Recap: Trail Crew Leader Training
Trail Crew Leaders ensure that volunteers have good direction and are completing high-quality work on the trails. They help us host more volunteers at events, and are an extremely important part of our trail stewardship work. To bring new Trail Crew Leaders into the fold, we recently hosted a weekend-long Trail Crew Leader training with both online and in-the-field instruction. In addition to Trail Crew Leader trainees, staff from the City of Santa Cruz and California State Parks joined the fun to brush up on their trail maintenance skills!
The training weekend kicked off on Thursday night with an online course taught by Trails Program Manager, Emma Ussat. Thursday’s online class featured SCMTS history and volunteer event logistics. Trail Crew Leader roles were defined, and the group discussed potential challenges that could arise during public events. Covered microaggressions and how to notice them and stop them.
Drew Perkins, Trails Planning Director, and Katie Teschler, Trails Stewardship Coordinator, taught the Saturday and Sunday courses, and doled out pop quizzes about the different features and aspects of trails to keep the group on their toes. Saturday covered trail maintenance, and Sunday covered new trail construction.
Everyone followed course outlines in personalized folders, and used these as their guide to the weekend’s events. After meeting one another with a name game, it was off to the trails for some practice maintenance and construction.
Saturday’s activities included a hike at the Pogonip Nature Loop. Trail Crew Leaders practiced installing and maintaining drains, and learned to identify and remedy common trail issues like overgrown brush and other potential hazards. The day’s event included not only basic trail maintenance techniques, but also how to teach these techniques to volunteers. Trail Crew Leaders were taught how to give basic safety instructions to volunteers, and how to keep a group safe (and happy) while completing hard work.
Sunday’s events started at San Vicente Redwoods. Building on yesterday’s teachings, Trail Crew Leader trainees first practiced giving safety instructions to one another. Then, it was time for the mock Dig Day! Each student took turns being a faux “Trail Crew Leader”, and guided their fellow trainees through basic hand construction out at San Vicente.
Then the group talked through potential volunteer issues that could arise, and went over how to handle tricky situations properly. At the end of the weekend, the group did a debrief together to review what they learned and discuss how the course could be improved in the years ahead. Then the tools were cleaned, put away, and our newly-minted Trail Crew Leaders headed home for a much-deserved Sunday evening rest.
Congrats to the following 2022 class of Trail Crew Leaders!
Bruce MacGregor, Cari Wade, Chris Krolak, Courtney Gegg, Craig Gleason, Dave Stern, Emily Antonino, Eric Decker, Gray Jameson, Ivana Yeung, James Hongjian Yang, James Yang, Jason Rimmer, Jenna Sexton, Jex MacGregor, Katie Shishido Katie Zheng, Kevin Bell, Kida MacGregor, Kyle Feldmann, Lauren Freeman, Linda Huang, Mark Burden, Matthew Lucas, Matthew Wilbur, Mitzu Ganley, Nathan Escoto, Noël Clark, Patrick Lerchi, Paul Richeson, Paul Taylor, Riley Predum, Roman Morales, Ron Kundich, S Pease, Sam Shaffer, Sarah Jordan, Steve Kundich, Steve Renaker, Tristan Sayre.
You can meet our new Trail Crew Leaders at upcoming Dig Days this summer. Check out our events calendar and sign up for volunteer trail work with us!
