By Steven Glascock, Access Assistant

Here at the Land Trust, we recognize the importance of establishing and building strong relationships with other local agencies and conservation groups. Over the past two weeks, we partnered with Santa Cruz County Parks and AmeriCorps to improve the General Clement B. Harts Shore Trail, a beach access pathway in Rio del Mar. The trail sees a high volume of foot traffic and is an essential pathway to the beach for people living in the Rio del Mar neighborhood. However, this trail is also located in a natural channel for storm runoff and suffers from severe erosion.

Now, it just so happens that our Access team has expertise in trail creation, so Santa Cruz County Parks reached out to us to see if we could help design a new trail and mentor their young AmeriCorps volunteers. AmeriCorps is a government program that brings Americans together to serve communities and fulfill needs across the nation. For this project, we had the good fortune to work with an 8-person crew of 18-23 years olds—all from diverse backgrounds and new to California!

The rebuild had two goals – improving the existing trail’s stability and safety and slowing spread and sink water within the drainage pathway. We were able to accomplish these goals by carefully constructing two new sets of stairways, six water bars, and 50 feet of split-rail fencing. Over a two-week span, the crew put in some hard trail building days, working diligently, asking questions, and showing an aptitude for learning trail building and conservation practice.

Under the mentorship of our team and park staff, the corps members spent their days breaking up old concrete, grading staircases, building water bars, installing staircase borders, backfilling the stairs with gravel drain rock, and lining each span of new stairs with large granitic boulders. The AmeriCorps team also learned the local native plants, removed invasive species within the trail corridor, and laid the foundations for a new bench to overlook Monterey Bay.

The AmeriCorps crew was a pleasure to work with throughout the two-week construction process. While moving large quantities of earth, vegetation, concrete, and rock, they maintained positive attitudes, showed a strong work ethic, and consistently supported one another. Thanks to these young volunteers and their sponsor, Santa Cruz County Parks, the beloved General Clement B. Harts Shore Trail is now a safer and more beautiful trail.