of Santa Cruz proposed the Pogonip Multi-use Trail. Armed with a bit of experience and knowledge of trail building, I decided to volunteer to help the City’s Parks Department with planning the trail. After many, many hours hiking around Pogonip and even more learning everything about trail design and construction, I ended up being hired by the City to oversee construction of the trail.”
Drew became MBOSC’s first employee after the Emma McCrary Trail was built in 2013, when he supervised the design and construction of the wildly successful Soquel Demonstration State Forest Flow Trail. MBOSC partnered with land manager California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to build a four-mile flow trail with the objective to promote mountain biking by creating a progressive trail that can be enjoyed by riders of all ages and abilities, and to increase the diversity of riding opportunities, demonstrate innovative and sustainable trail building design and techniques, and provide a model for other land managers. MBOSC raised over $220,000 for the project and volunteers contributed over 6,000 hours of labor. Construction began in the winter of 2014; the full trail opened in summer 2015.
In 2015, Drew brought his talent to Wilder Ranch State Park, where he designed and led construction of the Enchanted Loop reroute and restoration project. Drew and MBOSC Executive Director, Matt De Young, worked closely with California State Parks’ trail crew to decommission a badly eroded and entrenched section and construct a sustainable reroute bypassing the steep fall line section. This project marked the first time the two organizations teamed up on a trail project of this magnitude, and showed the way for future collaboration on maintenance and construction.
His next big project was leading the design and construction of the Harvey West Pumptrack in 2016. The project was completed through a cost-share between the City of Santa Cruz and MBOSC, and has served to activate a portion of the park that had become a hangout for transients who often engaged in less than legal activities. MBOSC staff continue to maintain the track on a bi-monthly basis.
Currently, Drew is working with the Land Trust of Santa Cruz to design and construct the Glenwood Trail Project in Glenwood Open Space Preserve. You can see the full press-release on the Land Trust’s website for more information here.
In his time with MBOSC, Drew has cultivated our connections with land managers, introduced new and exciting opportunities to expand our work, and broaden our perspective on what is possible. We know Drew will raise the bar for sustainable trail-building in Santa Cruz and beyond.
Since 1997, Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC) has worked to support, preserve, and expand trail access and responsible mountain biking in Santa Cruz County. This new position brings MBOSC's staff to five people, increasing the organization's ability to advocate for, build and maintain sustainable trails for mountain biking and other activities in our area. You can reach Drew at [email protected].
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