The 2024 Summer Youth Trail Crew Does it All!

August 12, 2024

2024 marked the seventh year of the Summer Youth Trail Crew (SYTC) program we get to host with the City of Santa Cruz. The SYTC program allows local students to join our team in paid positions for eight weeks during their summer break so they can learn new skills and also see what working in outdoor recreation is all about! This year we had a small but mighty crew that included Brandon, Beckett, Maddie, and our new crew lead, Luca.

The main theme for this summer's program was learning new skills. The crew got a taste of all sorts of different trail work tasks in nearly every open space in Santa Cruz. From brushing poison oak, to installing bridges, to installing fences, to rock armoring, to pump track maintenance, and more—they rose to each challenge and left open spaces better than they found them.

The crew made big improvements on 16 different city park trails in those 8 weeks. Scroll through the photos below to get a taste of what they were up to!

Day 1! Meet the crew: Brandon, Nathan, Beckett, Maddie, and crew lead, Luca!
The crew learned the ins and outs of ‘brushing’ in the first few days and took that knowledge with them for the entire summer.
Beckett showing off his French broom haul. If you’ve ever pulled French broom, you know you’d be proud of this haul too.
The crew quickly jumped into some more technical work, like this split rail fence repair on Emma McCrary Trail. New posts and cross rails installed!
This trail reroute on Audrey Stanley Shakespeare Trail was the crew’s big trail project. They created a new segment of trail from start to finish here, including some pretty serious rock work.
Here’s a bit of that rock work they did!
While they didn’t get to run the saw, they got to watch Mariano (on our professional trail crew) buck up this tree in DeLaveaga and helped swamp. This was a big job!
Benefit of working on a trail crew: cool lunch spots.
They quickly learned who was allergic to poison oak and who wasn’t.
New fence installation took place at Moore Creek Open Space Preserve. This project was one of the crew’s favorites, and for good reason. Lots of new skills learned and an awesome outcome!
Slurpee Day 2024!
The crew was vital to the construction of this new puncheon on La Corona Trail in DeLaveaga Park. They're pictured here spacing out the decking boards.
The crew posing with Justin, from our professional trail crew, and volunteers on the finished puncheon at DeLaveaga.
Celebratory ice cream at Marianne’s to wrap up the summer!

Last Day Interview with the Crew

1. What was your favorite project?

Maddie: Building the cattle fence at Moore Creek with Ako because it was so different than the other work we had been doing and I learned a new skill.

Brandon: Building the cattle fence at Moore Creek with Ako because it was something I had never done before.

Nathan: One of the days working with volunteers. We worked with ~10 volunteers and we were able to talk a lot and it was a nice change of pace and fun to work with new people.

Luca: The Audrey Stanley Reroute in DeLaveaga Park. It was a really cool experience to get to build new trail with the crew.

2. What was something you learned?

Maddie: All of the thought that goes into building a trail or trail maintenance. There are so many things to look out for.

Brandon: I used a screw gun for the first time!

Nathan: The physical part of working with all of the tools. I was able to get more acquainted with a bunch of different tools.

Luca: Managing my time and a crew. There was lots of planning of tasks every day and it was important to be able to adjust on the go.

3. What was the biggest challenge?

Maddie: Figuring out what to look for when doing trail maintenance. Like, learning how to build a drain efficiently and paying attention to sightlines.

Brandon: Honestly, it was the sun.

Nathan: This was my first job experience so the cooperation with peers and a boss was a new thing to get used to.

Luca: Keeping everyone motivated. It was hot and we were doing hard work!

4. Favorite taqueria and go-to order?

Maddie: Los Perricos. Downtown. Beef California burrito.

Brandon: Vallarta. Steak super burrito.

Nathan: Taqueria Santa Cruz 1. Chicken burrito.

Luca: De La Hacienda. Super burrito con pollo.

More about the program:

  • Do you know someone or are you yourself interested in joining the Summer Youth Trail Crew next year? We expect applications to open in Spring of 2025 but feel free to send us an email ahead of time at [email protected].

  • SCMTS has been leading the program for the last 7 years, and the City of Santa Cruz funds student staff time and partial SCMTS staff time.

  • The program runs for eight weeks from June - August.

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