Last week I went out on my first ever trail crew with Joshua’s Trust. Usually I’m on the more administrative side of things, but I wanted to get out on the field and see what our volunteers and stewardship staff do every week.
There were only 3 of us out on the trail crew, myself, Ada (our Stewardship Coordinator) and one other volunteer, who was thankfully well prepared with a chain saw. Our goal was to clear the Holt-Kinney trail of trees that had been downed during the recent storms. There were 5 trees in all! When I heard and saw how much we hoped to accomplish I thought for sure we would either be out all night or wouldn’t be able to clear the trail.
I am happy to report that I was wrong! Even though the chainsaw got stuck a few times, we managed to clear the trail completely! There is still a lot of brush that should be taken care of, but I was impressed that just three of us could do so much. But, if it weren’t for our volunteer with a chainsaw, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish nearly as much.
It goes to show that our volunteers truly are vital to maintaining our trails! We really would not be able to do it without the incredible help we get from our community. And no, you don’t have to be a chainsaw wielding volunteer to help us! Many hands make light work. If you have any interest in volunteering with Joshua’s Trust, please visit joshuastrust.org/volunteer to fill out a form!
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After
Don’t want to commit to volunteering? No worries, you can still volunteer on your own time. When you are out on the trails, if you see something amiss, please let us know through the contact form on our website or by emailing administration@joshuastrust.org. We don’t get out to all the trails every week, so you being our eyes and ears makes a big difference to us!
I want to give a HUGE shout out thank you for all the work volunteers did on clearing the trails at. Knowlton Hill Preserve. I could see the staggering amount of work that was done to keep the trails open from all the downed trees and limbs. Thank you.
Carol Surridge and
AWE. Ashford Women Explore (hiking group)
Carol, thank you so much for your kind words! We will pass them along to the volunteers who did all the hard work!