Santa Cruz Sentinel March 25, 2021 Hannah Hagemann https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2022/03/25/crews-cut-trails-at-to-be-opened-santa-cruz-north-coast-national-monument/ DAVENPORT – On a recent Tuesday morning, a dozen people armed with shovels, backhoes and rakes marched from coastal terraces – that overlook the shimmering Pacific – inland to the redwood forest.
The Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship crew has been on the ground at the Cotoni-Coast Dairies unit of the California Coastal National Monument since December. Here, volunteers and staff have cut into forest floor overgrown with fern, blackberry brush and poison ivy to build what will become the first section of public trail on the property. The nearly 6,000 acre national monument – which was historically stewarded by the Cotoni Tribe – hasn’t been open to the public in modern history. It’s also home to iconic California species – mountain lions, coho salmon and red legged frogs. The stewardship coordinates and funds most of the trail work at Coast Dairies, in a partnership with the Bureau of Land Management. The groups aim to open up some 4 miles of trails to recreators by the end of 2022. “Typically we’re playing catch up on trails, or using old roads – they get beat up,” said Ben Blom, BLM Central Coast field manager. “The fact we’re building a world class trail system from scratch is exciting and kind of unusual.” Creating such public access has been decades in the making. The vast property of coastal prairie, redwood forest and riparian shrubland has a storied history. It was formerly tilled by dairy farmers and owned by the Coast Dairies Land Co. – which at one point considered developing the land into a luxury home site. But after years of planning, community meetings and coordinating, two first trails could open as soon as November. Inaugural trails Coast Dairies is set to open in two phases, according to Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship Superintendent Garret Hammack. The stewardship plans to build 46 miles of trails, broken up into northern and southern access points. While the south side of the property will be open to hikers and horseback riders, the northern section – which encompasses 19 miles – is targeted to bikers and hikers and will open first. So far, the stewardship has fundraised around 7 miles of that trail building work. “To make the funding for this project happen quicker, the way to do it was just fund it ourselves,” Hammack said. “I think there’s the community push because people really want to see it happen.” Stewardship staff and volunteers are currently building out roughly 4 miles of trail that is slated to open later this year. One of those trails is targeted for families, as well as bikers and hikers of all levels. It will also be wide enough for adaptive bikers, who commonly ride recumbent bikes or e-bikes. “There are a lot of people who reach out to us about [wanting] more trail networks that will accommodate their needs and we’re finding this community coming out of the woodwork more and more and growing and feeling empowered, which is fantastic,” said Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship Communications Manager Katy Poniatowski. A second trail – with a single-track feel – will likely appeal to those more advanced mountain bikers and hikers. The groups also plan to eventually create a trail system that would link Coast Dairies to the adjacent San Vicente Redwoods, where a new “ridgeline to shoreline” thru-hike is in the works. Trail work partnerships The stewardship relies on its volunteers, Poniatowski said, but also sees trail building as a way for people to cultivate relationships with nature. In addition to hosting weekly volunteer meetups, the group also hosts “dig days” to attract larger weekend crews. On one section of trail, crews are shoveling dirt, storing it in buckets and carrying it out, rather than dumping it. That extra step protects watershed health and vulnerable coho salmon. “It’s hard work – we’re trying to do it right the first time, balancing all these competing interests and uses of the property and natural resources,” said Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship Trails Planning Director Drew Perkins. To BLM Central Coast field manager Blom, the partnership is a win-win. “It’s good from a financial perspective, but fundamentally I think it’s really important that the community has ownership of these trails, and what better way to create that sense of stewardship than the community actually building it?” Blom said. The BLM plans to preserve and manage half of Coast Dairies – some 3,000 acres – which will be off limits to recreators. The work includes keeping track of 149 grazing cattle, which visitors may see wandering from time to time. The impacts of that grazing, Blom said, were critical in preventing serious wildfire from spreading onto the property during the 2020 CZU August Lightning Complex. The agency will also continue to collaborate with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band on stewardship activities at Coast Dairies, such as igniting prescribed burns, which reduce overgrown vegetation and the risk of wildfire. As the community eagerly awaits, stewardship volunteer Rod Evans said the trail building work is rewarding, particularly during an inaugural mountain bike ride. “It’s just fun working on the stuff you’re going to ride, to come back and say ‘I did that’,” Evans said.
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