Winter 2010 NFARA News

Maintaining North Fork Trails
NFARA is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to protecting the wild, scenic and cultural heritage of the North Fork. One of our commitments to help reduce the burden on government. Since our inception, NFARA has organized outings on various trails in the area where participants volunteer time to maintain trails and clean up trash sites. Government agencies are strapped for funds and we have stepped in to help out.

NFARA has officially adopted the Big Granite and Green Valley Trails, but we work on other trails as well. These volunteer outings are not only important in keeping the trails accessible and clean, they are fun and rewarding. There is the camaraderie of working with others toward a common goal, the lasting friendships that develop, and the personal satisfaction of giving something back to the canyon.

Ron Gould, NFARA Vice-president, has organized these service outings for the past few years and coordinates our efforts with the appropriate agency. The North Fork is under several jurisdictions. The Big Granite Trail is administered by the Tahoe National Forest, the Green Valley Trail by Placer County, and the Stevens Trail by the Bureau of Land Management. Those agencies provide workers’ compensation insurance for volunteers on our service outings.

NFARA conducted three volunteer outings into the North Fork during 2010. In April, a dozen volunteers enjoyed a nice spring day clearing brush on the Green Valley Trail. The group had time to visit a couple of the more interesting sites in Green Valley before a lunch break at the river. The day was warm enough to entice a few swimmers out for a quick splash before the hike out.

For National Trails Day in June, a small group of volunteers cleared brush on the Pickering Bar Trail. They found a chainsaw was really needed to clear some of the big trees across the trail. The group was able to clear the smaller obstructions and then visited the river before heading back up the trail.

In conjunction with the Sierra Nevada Conservancy's Great Sierra River Cleanup on September 25, a group of 10 volunteers hiked the Stevens Trail to clean up one of the campsites full of trash. Volunteers carried out over 300 pounds of trash from just the one site, including nearly 20 pounds of small batteries. It was a warm day and the group stopped for a couple of refreshing swims on the way out. NFARA thanks the many volunteers who helped on these outings.

Maintenance on these trails is never-ending. Water breaks need to be cleaned out, downed trees removed, signage installed, and brush cleared back. Then there is the trash; abandoned campsites seem to be one of its main sources. Many of these campsites are from mining claims. We need to work with the appropriate agency and figure out what can be done to prevent trash from being dumped at active claim sites and to clean up abandoned claim sites.

Much of the trash in the canyon comes from some of the people who camp there for an extended period of time. There is a 14-day limit on camping. NFARA is not concerned with the length of stay, only that trash is packed out. The government agencies don't have the staffing to monitor every campsite and the accumulation of trash. It would help if canyon users to inform the appropriate land manager - and NFARA - if people appear to be camping for an extended period of time or seem to have trash accumulating. Perhaps then such a site can be monitored, preventing trash accumulation.

There is a new trash pile on the Euchre Bar Trail near the upper house site, and an older site near Euchre Bar on the North Fork of the North Fork that will require a helicopter to get the heavy stuff out. The area near Stevens Trail still has several large trash sites. NFARA will be organizing outings in the future to deal with these trash piles.

For more information contact Jim Ricker at: jvricker@prince-ricker.net or call 530-389-8344.